
Ellen Burney is fleeing from her home, dominated by her cruel brother. Penniless she changes her name to Smith and takes up a paid position as companion to an elderly lady intent on staying with her grandson for the London season. Callum Callaghan, the aforementioned grandson, is now a duke due to the untimely death of his older brother. Scarred inside and out by rumours that he had a hand in his brother's death while they were both serving in the Royal Navy, he's become a recluse. His grandmother intends to shake him out of it and, after gettiung off to a bad start, Ellen is part of that plan. Yes, you can see where this is going, but it gets there in an interesting way. A very decent debut novel.