Daphne

From the moment dashing Lord Edenbury -- called Max by his friends -- caught seventeen-year-old Daphne throwing mice into the music room window he was taken with her.

The mice, he soon learned, were a ploy to cement the romance between her sister and her reluctant beau. You see, Daphne figured if Emily were to faint in the arms of her hesitant suitor, they would automatically become engaged.

It was this very madcap scheme that endeared Daphne to Max's sophisticated heart. Incredible. A man of his age (all of twenty-eight) and experience falling for a chit of a girl like Daphne.

Max might not have pursued her had it not been for the fortune-hunting Gerard.

That's when Max decided to interfere...