She ruined her reputation with a single leap. Now, only a fake engagement to a dangerous earl can save her family.Lady Eliza Fairchild has spent years crafting a perfect facade to hide her merchant roots. That facade shatters the night she leaps from her opera box to save a poisoned tenor-her secret half-brother. Now branded a scandal by the gossip sheets and facing a ruthless ultimatum to remarry or lose her fortune, Eliza finds herself cornered. She needs a shield, but she refuses to be controlled.A Spymaster with a mission. Sebastian Hawke, the Earl of Ravenswood, deals in secrets, not sentiment. As the Crown's most efficient handler, he knows the attack at the opera was no accident. A deadly code is being smuggled through the theater's programs, and Eliza is the key to deciphering it. He offers her a marriage of convenience: his title for her safety, her access for his investigation.A partnership that breaks every rule. It was supposed to be a cold transaction. But Eliza is no docile pawn; she is a fierce partner who challenges Sebastian's orders and storms into danger by his side. As they hunt a predator through the gaslit corridors of the opera house and the shadowed alleys of London, the line between their performance and reality dissolves.Sebastian swore never to let emotion compromise a mission again. But to save Eliza from the enemy closing in, he must risk the one thing he keeps most guarded: his heart. Themes: Marriage of Convenience, Spy Romance, Class Difference, Protective Hero, Widowed Heroine, Regency Mystery, High-Stakes Intrigue.