Cara St. Cross is determined to play at the highest-stakes poker club in all of Great Britain even if getting in requires her to dress like a man. Stanley, Lord Greenhope, doesn't truly believe that "Mister" St. Cross has had relations with his wife, but that doesn't stop him from challenging the (wo)man to a duel.
In the early Age of Steam, duels are still legal, young ladies get kidnapped to Gretna Green, and only the villains seem to care whether Cara wins at the tables.
As well as the Regency novella, this collection includes three short stories of Victorian-style steampunk erotica:
- Miss Carlotta Stembridge crafts her own troupe of dancing automatons in "The Clockwork Dancers." When she meets a flesh-and-blood dancer who steals her heart, she must fight society and her own creations if she wants to keep him in her life.
- In "On the Curious Condition of the Anachronism in Modern Aviation Structures," First Mate Jess Priory of the merchant airship Aer Nova offers passage to a handsome doctor. Lucky thing she did, since his skills come in handy when the ship is attacked!
- The possibility of a time machine causes more problems than it solves in "Dorothea Franklin's Marvelous Machine." Thankfully, the inventor can console herself with the darkly sexy, powerful Sir George, Grand Master of the London Masons.