Determined to do her duty for family and faith, Melisande Chapelaine, daughter of the Earl of Heathwyre, travels to the Holy Land to serve with her brother and father. She is saved from a deadly ambush by a mysterious, compelling man known as Renard du Vent ( Fox of the Wind). When he offers his help to make the bandits pay for killing her brother and his companions, she agrees. Gabriel de la Rive, who has sworn a vow to keep the war away from his lands in the mountains of the Holy Land, lives between two worlds—his father's in Europe and his mother's in the desert. He believes that all he wants is peace . . . until he rescues the beautiful Melisande. While war and betrayal swarm around them, they become embroiled in a very private war of wills that could lead to love or to the destruction of all they hold dear.