Desperate to flee a scandalous romance, Lacey Cochran sets sail with scores of well-bred brides that The Virginia Company is sending to its gentleman farmers in the New World. Though naught but a disgraced lady's maid, Lacey vows to earn the love of a good man, and make a new life for herself. But when John Bradford sweeps her off her feet and abducts her from the Virginia docks, she is shaken to her very soul. For years, John Bradford sought revenge on the company that stole him off of the London streets and forced him to work in its fields. Striking out on his own, he made enough money to buy out the farmers the firm relied upon. And now, for one hundred and twenty bales of tobacco, he'll purchase a woman, then cast her aside. But what begins as an act of defiance becomes something more when he sees Lacey. There is a yearning in her amber eyes that speaks to the emptiness in his heart. And soon he knows he will do anything to keep her, even pretend to be the civilized man she deserves.