On a cold snowy night in the remote village of Whitney's Corners, Dudley Mansfield enters the Bridge Inn, where Megan Cummins is working for her uncle. Upon hearing her uncle greet the handsome bachelor by name, Megan flees to the kitchen for refuge. Although she has never formally met the man, she well remembers the harsh words they exchanged one afternoon five years earlier and the revenge she took out on him. She determines that he must never know who she is. But secrets don't last forever, and not long after the inn burns down, Megan finds herself not only homeless and jobless, but also at the mercy of this stern, commanding man-and his favors. (323pp. Masthof Press, 2018.)