Five years ago, when she was eighteen, Amanda had been frightened rather than flattered by Cesare Druetso’s proposal of marriage. She had been determined not to be yet another scalp on Cesare’s belt – or a slave to his masterful ways – and she had categorically turned him down. But now she was back in his home in Tuscany, this time engaged to his younger brother, gentler brother Piero. But Cesare, it soon turned out, had no intention of accepting the situation. He refused to acknowledge Amanda as his brother’s fiancée, declaring that she was meant for him and for no one else – and his whole family, indeed the whole town, appeared to be backing him up! Just what could Amanda do about it all?