Love Survives the Dark

Emily Rivers is a widow. Her mother-in-law was gravely ill, and to pay for her Emily hired herself out as a woman to bear an heir. She spent a night in a prison cell and met Evan Cameron there. Rather than touch her, he drove something through his own palm. After that Evan came to her wonton stall every day. He was clumsy about pleasing her and he kept watch over her. Trouble came and kept coming. She worked out in the end what he actually meant by it, and it took a moment when his life was on the line for him to see how far her own feeling went. The two of them came up out of the mud holding each other. She taught him to love himself, and he gave her a home.