When the Duke of Byworth’s empty marriage is threatened by a fellow duke he is naturally aggrieved. Nathan cannot allow the potentially damaging contents of his wife’s diary to reveal the depths of their estrangement because exposure of his secret dalliances with other men would taint his innocent children’s lives. Not to mention end his life. So, without revealing his mission to his steward, Henry Stackpool, a man he trusts for everything else, Nathan undertakes to steal the diary back alone. Former pickpocket and molly house whore, Henry Stackpool, works hard to keep his position as right hand to a moral man, the Duke of Byworth, but he fears his kind hearted employer is ill-equipped for a confrontation with his unstable opponent. Henry cannot explain the source of his knowledge without exposing the secrets of his past. So when fate places Henry in harm’s way, he risks his hard won reputation and freedom to retrieve the duchess’s diary himself.