The Quest for Mercy — Cris Anson

Widowed Mercy Walcott is too willful for the repressive Massachusetts Bay Colony of 1694, so after the reverend denounces her for intimate congress outside matrimony, her father forces her to marry the blacksmith. Strong, virile, and dominant, Seth tames her. Up to a point.Young acolyte Adam falls hard for the beauty he's forced to subdue while the reverend doles out her punishment in full view of the citizenry. Mercy remembers his empathy as she squirmed away from the pain and humiliation of her sentence. To thank him, she persuades Seth to indenture him as an apprentice. Soon Adam is torn between his innate scruples and his desire for the woman he's coming to love. Can he withstand the temptation? How can Adam look his friend in the eye? And what will Seth do to him—to them all?