Rebecca Winters is the mother of four who was very excited about the new millennium because it meant another new beginning for her. Having said goodbye to the classroom where she taught French and Spanish, she is now free to spend more time with her family, to travel and to write the Mills & Boon novels she loves so dearly.

Rebecca Winters has been nominated for a Reader’s Choice Award for her title The Faithful Bride and was previously voted Utah Writer of the Year! You can visit her Web site at www.rebeccawinters-author.com

PRINCE RAOUL MERTIER BERGERET D’ARILLAC levered his tall, ripcord-strong body from the car, and strode across the cobblestone courtyard of the seventeenth-century Swiss château nestled in the forest overlooking Lake Neuchatel.

Despite the lateness of the hour, the early July night felt warm and balmy. Perfect weather for him and his friends to enjoy a relaxing climb in Zermatt over the weekend.

Intent on reaching his newly modernized apartments, a surprise from his mother he could have done without while he’d been away climbing in the Himalayas at the end of spring, he didn’t notice a figure had stepped from the shadows of the giant chestnut tree until he heard his name called.

He paused mid-stride and spun around. “Father?”