With his facility for languages and gift for diplomacy, Thomas Pearce is perfectly suited for his recent position in the Foreign Office. Or so he imagines until he receives his first assignment. Instead of a safe consular post in a friendly country, Thomas is going straight into the eye of the continental storm: France. There is, it seems, a small matter of indiscretion just outside Paris that requires immediate attention. An indiscretion by the name of Sabine Rousseau, who happens to be the illegitimate daughter of Britain’s premiere.

When a handsome gentleman claiming to be a long-lost cousin arrives at her family’s home, Sabine is suspicious for reasons she can’t articulate. Perhaps it’s just that he’s far too attractive for her to think of him as a relative. She is, therefore, not entirely displeased when he privately announces they aren’t kin. Her pleasure dissipates, however, when she learns he has come to smuggle her out of France…and why.

Now, Sabine and Thomas must make their escape, and it won’t be easy. Her uncle considers her a ticket to curry favor with Napoleon and won’t let her disappear without a fight. To avoid detection, the couple must pretend to be amorous newlyweds…and this proves the most difficult task of all. Because it isn’t long before neither of them is pretending, and a small indiscretion may become a large one.