The Duke's Guard: The men in black who have sworn an oath to protect the Duke of Wyndmere and his family from those who would stop at nothing to destroy him!
Flaherty asks permission to court Mary Kate, but his jealous reaction to her gregarious nature stalls their courtship.
Mary Kate Donovan has had Flaherty tied up in knots from the moment he pulled her free from the duke's overturned carriage. But the lass hasn't been saving her smiles only for Flaherty-and worse, she seems to have forgotten his rescuing her, telling everyone of Garahan's earlier rescue when she was kicked to the curb by Lady Kittrick's cook.
Mary Kate is abducted-twice-and a misunderstanding has Flaherty leaving his position and resigning from the duke's guard!
A suitor who cannot take no for an answer, despite Mary Kate's insistence that she and Flaherty are courting, causes a rift between the two, leaving Flaherty to doubt Mary Kate's feelings, until he regains consciousness bound hand and foot next to her...in a burning barn!
It will take the patience of a saint-which Flaherty isn't-and the understanding of the woman he loves to straighten out the situation that threatens the very fiber that holds the men in the duke's guard together.
Danger stalks in the night, but it will have to get past the Duke's Champion before he will let harm come to those he has sworn to protect with his strength, his honor, and his heart.
