Inheriting an earldom had obviously gone to Nicholas Hollander's head. After he'd left Emily's reputation in tatters years before, how could he expect that she would ever agree to marry him? Yet still he insisted that her rash efforts to find her missing brother had left them no choice but to wed, and straightaway. Nick's youthful defection had ruined Emily Lovenye's prospects. So it was no wonder that the vicar's daughter still wanted nothing to do with him. Unwittingly compromised into a hasty marriage, his courageous Emily was giving him the devil of a time as he struggled to win back her trust and turn their inconvenient union into wedded bliss.