Rita Gerlach

The Rebel's Pledge Rita Gerlach Revised edition

(Inspirational Historical Romance) 
He was a rebel to King James, hunted down, captured, and sentenced to a life of servitude in Colonial Maryland. Haunted by war and wrestling with a troubled past, Matthew Hale is freed by Edmund Cary, the plantation owner that purchased him from the auctioneer's block. He pledges to protect Cary's daughter, Lara, and bring her from England to her father's plantation along the Chesapeake, an undertaking that challenges the depth of his courage, and the strength of his faith. Lara will only wed for love, having kept the story of her parents' unwavering devotion for each other in her heart. When she learns her guardian has promised her in marriage to a rich English lord in order to save his ancestral home, her hopes unravel, until she meets the heroic stranger that rescues her from the hands of a highwayman.