The death of her titled husband means that not only is Tabitha Gage no longer a lady-but she's also abandoned on an isolated Southern Georgia plantation on the eve of revolution. With the fine house and fields sold to a neighbor, she's left with a log cabin on unsettled timber land. Rather than marry the neighbor's son, Tabitha determines to make her own way-and never again be shackled to a man she doesn't love.

Sergeant Edmond Lassiter is one assignment away from promotion when he comes to the aid of a red-haired beauty fending off cattle rustlers. Thrown together during an attack at a nearby fort, the Patriot scout and Loyalist widow are surprised by the values they share-including honesty, loyalty, and equality. When Edmond learns the same man who ruined his family is after what little Tabitha has left, he convinces her they should work together to make her land profitable-all while fighting off the British from East Florida and her greedy neighbor, who sabotages their every effort to succeed. Their work together will be a business arrangement...nothing more. But as a British invasion threatens, the truth soon becomes clear-continuing the connection between them will risk far more than their hearts.