The Black Knave (Scottish Trilogy #1)

In the first book of Patricia Potter’s Scottish Trilogy, a rebellious Jacobite beauty weds a Scottish nobleman in a political marriage of convenience, unaware that he is leading a dangerous double life

Some call him the devil. Few have ever seen him. He is the Black Knave, named for the playing card he leaves behind when he risks his life to smuggle Jacobite insurgents out of Scotland right under the noses of the British. Bethia MacDonell is determined to find him. She needs the legendary freedom fighter to rescue her imprisoned brother. Instead, she is forced into an arranged marriage with Rory Forbes, an aristocrat loyal to the crown and a coward at the Battle of Culloden—a traitor to his own people.
 
To the world, the Marquis of Braemoor is a fop and a wastrel who lives solely for his own pleasure. But he harbors a dangerous secret that he must keep hidden at all costs. Bethia is the wild card, arousing in Rory a treacherous desire that could doom his mission and imperil her life. Sworn to protect her, the most wanted man in Scotland must fight his greatest battle to win the heart of the one woman he desires above all others: his wife.