Prisoner of the palace. Serena was almost too beautiful. Yet behind her aristocratic face there was something hurt, something closed. When she went back to the family palace after the war she was searching for a shining fragment of the past to hold to her heart. The last thing she was looking for was love. But the past was about to vanish for ever, consumed in love so complete it made Serena dissolve with passion in the warm Italian night. All she had treasured before had been taken from her — would it last this time? Or would the priceless promise of love for a lifetime