She's a lady desperate for a future, one that doesn't involve her dark past. On a cold night she receives aid from a mysterious stranger, one who tells her she can change her destiny, as long as she agrees to marry the man who wins her. The brooding Scottish lord that offers her his name and home is handsome but there's something sorrowful in his eyes that feels all too personal to her… He never wanted to be an earl, but fate has been less than kind to him. At the insistence of a friend, he seeks out a bride and comes face to face with a woman who bewitches him instantly. But they each hold secrets that will haunt them both. With a love blooming delicately between them, will their new found happiness together wilt and fade beneath the frost of the past?