1195 A.D. - Sir Galen Burleson has a love 'em and leave 'em reputation. Enormous and powerful, he is the captain of the army at Hexham Castle. Galen is in control of his life and his future until his dying father, tired of his son's roving ways, demands he marry Lady Lorica de la Beauvriere, the sole heiress of the St. Nicholas Court Castle fortune.



Galen has no intention of pursuing a woman who, by all accounts, is much-pursued already. St. Nicholas Court is a powerful castle with old Norman money but Galen would prefer to chase women of his own choosing. However, his father finally confesses his reasons for the St. Nicholas Court heiress choice—the Burleson wealth, once substantial old Saxon wealth, is gone.



Now, he has no choice but to pursue the wealthiest unmarried woman he knows—Lady Lorica.



Lorica de la Beauvriere isn't an ordinary lady. Highly educated and highly trained in a variety of feminine and non-feminine pursuits, she's the smartest person in the room when suitors come to call. Galen walks into a deluge of resistance and insults right from the start.



But that only serves to intrigue him.



And with that, a very unconventional love story is born.



Contains mature themes.