Other ladies receive lovingly penned letters from their husbands serving on the battlefields of Europe. Lady Diana Lazenby receives…drummers. Drummer boys, to be precise. Ten of them so far. If her wayward husband thinks the arrival of these wounded, wary lads will alleviate the pain caused by the death of their son or her husband's five-year absence, then he is sadly mistaken. Shattered by the guilt of his son's death, Wyndam Lazenby had no idea how to converse with, let alone comfort, the wife he has adored since childhood. He bought his commission a week after the funeral and dared not look back. He hadn't meant for the orphaned drummers to replace the child she'd lost.

He simply doesn't want her to be lonely. With Napoleon's final defeat, Lady Diana expects Wyn to return to their estate in Cumbria. But after eighteen months of waiting, she's given up. And then the great fool shows up on her doorstep fully expecting to pass a quiet Christmastide at home. Little does he know she and the army he has provided her will drum him out of her life forever, if he doesn't give her the Christmas gift she wants most-the heart of the man she still loves.