The Branding Iron — Katherine Newlin Burt

WERE FAME AND FORTUNE WORTH THE TERRIBLE PRICE SHE'D HAD TO PAY?

When Joan Carver, a passionate and primitive mountain beauty, marries Pierre Landis, a handsome rancher, she feels happiness for the first time in her life. But her hidden talents and yearning for education antagonize Pierre, and his abusive jealousy drives her from him.

Alone and wounded, she is rescued by Prosper, a strange and sophisticated man, who introduces her to an alien world of glamour and culture. Prosper's worldiness, strangeness and his passion for Joan make life too complicated and she runs away again -- this time to a life of fame and fortune on the stage! But Pierre's memory haunts her and success with Prosper cannot overcome her intense and painful longing for the man she married long ago…