On the run from the wrathful Prince of Wales, Jack Haines, Earl of
Lambourne, is taken prisoner by a Highland laird who makes him an
unusual offer: if Jack handfasts his niece, then his life will be
spared. The old Highland custom - a marriage lasting only a year and a
day, unless both partners agree to make it a lifelong vow - sounds
preferable to Jack to being dragged to London in chains, and when he
meets lovely Lizzie Beal, his dilemma starts to seem positively
enjoyable. Until the hellion vents her fury...on him! Detesting the
scandalous match that will end all her chances of making a respectable
marriage, Lizzie can't abide living intimately with a fugitive nobleman
bent on seducing her and then running off. But in teaching her the
pleasures of a wife's duties, Jack sparks within them both a passion
that will make him wish he could stay with Lizzie for much longer than a
year and a day.