When she flees from an obsessive suitor, Anne Mackenzie never dreams that the children she takes into her care will be the key that allows her to return home to England. Lord Westcott can protect her from the man in her past, but the price is a loveless marriage. Unless Anne can thaw the heart of this compelling, aloof stranger, they may be irrevocably bound to a lifetime of unhappiness.Unable to ignore the bonds of friendship, Lord Westcott reluctantly agrees to visit Portugal in search of a missing child. A recluse since the death of his wife and a crippling injury to his daughter, he never imagines he will return with two orphans and a wife-a wife whose dangerous secrets threaten his very life-and his long frozen heart. From the moment I stepped into my first school library I became enthralled with the idea that wonderful stories resided in all those books. The enchantment never faded. Amazing worlds full of adventure and history were mine for the reading. The imaginary characters living in my imagination were nothing unusual-obviously a great many people lived with stories in their heads and were kind enough to share them. That I could also share my tales and actually write a book wasn't something I considered until quite recently, but I finally began writing seriously about six years ago. The first books were written in collaboration with my sister, Diana. ("Lord Waring's Quest" and "An Angel for St. Clair"). Our interests have diverged at present and I now write independently under my own name. Married for many years to my own personal hero, a doting grandmother and fond parent, when not writing I enjoy puttering in my garden, cooking, and relaxing on the back porch of our Florida home-with a good book, of course!
