Edward Marquand knew he was playing with fire, but he just didn't care. A young man in love is a headstrong force of nature, immune to common sense. The heart wants what the heart wants, and Eddie wanted Sally. Just eighteen in the summer of 1850, he was perpetually distracted. But it was not the rolling fields of his father's southern Illinois farm that flamed his imagination. That distinction was reserved for the forbidden curves of Sally, his father's light-skinned slave. Sally and Edward enjoyed a passionate, lustful love affair, but each knew how dangerous their dalliance was. Both lovers feared discovery, but for different reasons. And on the inevitable day they were discovered, both lives changed in an instant. Just how will John, Edward's identical twin, leverage this new knowledge against them? Edward fears that he cannot count on his brother's discretion, and he shares Sally's fear for her life. Can Edward find a way to keep them both safe, or will he have to take even more drastic steps to protect the woman he loves?