A woman who's reputation is is tatters after everything thinks she's the mistress of her best friend, gets sent to care for a wheelchair bound man who's fits of rage threaten to send him to the asylum. She knows the hero from a night a few years ago when the shared a moment on the dance floor and when she hears he's been crippled after the war, she agrees to being his nurse. But she expected to see a suicidal and depressed man but the guy she meets celebrated her arrival but throwing chairs out of windows and trying to hit her with candle sticks. The hero fears he is mad and his behavior makes a very good case for it but underneath all that he's sad and tortured. The heroine takes to her new charge by forcing him outside (something he hadn't done in 6 months), bring done to the beach and leaving him there to drag himself back. What looks to be cruelty is actually what the hero needs. The heroine refuses to allow him to wallow in self pity, not when he's causing much pain to his family. Once again, I loved the start of this book but it immediately took a swift decline. The hero is tortured for about 3 chapters and then he back to being the rake and funny man he always was. I was so confused how he could make such a sever turn around. Up until the death of his brother, it was a boring and rather plan love story and I honestly considered giving up. But then the chaos at the mill happened, like out of nowhere and instantly their was a brief spark back in the story. My god so many emotions and feelings were explored. The heroes brother dies and but in the process of trying to save him, the hero finds himself walking again. The heroine, a capable nurse, is horror struck by the fact that she's unable to put herself back around the madness and turns coward in the face of all the blood. When she finds her husband over the body of his brother, she honesty doesn't want to comfort him because a, she doesn't know how and b, there are still people dying whom need help. She tells him to stop being so selfish and I honestly couldn't stand her in that moment. Why would the death of his brother be penned by the author as something to just get over so quickly? It was made out to be like a family dog had died instead of his flesh and blood. I was disgusted at how insignificant the tragedy was made out to be. After that, life went on like nothing had happened! The whole story from that point on was the heroine dealing with her new title and trying to find out who's being attacking village women. If the author had kept the story to exploring and developing the relationship between the two characters it would have made for a good read. Instead, the pacing of the story was like waking through a maze. So many dead ends and confusing and paths going in different directions that it made my head spin. There was also a ghost, but not a ghost but actually turns out to be a ghost...? I don't recommend this book at all. ( )