He wants to capture a medieval French castle; she just wants to capture him. An icy knight . . . Sir Garit of the Ruin barricades his heart like a fortress after French raiders destroyed his family and home. His company of warriors is now his family and marrying a castle (the wife is incidental) is his goal. Garit feels nothing. He lives by iron rules. And he always, always sleeps alone. A fiery minstrel . . . Zhila Kurian embraces life and all its pleasures with wild abandon, for the lovely Persian performer never knows when it will be snatched from her. Her parents were murdered, her sister captured, and she is scorned as foreign minstrel muck. English ice meets Persian fire 1367. After the battle of Najera, Spain, Garit rescues a damsel in distress, Zhila tries to stab him. Then she persuades him with a kiss and a dagger to take her to France. Now Zhila is faced with an impossible task: she must seduce Garit into destruction without losing her own heart or letting him marry his castle. The wild minstrel dancer must make a stony English knight break all his rules for her, or her little sister will suffer a fate worse than death. Contains mature themes.