Sea Change — Alison McLeay

Katherine Summerbee, has been brought up on a boat by her gruff father with no luxuries and little love. She meets handsome, courageous Matthew Oliver, an Englishman who is smuggling Confederate gold out of Civil War-torn New Orleans on the eve of the Yankee occupation. A tumultuous night ends in lust, a forced marriage and Matthew's quick departure. When Kate travels to England to find her husband, however, she discovers that he is actually the owner of a huge shipping concern, that they were not legally married and that he has a new wife. But her fate is irrevocably intertwined with that of Matthew and his family, and she is soon firmly lodged in the middle of a bitter battle of wills between Matthew and his father, the spirited, dashing and trustworthy Adam Gaunt.

Also published in Italian as: La donna della Bellflower