Kathleen Kent is an American writer who traces her ancestry to one of the “Salem witches,” whose amazing fate formed the basis of two novels full of adventure, mystery and the struggle for the right to be oneself. At twenty-three, Martha Allen is hardly considered not an old maid - she is too intractable, willful and sharp-tongued to give her heart to a man without thinking twice. And only when fate brings her together with another lonely “wolf” does she begin to feel like she has finally met a kindred spirit. Welshman Thomas Carrier, a man of enormous stature and incredible physical strength, moved to America after the English Civil War, when Cromwell's supporters overthrew and executed King Charles I. That's all Martha knows about him, until Thomas decides to trust her with his terrible secret, putting himself—and her—in mortal danger. After all, hired killers, sent overseas on a secret mission from the new English king Charles II, are already prowling around. But what did a simple Welshman have to do to incur such a furious royal wrath?