Forbidden Fire

A maid secretly takes her mistress’s place in an arranged marriage—igniting unexpected passion—in New York Times– and USA Today–bestselling author Heather Graham’s turn-of-the-century romance.
 
On a frigid March day in Yorkshire in 1895, ten-year-old Marissa Ayers encounters a raven-haired, blue-eyed stranger for the first time. When next they meet, she has put the dust of the coal mines behind her and is now a lady’s maid at a fine estate, determined to escape her hardscrabble life. Marissa recognizes him instantly, but has no inkling that their lives are about to come together in the most intimate way—until her mistress begs her to take her place in a marriage of convenience.
 
Haunted by the memory of his lost love, Ian Tremayne is honor-bound by the promise he made to an old friend. His marriage to Katherine Mary Ahearn will be a union in name only. Yet something about the proud, green-eyed Englishwoman seems familiar . . . and intrigues him. He takes her home to America, where the willful beauty slowly begins to thaw his guarded heart. But will she reveal herself to him completely?

Heather Graham (b. 1953) is a bestselling author of more than 150 romance, suspense, and historical novels that have sold seventy-five million copies worldwide. Raised in Florida, Graham went to college for theater arts, and spent several years acting, singing, and bartending before she devoted herself to writing. Her first novel, When Next We Love, was published in 1982. Although she became famous as an author of romance novels, Graham has since branched out into supernatural horror, historical fiction, and suspense, with titles such as Tall, Dark, and Deadly (1999), Long, Lean, and Lethal (2000), and Dying to Have Her (2001). In 2003 the Romance Writers of America, whose Florida chapter Graham founded, granted her a lifetime achievement award. She lives, writes, and scuba dives in Florida with her husband and five children.