Single Combat — Sandra Field

Lydia never even considered matrimony

As a pathway to happiness it was highly overrated. Her own mismatched parents, long divorced, were an example of what could go wrong.

Lydia had grown up without love. She'd learned to live without it, she thought. To be self-sufficient, to need no one but herself. Her relationships with men had been light and undemanding, ending when they proposed marriage.

Now here was James Connelly, who wouldn't be put off like the others. "Trust me," he said. And Lydia wanted to. But she was terrified of trusting herself to love....

Hero: James Connelly
Heroine: Lydia Winsby