Belle Palmer is finally free! Separated from her father on the harrowing escape, Belle is lost and alone until she finds shelter with the Bests, the first free family she's ever known. For the first time in her sixteen years, Belle can speak her mind-except for her feelings for a certain dark-eyed young man-The Beau. Educated and handsome, at eighteen, Daniel Best is engaged to the prettiest (if a little spoiled) girl around. So when the bedraggled girl his parents take under their wing suddenly turns into a vibrant, lovely young woman, his attraction to her is a complete-and complicated-surprise. That the two belong together is undeniable, but caught between conscience and attraction, could it possibly happen?