The Country Husband You Should Never Cross

The betrothal had been arranged for John Cosby by his master, and one day the old man handed him a jade pendant and put him off the mountain to go and honor it. John had been up there since childhood learning to fight and had no other business below. On the road he came across Tessa Lane being run down by men who meant to kill her, and he got her clear of them. She turned out to belong to the family he was promised to. At the house the daughter he had been matched with called the engagement off. Tessa said she would take her place. Her grandfather's regard was in it for her, and the family company needed saving. They put it in writing as a marriage in name only, neither of them stepping into the other's life. John still had the errand his master had sent him on. Then he pulled Tessa out of one dangerous spot and then another, and she began to think about the man who had come down from the mountain.