It was common gossip that ''Duff'' D'Abernon, Marquis of Darley, had returned from Waterloo a changed man - a reckless youth turned recluse more interested in tending his horses than attending balls. But now the Marquis is entering the game again, openly flirting with the beautiful, witty, and thoroughly disreputable Annabelle Foster. Annabelle's no stranger to scandal. The actress-playwright is rumoured to have had liaisons with any number of powerful men, with an illegitimate daughter to show for it. She won't chance heartache again, even for a man as tempting as Duff D'Abernon. What she offers instead is a compromise. A bargain is struck and an idyllic summer affair begins. But what starts as friendship soon blossoms into searing passion. And the only thing worse than risking their hearts is not risking them at all.