Rye Forrester is a man suffering from a pain he can't ride away from. He meets Dulcie McDaniels just after she's buried her father. He's come in search of the wife of the man whose death he caused. He can't forgive himself and he can't bring himself to tell Dulcie; instead he offers to help her on the ranch for room and board until after the harvest.

Dulcie McDaniel has secrets, too. Secrets she doesn't want Rye to discover because then he couldn't bring himself to love her the way she loves and wants him. Dulcie's father was hung for a murder he didn't commit, and the town and a peddler named Lamont know all of Dulcie's secrets. Finding the murderer could bring it all out in the open. Can Rye and Dulcie's growing love withstand the truth?

This is the second in the saga of the Forrester brothers. Maureen McKade draws her characters with a fine hand. They are neither all good nor all bad, but simply human beings trying to survive with a modicum of dignity. Rye is strong and unforgiving, as is Dulcie. But the person they find it hardest to forgive is themselves. They are very real and when they come together, it's that union of strength and weakness that we all bring to a relationship. This is a romance, of course, so we aren't truly afraid it won't come out right, but it's also a story that pulls you in and leaves you wanting more. And of course, there is the third brother to find. I'm looking forward to it.