The Warrior's Maiden (The Warriors Series #2)

Josce FitzBaldwin holds the sheriff of Knabwell responsible for the death of his lord father and his two young stepsisters. He intends to shed the sheriff's blood to avenge them. Instead the noble bastard finds himself enmeshed in a tangled web of deceit and betrayal where thieves don't empty purses of their gold but slaughter innocent children. The last thing he expects is to lose his heart to the sheriff's honest daughter or to beg her aid in securing the vengeance he so craves.

Elianne du Hommet, the destitute sheriff's useless third daughter, has no future. She is doomed to a life as her father's unpaid servant and his hapless pawn in his hopeless, money-making schemes. Then a slain nobleman's bastard son rides through her gate, threatening to kill her father while offering Elianne the chance to know, just once, the joy of a man's touch. She cannot resist, even though what he wants from her will result in her complete destruction