Impoverished highway outlaw Roxy Barton seeks nothing more than pocket change to settle her gang's mounting tavern debts. When a case of mistaken identity labels her as the missing foreign princess of Meridia, she is hustled straight into the aristocratic bedchambers of Julian Vance, the formidable Duke of Ashcroft. Recognizing that Julian requires a compliant aristocratic spouse to pacify imperial scrutiny, Roxy agrees to a fraudulent matrimonial pact in exchange for gold.
Living behind castle ramparts requires rapid improvisation as Roxy conceals her rough tavern manners beneath elaborate silk corsets. While Julian probes her peculiar combat reflexes with growing amusement, imperial adversaries initiate deadly banquet poisonings to purge the ducal household. Roxy must juggle her counterfeit royal facade and uncover a buried state conspiracy before the paranoid empress discovers her street origins and orders her execution.
