Devastated after his young bride vanishes at sea only months after their wedding, Lord Halcombe is finally beginning to accept her loss when she suddenly reappears almost two years later-with a child she claims is his daughter. Where has she been, and why had she stayed away all this time? Hard questions he needs answered before he dares allow her back into his life. Torn between the pain she has caused him and the love he still feels for her, Halcombe is forced to decide both her fate and his. Just what was he to do about Frances? Pregnant, penniless and trapped in a foreign country, Frances has but one goal-survival for herself and her daughter. Only after a perilous move to Portugal is she free to choose her destiny-return to the husband she still loves and who may have betrayed her, or build a new life far from England. Frances is no longer the naive girl Lord Halcombe married. Can he accept the determined, self-reliant woman she is now? Two strong-willed people must navigate a rocky path strewn with heartache and risk. Only if they can learn to put the past aside and build on the future will they succeed in creating the loving union they both desperately desire."