When a beautiful woman admits a stranger into her London boarding house, she cannot help being irresistibly attracted to him. He is the handsomest man she has ever seen--and so badly wounded he cannot remember his own name. But in his possession is an ancient stone seal that matches one owned by her father. Now in a search that leads to a legendary diamond, and a secret involving Queen Victoria herself, she discovers his true identity, and suddenly, the two are hurtling toward an explosive clash of destinies...and a passionate joining of two desperately yearning hearts....
She was wed to a stranger who would show her the way to freedom and love . . .
Ever since her mother's death, Cordelia McQueen has been a virtual prisoner in her father's house. But now everything had changed. Shamelessly traded in a battle for land and water rights, she was thrust into an unfamiliar world as the bride of Dallas Leigh.
Dallas had given his life to the land. Now he would build a town that would put West Texas on the map. But as he gazed into the eyes of the lovely stranger who belonged to him, he caught a glimpse of another empire--a warm, radiant empire of the heart. Was this a woman to walk beside him, as, together, they carved out a future rich with the radiant promise of love?
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Epilogue
CHAPTER 1
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May, 1881
Dreams. Gossamer images that most people carried with them into their sleep, but for Dallas Leigh, they were the incentive that woke him before dawn, the impetus that pushed him toward midnight.
Dreams were the stepping stones to glory.
By pursuing them, he had attained a level of success that exceeded most men’s reach and acquired all that he had set out to gain: Land, cattle, and wealth beyond his highest expectations.
Yet, desperation gnawed at him like a starving dog that had just discovered a buried bone, and as he gazed at the stars that blanketed the velvety sky, he felt as though he had achieved nothing.
He was a man with a solitary dream that remained untouched, the one that had served as the guiding beacon for every goal that he had fulfilled. Without the realization of his greatest desire, his other accomplishments meant little, and he feared that they might mean nothing at allâ€"if he never gained a son with whom to share them.
The lingering warmth of the parched earth seeped through his backside as he worked the ridge of his spine into a comfortable position against the gnarled and crooked post that served as one of a thousand anchors for his barbed-wire fence.
He hated the fencing with a passion, but he knew it was destined to become essential to every rancher's survival in the same manner that the railroad had wended its way into their lives. Workers continued to lay the tracks that brought more people farther west. The days of knowing one's neighbor and where his land ended and a man's own land began were dwindling. The barbed wire cut through the questions, marked a man's domain, and left no doubts as to his ownership.
Unfortunately, it was an aspect of the future that only a few men could envision, and those blinded by the traditions of the past were determined that the barbed wire would not stand.
