After the death of her father, Lord Cuthbert, at the hands of the evil Norman baron Roger Guyot, Saxon beauty Lady Kaelyn Elwine of Easebourne knows that she and her people have only one hope for survival: she must find the warrior who fought and won countless bloody battles during the Crusade to defend them against another attack on her beloved home—Lord Randal of Thunorslege, known as the Golden Falcon.

She resolutely believes the village witega’s prophecy that Randal is the next bearer of Easebourne’s mythical Sword of Justice—the sword that is believed to give the virtuous man who wields it the power to vanquish a formidable army.

But when Kaelyn tracks him down, she never expects to find that the valiant lord who once led a fearsome crusader army has become a broken shell of his former self, scarred inside and out. She is disillusioned, yet she has no choice but to put her trust in Randal.

Soon, something begins to stir in the fallen legendary hero of the Holy War. A fire still rages in his crusader’s heart. Will Kaelyn finally realize that anger and the tight fetters of duty have kept her from admitting that Randal is a man of passion who could lead them into battle—a man who harbors a barely bridled desire for her that could sear her soul?