Eager to secure herself a rich and handsome husband, Arabella cannot guess that the enigmatic robert is entwined in a treasonous plot against Queen Anne. In Arabella and Robert's flirtations he has found the tale of temptation, coquetry and danger that might just make his fortune...
A seductive novel about risk and dangerous liaisons in a time of Jacobite plots and Popish fears, when marriage was a market, and sex was a temptation fraught with danger. THE SCANDAL OF THE SEASON is a brilliant, witty modern love-story set in 1711, telling the story of the real-life seduction of the beautiful, clever Arabella Fermor by the charming, enigmatic nobleman Robert Petre, seventh Baron of Ingateston. The story plays out against the backdrop of 18th-century London: dirty, teeming street-life and glorious buildings, newly restored after the Great Fire; masked balls, operas, eating houses, clandestine courtships and political intrigue.