Trouble in the area made everyone nervous, but when Annaliese Stanhope was running late to get home, she took her chances on a shortcut. Halfway home she came across an unconscious man that had been stripped of his belongings, including most of his clothes. Not one to leave a helpless man to the weather and wild, she found a way to get him home and asked her father and Aunt to help him. It had been a simple task of delivering the money his sister-in-law owed to the woodworker for a special gift, but then Kendran Ainsworth was set upon by the local menace and changed his plans. Now that Annaliese and her family had helped him and confided in him, he felt the need to find out the truth for her. To help her in return, even if she would never accept the aid or the word of any highborn nobleman.