Ms. Ranney continues her goal of mesmerizing readers with historical romance that hums with sensuality, tenderness, and requited love. This latest is a touching tale of a woman who is sold to a laird by her vindictive father, and the man who discovers the business venture he entered into is worth more than gold.

Lady Sarah Baines goes to her father, the Duke, to request help for her mother, who is dying. The duke commands her to marry Douglas Eston or else. The else being he will send her ailing mother to Scotland to spend her last days on earth.  The handsome man with compassion in his gaze is not what Sarah wants—she yearns for the freedom to be her own woman. Still, she must do what is best for her mother, be it the devil she knows or doesn’t know.

Douglas’s business dealings with the Duke of Herridge are distasteful, but he needs the money to continue to finance his diamond-making business. One look at the Duke’s heiress and he find himself falling for the strong but (he senses) timid Sarah. He agrees to the marriage, but stays with Sarah at her mother’s home until she loses her mother in death.  A death that devastates his new bride, sending her into a depression that more than worries Douglas.

His work continues, and when an explosion rocks his workroom, Sarah realizes the man she married on command is also the man of her heart. Together they work to save his life’s work, and then when he is called back to England to visit her father, Sarah follows. Her involvement ultimately will make a difference in bringing down the duke and in saving Douglas’s life.