Publisher's Synopsis
Sophie Dupont, daughter of a portrait painter, assists her father in his studio. She often walks the cliffside path along the north Devon coast, where she meets the handsome Wesley Overtree, the first man to tell her she's beautiful. Captain Stephen Overtree is accustomed to taking on his brother's neglected duties. Home on leave, he's sent to find Wesley. Knowing his brother rented a cottage from a fellow painter, he travels to Devonshire and meets Miss Dupont. He's startled to recognise her from a miniature portrait he carries with him - one of Wesley's discarded works. He soon realises Wesley has left her with child and sailed away to Italy in search of a new muse. Stephen proposes to Sophie. If he dies in battle, she'll be a respectable widow with the protection of his family. Desperate for a way to escape her predicament, Sophie agrees to marry a stranger and travel to his family's estate.
