Julia Cooper has a secret that could cost her her life. She's really Lady Julia Anne Sanders Delerue, and she's investigating who's using DelerueSanders Shipping to smuggle contraband into frontier Florida. But when her disguise as a cleaning woman at her uncle's tavern gets her kidnapped and taken deep into the pine woods, she has to think fast to stay alive while asking herself who would kidnap a cleaning woman?

Rand Washburn has a secret that could cost Julia Cooper her life. When two peabrains dump an Englishwoman at his farm while he's recovering from yellow fever, he has to figure out how to get rid of her before she finds out he's sitting on top of the biggest smuggling operation ever seen in Florida.

Julia's following in the footsteps of her parents, who put an end to the career of a notorious brigand in PIRATE'S PRICE. She ignores Washburn's warnings and follows him on a midnight foray, literally stumbling into a riverside gathering of thieves and smugglers. If she ever wants to make it home to England in one piece, she's going to have to think fast to keep Washburn and his cronies from burying her deep in the back woods, even if it means marrying that handsome scoundrel at gunpoint. Julia and Rand are trapped in a dance of lies and deception even as their passion deepens and betrayal lurks in the shadows. But what kind of future is there for an aristocrat's daughter and a backwoods smuggler? Can Rand convince Julia that she's destined to be the smuggler's bride, or is he going to have to make sure she's not able to tell anyone -- ever -- about what he's up to along the Florida coast?

Excerpt:

Florida Territory--1843

"Now what?" Rand muttered. He wasn't up to any practical jokes. He listened by the side of the shed and heard nothing for a few moments, then there was a muffled thud as something large fell to the ground, too big to be a raccoon. Rand walked over to the wood pile and grabbed a length of oak.

"Alright, mister, I don't know what you and the Iveys are up to, but I want you to come out real slow now."

There was no movement, but a muffled "snort" came from inside, and it occurred to him that maybe whoever was in there wasn't in there of his own free will.

Still clutching the impromptu club, Rand put his hand on the latch and pulled hard, banging the door against the shed. He blinked into the darkness as dust and chaff swirled around, then looked down.

And grinned.

"Dang! I know I ain't got sugar on the supply list, darlin', so maybe you'd like to tell me what you're doing in my shed?"

Julia glared at the man staring at her while she was bound and gagged in the dirt. He was silhouetted by the sun as he pulled her up and steadied her with one hand under her arm, then made quick work of the knots binding her hands before kneeling down to get the rope around her feet. She yanked the cloth out of her mouth and took a deep breath. At least this one didn't reek like the Ivey brothers.

"I do not know what you and your friends think you are doing, but it will go easier on you if you take me straight to Ganymede's Cup!"

The man stood up, slow and easy, and Julia took an involuntary step back. She was tall, but he topped her by a good head, and his shoulders filled the shed doorway. He cocked his head to the side and examined her, a long, insolent look that traveled from the top of her rumpled hair down past the shapeless dress to her boots. Then he backed out of the shed and motioned for her to pass.

She stepped out into the sunlight and blinked a moment, looking around and rubbing her wrists where the rope had chafed, and turned to look at the man silently studying her. He was barefoot, wearing only a pair of trousers, legs planted wide apart in the dirt and arms crossed over his broad chest. She felt the color flare in her cheeks as she met his gaze to avoid looking at all that near naked flesh. The sunlight picked out red tones in his tawny hair and while he wasn't full bearded like the Iveys, he had enough growth on his square chin to darken his jawline without concealing it. His eyes were a color between hazel and true green with lines at the corners that would deepen if he laughed.

He wasn't laughing.

"So, you want to go to Ganymede's Cup? Now, what would a," his glance flicked over her again, "gal be doin' at a place like the 'Greek Boy'?""

Julia fisted her hands at her sides, her temper rising as she drew herself to her full height.

"My name is Julia Del - Julia Cooper. My uncle is Richard Cooper, the owner of Ganymede's Cup! He will pay you for your time and trouble when you return me to him," she added, looking around the rough farmstead. "Those louts kidnapped me and said they were taking me to someone who was sick and needed care. You do not look ill to me, and I demand you take me back immediately!"

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"Would you stay with me if I was sick?"

No!"

"Uh huh. Then we got ourselves a little problem here. I did have the fever, but I'm doin' better now, so I'll take you to the Cup, just not today." He put his hand to his forehead and winced. "Or tomorrow."

"But you must take me back today! It would be one thing if you were sick and needed nursing, but I can not stay here alone with you!"

"That's your choice, darlin'. If you start walkin' fast down that road, you might catch up to the Iveys by sundown, and maybe they'll take you on with them so Ma Ivey can chaperone you. What I'm going to do now is head back to bed."

"Look here--who are you anyway?"

"Sorry, the introductions got kinda left behind. My name's Washburn. Rand Washburn," he said with a nod of his head. "My friends call me Rand. I don't care what you call me, 'long as it don't insult my mama."

Julia froze. This was the notorious Washburn? Something must have shown on her face, because he looked at her with an arrested expression.

She didn't know what Washburn's game was, but it might be connected to her family's troubles. Maybe she oughtn't be in a hurry to leave.

"Very well," Julia sniffed. "I suppose there's nothing for it but to wait until you can return me, Mr. Washburn." She looked around her in dismay at the sunbaked property. "You are rather isolated out here in the woods."

"I like my isolation, I like the woods, and the sooner you're gone from here, the more I'll like it."

He turned and started walking towards the house, not bothering to see if she followed. She did, nudging some curious chickens out of the way with her foot as she passed through the dirt yard.

The cabin was an oak shaded dogtrot, two pine log rooms raised off the ground, with a central breezeway. She'd passed cabins like this in her travels, but this was the first time she'd been in one of the backwoods residences. The front porch was deep, the overhang from the steep roof shading the rocking chair on the porch as well as the cabin's interior. As she stepped in, she saw through the breezeway to the covered back veranda and beyond to the separate kitchen.

The front room held a table and benches, a chair and some chests, but Washburn kept walking through to the back room. He held on to the doorway and looked over his shoulder at her. Sunlight poured through the opened windows and doors, and Julia could see the strain on his face as he struggled to stay upright.

"I wish we could talk more, darlin', but I 'bout wore myself out with all this excitement. Try not to burn the cabin down if you stay, and if you leave, shut the door behind you."

And with that he shuffled into his room and collapsed on the bed, still wearing his pants.

Julia cautiously came up to the doorway.

"Mr. Washburn?"

There was no answer from the villain on the bed, except for a soft snore.