He bound her with ropes that passed between her legs. Her hands were tied behind her back, her ankles circled with leather straps. He blindfolded her and there was nothing except for the blackness behind her eyelids...
Lady Verity Mandeville has just attained the age of majority and her father, the autocratic Earl of Tremadock has an unpleasant surprise for her; she has been betrothed to the ruler of a remote Eastern European country. Just as she is beginning to taste all the delights that Restoration England can offer, she is to be whisked off to marry Duke Marec. What she finds when she arrives in Crocovia far exceeds any excess she could have imagined, for Marec is cruel and dominating; ruling his people with a rod of iron and taking his pleasure with any girl he chooses. Slowly Verity comes to realise that the forests around Marec's castle hold a dark secret. But she must bring it into the light in time to save herself from falling under the spell of Marec's dominance, for she finds a strange pleasure in submitting to his every cruel whim.