Twist legend into truth… Merlin's magic thrives in the Regency.

Katherine Scoville is compromised by -- and must marry -- the Earl of Shelton. Between his stubborn insistence that she tricked him and her naïve belief in happy ever after, the battle lines are set. She wants a conventional union. He desires Katherine as his mistress.

Meanwhile, two magicians secretly wager on the success of the marriage. As Katherine fights for respectability and Shelton campaigns for divorce, magic is wielded to meddle, one magician skewing truth and the other exposing lies.

When the smoke clears from the field, whose magic will prevail? Will Katherine accept Shelton's hand in love-strewn matrimony, or will Shelton offer only his body to his mistress?

Margaret Ridgemont and James Treadway will marry. Period, end of discussion. Too bad she overhears him tell a friend that he likes her sister better. Pacing with the tragi-comedy of an ill-arranged marriage, magic holes are appearing in the oddest places.

If Adrian Hughes can ferret out the rogue wizard responsible for creating the holes, he might receive a knighthood -- people might not die of holes in their foreheads -- and England might not crumble into the ocean. And if it were an ideal world, Adrian and Margaret would be together.