A bluestocking heiress forced to find a husband and a rake on the edge of ruin tie the knot in this Regency romance. Shy heiress Miss Penelope Winthorpe was only trying to escape her bullying brother. She never meant to wed a noble lord over a blacksmith's anvil! Adam Felkirk, Duke of Bellston, had no intention of taking a wife. But then Penelope's plight moved him. Now the notorious rake has a new aim—to shock and seduce his prim and proper bride. But the gorgeous duke will be taught a lesson of his own as scholarly Miss Winthorpe becomes his seductive duchess!