Adeline Buckley escapes her abusive father only to find herself in a brothel, on a stagecoach to the untamed west, then married to a stranger, in that order. Plotting another escape becomes harder the more she gets to know her new husband. Jackson Pruitt didn"t expect a secretive mail order bride to show up the same week cattle rustlers absconded with a large part of his herd. The bigger surprise was the loveliness of the woman. Why would a beauty like her need to travel so far to marry? Jackson and Adeline learn that secrets and marriage do not go hand-in-hand when both of their pasts comes knocking, and they have to come to grips with the reality that sometimes trust comes only after you lose it all.