He watched her pale golden softness shimmer in the moonlight as she stood by the riverboat railing, alone with her memories of the young husband who didn't come back after Appomattox. Even in mourning, she was the loveliest woman Brant Steele had ever seen.

But to Garnet Lane, Major Steele was a hateful Confederate, whose gallant attentions to her -- despite his obvious pleasure in another woman -- stirred feelings that frightened and shocked her. How much more would she despise him when she learned it was he who had killed her husband?

From the night their riverboat went down in flames, and he carried her to safety at his once-magnificent New Orleans plantation, he knew he must have her love. Must make her forgive and forget the past. The future was Texas, where he'd build a glorious new life for them if she would but listen to her heart, which told her Brant lived only to make her happy again, now and for always.