Book excerpt: One of America’s best-loved storytellers, Linda Lael Miller sets passions blazing in the unforgettable tale of one young doctor’s efforts to protect the lovely Rachel from his nemesis, the powerful and demanding owner of a lumber empire. Washington’s rowdy lumber camps were no place for an innocent young beauty... When Rachel McKinnon attracts the attention of Jonas Wilkes, she is truly in dire straits. Wilkes, the owner of a lumber empire, has power over most everyone he meets—and now he wants Rachel. Her only hope is Griffin Fletcher. The town’s darkly handsome, unmarried doctor, he once made a promise to Rachel’s dying mother to keep her daughter out of harm’s way. But little did Fletcher know that looking after the lovely Rachel would mean facing down Wilkes, his nemesis. Now the enmity he harbors for Wilkes is about to erupt in a dangerous confrontation...and the young doctor who swore never to love again is suddenly in danger of falling desperately in love with the one woman he swore he would always protect.