Serena Copeland has led a varied and interesting life, and undoubtedly she has made mistakes in her time. When she is forced to run from the authorities, accused of the attempted murder of a local Squire, she has to leave the place that has become her home. But once she adapts to the idea, there's an excitement that she cannot suppress. Might she finally learn the truth about her parentage and her mother's ancestry– something that has always been a forbidden subject up until now? Travelling under cloak and dagger methods, desperate to avoid those who would have her thrown into jail, she becomes embroiled with another fugitive hiding from the law – Gabe Sherringham, a smuggler whom she resolves to avoid at all costs. But fate, it seems, has other ideas. Amongst the first to admit that he is a law-breaker and entirely void of a romantic disposition, Gabe is initially somewhat amused and certainly intrigued by the depth of his attraction to the mysterious woman thrown into his path. But when things come to a head it's a race against time – and now there's nothing amusing about the situation at all.