Book excerpt: Beware the reluctant bridegroom... Spencer Becket was only eight when he arrived in Romney Marsh as part of the mysteriously displaced Becket family. The son of a seaman and a mother who’d died in childbirth, he grew up longing to be a soldier. His adoptive father reluctantly purchased him a commission, and Spence was off to fight in America, chockfull of passion and ideals. He returned home older, perhaps wiser, but also with one small patch of his memory inconveniently missing. Beware the compromised bride... Mariah Rutledge is the daughter of a British officer killed during a losing battle, and she joins other women and children forced to flee into the swampy forest to avoid capture. For long weeks, she helps care for one of the few wounded soldiers that managed to reach safety. She calms him when he cries out in delirium, presses her body close to his, to warm him as he shivers in the damp chilly nights. He becomes her reason to stay alive, alone, in the wilderness. It is highly possible for a woman in those circumstances to make an emotional mistake. Beware the flames... At Becket Hall, alternately battling and loving each other, Spencer and Mariah unexpectedly discover what appears to be a plot to restore the recently vanquished Napoleon to power in a most unusual way. A deadly way. Bound by the secrets that are all that keep the Beckets safe, Spencer and Mariah must battle the world and their own devils in order to prevent a tragedy ... but will the price for this victory be their very lives?