The Reverend Richard Dempsey accepts the comfortable living in the hinterlands offered him by the Duke of Berinwick. But when Dempsey arrives at St Milburga's of the Wood, he discovers the church in ruins, his patron dead, and Berinwick's family threatened by a madman. Thirty years ago and more, Richard Dempsey would have risked everything for Veronica Longwood. Now that she is the widowed Duchess of Berinwick, will he still risk all to protect her and her children from the consequences of an ancient rivalry?