Alex, now believing Beth to be alive, leaves Scotland and heads south to keep the promise he made to her at Culloden, determined to be reunited with his wife regardless of the danger to himself. Meanwhile the Duke of Newcastle has realised that he cannot kill Beth, either publicly or privately, without attracting the enmity of powerful people, including the heir to the throne. He hits upon a way of being rid of her forever; transportation to Antigua as an indentured servant for life. By this deed he hopes that the terrible conditions on the sugar plantations will achieve the much-desired death of the woman who has defied him for so long. Things do not go according to plan and soon Beth finds her life going in a direction neither she nor Newcastle could have foreseen, which leads her to make a decision that could have a terrible impact on Alex as he attempts to discover her whereabouts.