In Victorian England, a man fights to learn the truth and to face the possibility of the horror inside...a wondrous beauty and the beast tale. 

When Aubrey Drelincourte, the Earl of Breme, regains consciousness in an Indian jungle, his wife lies dead by his side, felled be a bullet from the pistol Aubrey holds in his hand. Suffering from malaria and deep, disfuguring wounds, Aubrey returns to England in the winter of 1842 to defend himself in a trial before the House of Lords. His cousin and heir, Rupert Hindley, who was also having an affair with Aubrey's wife, will soon return from India to accuse him of murder. Because of his desire to protect the land and the people he loves, Aubrey vows Hindley won't win the deadly match he's set up between them.

To this end, Aubrey plans to marry as soon as possible and sire an heir before his rendezvous with the hangman. If a woman of wealth or title is willing to accept him as a husband, the Lords will be more prone to believe he's sane and innocent.

Then one twilit winter night, his coach stops sharply to avoid a horsewoman racing toward them. Lilias Merrit is the daughter of a recently ruined merchant, and her free-spiritedness arouses Aubrey's interest in her. Desperate to escape her betrothal to a sadistic farmer, Lilias sets out for Breme with her friends, the gypsies, to seek employment as Aubrey's nurse-companion. In Aubrey's fevered anguish and fear that he might be a monster, he both terrifies Lilias and arouses her compassion. For his part, Aubrey is drawn to the beautiful nurse-companion.

But the couple's growing passion is tempered by the knowledge that Hindley will return any day to spread his venomous accusations all over England. When peril overtakes them at a foxhunt led by Hindley, the game has changed. At first, it was Aubrey's fight for revenge against his unfaithful wife and her lover. Now, it's a fight for the woman who has touched his heart like no other. He doesn't just want to win. He wants to live, so he can protect her.

To free himself from the past, and begin a new life with the woman he loves, Aubrey will have to risk everything to save both her--and himself.

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