The Baron's Daughter

TO LOVE, HONOUR... AND DISTRUST. In an effort to find a back door into the French King's favor, the ever-conniving Baron Mario de Medici sends his daughter, Viola, off to France to entice Count Gabriel Xavier into marriage. While marrying anyone is the last thing she wants, Lady Viola has her own reasons for going along with this scheme - a dark, coveted secret that she has been protecting since her first jaunt to France, five years prior. A child had been born unto her then, a daughter she has never seen or held, under the most secretive, immoral circumstances. Viola will do anything, legal or illegal, to get her back. If going along with the Baron's underhanded scheme will facilitate her return to France, so be it. Count Gabriel, a bitter widower, and rough-edged Warlord does not want anything to do with the Baron's evil plot to undermine Cosimo, his long-time Italian friend and alliance - and he especially does not want another damn wife. The last one tried to poison him. His trust for any Medici except Cosimo is next to nothing, and that applies to the very enticing Lady Viola as well. This woman is up to something, and he knows it. He feels it. But the more time he spends with her the harder he falls. The deeper she peers into the heart of this rough-edged Warlord the more she sees every reason to trust him-but she can't. She must never let the stark light of truth fall upon her dark, tainted past, and yet she cannot quit until she is reunited with her long-lost child. And so begins the mutually acceptable vow to love, honour...and distrust.