Excited guests at Haversham House count down the final minutes of 1812 while the Earl of Edgewood, a confirmed bachelor, can hardly wait to trade the festivities for a hot bath and a snifter of cognac. He's the only person to notice when a young lady slips out into the frigid night-and when she fails to return, it's up to him to save her from the deadly cold. Henrianna Barbour, escaping from an abusive stepfather, finds Edgewood, then loses him to Napoleon's machinations. As a spy for the British Crown, she becomes Madame Rose du Bois, mistress to a top French general, scandalizing and titillating Paris society...until love demands a different kind of truth.