Based on true events from the American Regency era, this riveting sequel to Masque of Honor explores the thin line between power and integrity, love and lust, honor and death.

Though the twisted scars on his arm still tell the tale, Jack McCarty has worked hard to put his duel with Armistead Mason in the past. He's one of Virginia's brightest young lawyers, married to the love of his life, and poised once again for political stardom--an opportunity he thought he'd lost when forced to face Armistead on the field of honor.

Lucinda Lee has also moved forward, closing the door on the betrayal that almost ended her courtship with Jack. But even as she and Jack begin to build a seemingly charmed life, Lucinda watches the women who fawn over him with suspicion--and bristles at the brazenness of her sister Fanny, a hopeless flirt.

When a horrible tragedy binds Fanny and Lucinda together in ways they never imagined and Jack falls prey to a disastrous lapse in judgment, the family struggles to keep scandal at bay. As Jack is swept up in dramatic court cases and festering disputes, he once again finds himself at the wrong end of a dueling pistol. Is the man he has worked so hard to become slipping out of his reach?