Nicole, Lady Ashby, preferred the hardships of a warrior's life to the humiliating, in her opinion, position of a wife and mother, but fate decided otherwise. The indignant beauty was forcibly led down the aisle by the stern conqueror Gilliam Fitzhenry, who thus wished to legitimize his right to the lands of Ashby. Such a marriage seemed to be made not in heaven, but in hell. But quite unexpectedly, the “reluctant spouses” were overwhelmed by a stormy wave of frenzied passion.