Publisher's Synopsis
The reigning queen of historical romance is back with an engrossing, passionate love story
Berengaria is a stunningly beautiful young lady whose stepfather wants to marry her off to Desmond, an oafish, grotesque, yet wealthy squire. Little does he know that Desmond inherited his title by killing his older brother and accumulated his wealth from murdering his two previous wives.
Berengaria, her stepfather and mother go to Desmond's castle. There Desmond tries to brutally molest Berengaria, but is prevented by a mysterious, handsome Scotsman. The Scotsman is Raven, a messenger for the Scottish King. His mission is to deliver missives to the English king. Raven often travels with his equally dashing father.
Berengaria dreads her wedding to Desmond, but the day soon arrives. She wishes she could marry someone like Raven, whose dashing good looks and gentle demeanor has attracted her attention. Raven is also besotted by her beauty and right before she is to walk down the aisle, Raven approaches her father to ask for her hand. He is rejected and Berengaria's marriage to Desmond goes through as planned.
On their wedding night, Desmond attempts to rape Berengaria. She escapes the room but he follows her and they scuffle outside. Raven comes to the rescue and Desmond falls down the stairs and dies. Then Raven proposes to Berengaria, telling her that he's loved her from afar. She says she's loved him from afar as well. They will secretly wed once Raven comes back from delivering a message to the English king.
Raven goes off and Berengaria becomes the mistress of Desmond's house but the steward hates her. He warns her that there are family relations who think they deserve Desmond's wealth and they will do anything to get their hands on it. The steward is awful so she fires him. Then one night, Berengaria and her old maid are abducted by two guys who demand to know where all the wealth is hidden. Raven saves them. Berengaria and Raven secretly marry before returning to her stepdad's keep. Raven suggests, for Berengaria's protection, that she sign her new wealth to her stepdad to control. This way, she won't get attacked. Then her stepdad finds out he's now an Earl. Then his castle gets attacked like three times--once by random greedy men, once by the steward, another by some other group, I think. The stepdad, Raven, Raven's dad, and the peasants defeat them all.
