Sweet Defiance — Lisa Bingham

It was to be the event of the season for the woman of the decade. Marguerite DuBois, the celebrated artist's model, was about to be married to a man of dazzling wealth -- until an uninvited guest abducted her from the altar. Bram St. Charles, presumed dead in the turmoil of the Civil War, had returned very much alive. His intentions were hard as unsheathed steel: to rebuild his ruined home, restore his good name, and reclaim Marguerite, his lawful wife.

Yet Marguerite had never forgiven Bram for abandoning her years before to fight for the Confederacy, a doomed and treasonous cause. And Bram hadn't forgotten how Marguerite had fled from him, scarcely an hour after swearing undying love. But now a danger graver than any Bram had known in war faces them both -- a peril born of secrets each harbored from the other. Aswirl in intrigues of betrayal and contested gold, Bram and Marguerite awakened to a shimmering truth: that when their hearts and their dreams were finally one, no enemy could stand against them.