Book excerpt: They were ill-matched... He's charming and deadly. She's intoxicating and skeptical. What happens when an English lady with a secret meets a Scottish Highlander with a history? Lady Elizabeth Kendall is on the run... There is no one she can trust. Her parents are dead. And... her uncle seeks to involve her in a terrible plot! There is only one solution, one hope for her. That is to run north. Her cousin Devon Montgomery holds an English claim on Scottish land. She disguises herself as a maid, never thinking what is ahead of her. The only one who can help her is the blank-shield soldier who pulls her from a terrible situation. Reade MacTaggart. But ... Reade is not as he seems. He's no more a mercenary than she is a maid. Instead ... he's a Scottish Highlander, the younger brother of Laird MacTaggart--of the infamous Clan Mactaggart. There is only one reason that Reade came south.That is to spy for his clan. Just when he thought to go home, an English girl with more beauty than money falls into his lap, and Reade finds that he cannot resist. In a dark and violent era, Elizabeth and Reade find each other, but will they be able to keep each other? Or will she be taken from him?