It was hardly a love match. The couple met for the first time at the altar when they exchanged their marriage vows.

The bride's wealthy, dictatorial father had bribed and blackmailed Major Kelvin Ward into marrying his only daughter. Kelvin had no choice but to go through with the wedding, but he bitterly resented the old man's scheming and the girl who had deprived him of his freedom.

Now Seraphina, his young wife sat trembling in the bridal cabin of the ship that was carrying them to India, dreading the approach of the angry stranger who had just become her husband.