Dangerous Secrets

Rome, a hard-luck exile, and a soldier with nothing left. Jamie Heyworth has fled to the city after a public disgrace, and he now sits in gloomy idleness with his money gone and little reason to rise each morning. Into his bleak rooms bursts Nora Haley, a plain, determined Englishwoman who has come to Italy because her brother lies dying and has left her an unexpected inheritance: a small, dark-eyed niece. Nora is determined to keep the child, and to do so she hires a disreputable, hard-drinking former major to serve as her interpreter. Jamie guards secrets even from his closest friends, and Nora has reason to distrust any man who drinks. Yet both are willing to take bold risks for the little girl who has drawn them together, even agreeing to a sham marriage to protect her.