Lucy Kincaid endures a life of loneliness and drudgery in her stepmother's house on Ireland's windswept coast. All she has to sustain her are her dreams; until the day the golden stranger appears on a cliff-- a stranger who gazes at her with love in his eyes and poetry on his lips. Lucy's heart is lost-- until she realizes that he is the enemy: a despised Englishman; the man whose family stole her birthright. Once upon a passion Raphael Montagu; eight Duke of Southwell; searches futility for the mysterious Irish beauty he'd loved at first sight; certain that only she can heal his wounded heart. But when fate finally returns her to him at a London ball; she denies ever having seen him before. And when he claims her with a kiss and a vow of eternal love; she vanishes once again; leaving him with no clue as to her identity. His only hope is to travel back to Ireland to uncover the mystery that drove her from his side-- and finally claim her for his own. . .