The heroine is left pregnant after being raped in the woods one day. So to save herself the shame of her people knowing, she names the father as a dead man from a neighboring clan. Only he's not dead. Though badly beaten and flogged, the hero is alive and is told he must marry a lass whom he's never seen before. His powers make people believe he's the son of the devil and he's mute so he can't really defend himself. He's plagued by guilt of murdering his pregnant lover by accident so he agrees to the marriage. It took a lot of misunderstandings and rough patching in the beginning of their marriage before they really even liked each other but it was a nice, sweet romance. The hero, though hated and feared has his pride and he's truly a man with how he claims the baby as his. The heroine is torn apart by her rape and overwhelmed by the shame of it all but she learns to love her husband and the child in the end. ( )