Powerful warrior Duncan Maxwell has little time for love in his thirty-three years. He's been too busy protecting his lands from the Scotsmen and Englishmen alike in the vicious border conflicts that batter the Scottish West March. He despises the English, specifically his English father, who wooed and deceived his mother, then abandoned her to raise Duncan alone. When Duncan's tenants bring a half-conscious Englishwoman to his doorstep, he agrees to take her in only because her fine clothes and cultured murmers indicate that she will ransom well - a common practice of the borderlands. Duncan has no idea that before too long, the strong-willed Englishwoman will take over his entire household and change his life forever.