title: The Hopeless Hoyden
author: Bennett, Margaret
description: Emily is a country bred miss and a misfit in the haute ton of Regency London While picking berries one day, she overhears two men plotting to kill Gabriel, the Viscount Lindemann.   Fearing for her life, she flees, running through the woods, and encounters the Viscount himself.  Mistaking him for one of her pursers, she welds a large stick and nearly unmans him.
  Home from fighting Napoleon, Gabriel is forced to attend a house party arranged by his cousins Cecil Caldwell and his sister Deborah, who are rusticating to avoid their creditors and possibly jail when he encounters Emily.  He invites Emily to join the house party, which she does with the intent to discover the Viscount’s enemy. Emily and Gabriel find themselves in a compromising situation. Gabriel is more than willing to accept an engagement with Emily.  She, on the other hand, is mortified, feeling that her hoydenish ways have ensnared the Viscount.  Unfortunately, the engagement puts Emily’s life in danger and Gabriel must find the proof he needs to banish his cousins.