Ashley Lynne had never expected kindness from her guardian, the cruel Duke of Linfield. But to be betrothed by him to an aging peer she hardly knew was unthinkable. Even worse was the cost of her resistance, for Ashley awoke from a drugged sleep to find herself in the bedchamber of a dark-haired, steel-eyed stranger. Captain Salem McClellan, who had been sent to England on business, assumed the lovely young woman curled in his bed was only an evening's entertainment supplied by the Duke of Linfield. Ashley's terrified protests were proof of her innocence -- and a powerful inspiration to rescue the young beauty from her guardian's clutches.

From the gloomy docks of London to the lush green hills of Virginia, Salem and Ashley embark on a journey that plunges them into scandalous family secrets and into the danger of the American Revolution. Together, they will fight for America's freedom...and the promise of being wrapped in each other's arms forever.