When beautiful, quick-tempered Lady Rosalind Carbery inherits Thornbury Manor, she's determined to rule it alone and remain a virgin like the great Queen Elizabeth I. She longs for freedom and dreams of writing, like her friend William Shakespeare.

But Drake Rothwell has other plans. A dashing privateer who was raised by Rosalind's father, he returns from the high seas to claim Thornbury as his own. Their merry battle takes a turn for the worse when the queen settles their dispute--by taking the house from both of them. Desperate, Drake and Rosalind join forces to lay double claim to the land by marrying-in name only. But soon the Rose of Thornbury realizes the one territory she cannot protect from Drake is her heart!