The story opens with fire: Condemned by the church, the beautiful orphan Linness of Sauvage faces burning at the stake only to be rescued at the last minute by Lord Paxton Gaillard Chamberlain. Certain Mary sent the knight to her, she is filled with delirium at having faced certain death, only to find herself very much alive, while he is filled with battle lust, stunned by the soaring passion brought by the beauty set before them and this passion erupts in a shocking love scene.
Paxton reluctantly leaves Linness with his family ring and the promise to return shortly. Linness wakes to find him gone. Alone, with no family to protect her, she heads south only to stumble on a murdered lady and her vanquished knights. As she helps a dying knight, he is taken by her beauty and silver tongue and he convinces her to take the lady's identity and make her way to Gaillard where she is betrothed to Lord Morgan Chamberlain.
Five years later Paxton returns to Gaillard to find his brother married to the Linness, the only woman he will ever love. He knows instantly the boy Jean Luc is his from their one glorious night together. And so begins the passionate story that burns in your memory long after the last page is turned...