Romance/Historical Fiction. 84254 words long. First published in 2012

A Crimean War widow, Ellen Coyler, learns her five-year-old son's wealthy grandfather is attempting to prove her an unfit mother, so he can get custody of the child. To prevent this, she agrees to a marriage-in-name-only with her husband's former commanding officer, Gerald Osborne. He promises to keep the marriage unconsummated until the threat from the grandfather goes away, and then get an annulment. As she lives in Gerald's home and sees how he struggles to overcome the handicap of having a missing right arm, while he tries to build a business as a horse trainer, befriends her son, and shows her every consideration, she begins to wonder if she wants an annulment. But Gerald shows no interest in consummating their marriage, until he injures himself in a riding accident and Ellen nurses him in the privacy of his bedroom. Are his growing feelings just passion, or something deeper?

Lady Isabel married the much older Baron of Tewsbarrow to save her family from a life of poverty. After the marriage, her husband tells her she must seduce his young nephew in order to produce an heir. The innocent Isabel knows nothing about seduction so the baron contrives a devious plot to make sure she succeeds. The young knight, Sir Daniel, is welcomed to his uncle's castle as an honored guest, but strange things happen. He realizes he's being drugged and while he lays helpless a beautiful woman comes to his bed. Despite the mystery surrounding her, Daniel falls in love. Then he learns Isabel's true identity and purpose and leaves Tewsbarrow with a broken heart. The old baron's plot fails, and he dies in a fit of apoplexy. Daniel returns as the new baron. His one burning desire is to punish the wicked woman who betrayed him.