In the dying echoes of the Civil War... Valeria Lee, an elegant and beguiling southern aristocrat, was the beautiful cousin of General Robert E. Lee. But in the bitter aftermath of the Civil War, her breeding and taste counted for nothing. Surviving sudden poverty, the burning of her beloved Atlanta, and the near-murder of her brother, she was forced to develop qualities she never knew she had: fiery will of iron, a haughty mask of detachment, and a shocking disregard for the morals of her highborn heritage. But even more shocking to Valeria, herself, was that one very essential part of her nature seemed to have persisted in the flames of the war-ability to love, to be a whole woman. A Fiery Desire Was Born! Until she met two men: Sam Garvey and Josiah Eaton. One offered enormas wealth and power, and challenged everything she had ever believed about herself. The other represented a much deeper threat-the stirrings of uncontrollable passion, the one feeling she could never, never allow.