Elianne du Hommet, the sheriff's useless third daughter, is doomed to a life as her father's unpaid unmarried servant. Then a slain nobleman's bastard rides through her gate, threatening to kill her father for incompetence while offering Elianne the chance to know, just once, the joy of a man's touch. Josce FitzBaldwin intends to destroy the bandits who killed his father and half-sisters. Instead, he finds himself enmeshed in a tangled web of deceit and betrayal where thieves slaughter innocent children but don't empty purses of their gold. The last thing he expects is to beg aid of the sheriff's honest daughter as he secures the vengeance he so craves.