After fighting her way across Ireland to find aid for her family and their home, under siege from a traitor and his mercenaries, beaten and broken, seventeen-year-old Eloise of Dahlquin is alight with love’s first kiss and the promise that Roland, the Lord of At-March, will ask her father for her hand—if her father is still alive.

Arriving in Leinster to warn the High Lord FitzGilbert of the treacherous siege in Connacht, Eloise is enfolded into the FitzGilbert family, but tragedy hangs over her head, an ancestral feud threatens, and she holds a secret that might see her condemned as a heretic. And someone is trying to kill her.

Traversing treachery and deceit, Roland, Lord At-March, battles his way back to the siege to save Connacht and lay claim to his unseen estate. Will his greatest challenge be facing Eloise’s father, the Barbarian of Dahlquin? He has been fighting all his life; can he now become a peacekeeper?

A war-torn country lies between Eloise and Roland as they try to make their way back to each other, navigating a political landscape fraught with intrigue and betrayal. One threat is vanquished, but others loom in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to seek revenge.