Lord Sedgewyn's beautiful daughter always suspected her stepmother hated her. But she never could have known quite how much until her supper poisoned the kitchen cat. Lady Sedgewyn, it seems, does not intend for Norina's maternal inheritance to ever reach her. Fleeing for her life, Norina finds thin ice for safety when she takes employment with another, more mysterious, fugitive -- the blind and very handsome Marquis de Chalamont.