Page Count: Approx 290 pages.

A frail and innocent beauty…a handsome and stubborn Highlander…and a calculating, underhanded man with a murderous plot…

A Poisoned Mind…

Gentle and sweet, Claudine Poitiers longs to be like the other girls…able to whirl and dance, walk and frolic, but she can’t. Her frailty is well-known and a source of teasing in her small circle, leading to a lack of self-esteem for the young beauty. She desires to be loved, but totally relies on her medicine just to be able to stand on the sidelines of life.

Son of a Count…

Highlander Francis McNeil is bold and confident on the outside, but inside believes himself unworthy of the love of the woman of his dreams. He knows that his only hope is to find a woman willing to wed him, regardless of the fact that he’s an outsider. However, when he meets the stunning beauty who thinks herself frail and ungainly, he knows that his heart is forever lost.

Recipe for Disaster…

Ever since Claudine can remember, she’s been made to take her medicine…made by her uncle, who also reminds her constantly that she’s of little use to him or anyone else. With one kiss from Francis, she begins to see the truth—that she too can be loved, desired and cherished, and by the dashingly handsome Highlander, no less! When she learns that the medicine may instead be the cause of her weakness and ill health, she knows that only one person can be to blame…and it’s her own uncle.

Could her own family really be to blame for the frailty that’s left her at death’s door for so long —or is something truly sinister at the bottom of the poison plot?

Should Francis claim the beauty as his bride—regardless of the fact that he believes that her family could never accept him as good enough?