On a frigid March day in Yorkshire in 1895, ten-year-old Marissa Ayers encounters a raven-haired, blue-eyed stranger for the first time. When next they meet, she has put the dust of the coal mines behind her and is now a lady's maid at a fine estate, determined to escape her hardscrabble life. Marissa recognizes him instantly, but has no inkling that their lives are about to come together in the most intimate way--until her mistress begs her to take her place in a marriage of convenience.

Haunted by the memory of his lost love, Ian Tremayne is honor-bound by the promise he made to an old friend. His marriage to Katherine Mary Ahearn will be a union in name only. Yet something about the proud, green-eyed Englishwoman seems familiar . . . and intrigues him. He takes her home to America, where the willful beauty slowly begins to thaw his guarded heart. But will she reveal herself to him completely?