Since the Alabama affair three years before, when U.S. claims negotiations resulting from the British arming of Confederate warships during the Civil War had finally been peacefully resolved, relations between the two countries had been excellent. The warship Alabama, most famous of the Confederate raiders, had captured or destroyed over sixty Northern vessels during the conflict. After the war ended, the United States insisted upon compensation for damages from England for reneging on their neutral status. The arbitration tribunal in Geneva awarded damages, England had promptly paid the fine and cordial relations had been restored again. New turmoil on the U.S. border could affect both nations, if England chose to ally with Mexico.

Damn politics! He was more comfortable with action than the interminable speeches and intrigues that suited men like Jim Bishop.

Bishop. The U.S. government agent was as much of an enigma now as he had been when he first came to Steve and offered him a chance at life, instead of the hanging that faced him as the result of a duel. Of course, he’d nearly been killed more times than he could count since then, and all in the name of the United States government.

But he was damned if he knew why Bishop had seen to it that he be appointed an ambassador based in England, other than the fact that it brought him to London at a convenient time for the United States.

“I can count on you, I am certain,” Bishop had said in his usual dry way, “to regard the interests of the United States as highly as Mexico’s in your duties.”

“Don’t I always?” he’d answered, and they both knew the answer to that.

Now here he was, balanced on a tightrope between two countries again, and at the same time trying to reconcile with his wife.

Ginny, of the fiery hair and temperament. The young girl he had first met had evolved into this composed, beautiful woman who seemed so confident and poised. He’d married her twice, both times to assuage scandal, yet still did not know her. She eluded him, the essence of her like a wisp of fog, always just beyond his grasp.

Yet her ethereal nature was what had captured his heart so long ago, intrigued him more than any woman ever had. Even after he’d abducted her and taken her with him into the mountains of Mexico, she’d not lost her allure for him. Not until his grandfather had forced him to marry Ginny, had he taken the time to explore his reasons for keeping her with him. And then it had almost been too late….