SHE WAS VICIOUSLY RAPED. HE WAS ONCE ACCUSED OF RAPE. CAN SHE POSSIBLY TRUST HIM?

The Portuguese border
1811

Brigade-Major Colwyn Hetherington, estranged from his family and battle-weary from years of service with Wellington’s army, receives a letter that changes his life. His best friend, son of a marquess, offers him a chance to return to England to manage their estates.

Before he leaves the Peninsula, he visits the lovely Miss Juliana Colebrook who nursed him back to health after the Battle of the Douro. Juliana startles Colly by pleading, “Will you take me with you?” Horrified, Colly sets out to explain to her just why he is not a suitable escort.

Forced to share a small cabin on the voyage, their mutual attraction escalates to boiling point. And stays there. Juliana is traumatised by her bitter experience and is terrified of intimacy and Colly, with his past, knows he is not good enough for this woman.

But when Juliana reaches her family in the south of England—the ‘home’ she has yearned for —her uncle sends her to a job in a nightmarish workhouse. Fighting to rescue a trafficked child and save her own life, Juliana instinctively turns to Colly, the only person she trusts, and they both come to realise that maybe ‘home’ means something different from what they’d imagined.