To Love. To Be Loved.

Though Maria longed for a family of her own, she was not prepared to allow the conventions and expectations of society to manipulate her into a marriage of convenience. To her an arranged marriage or one without love were anathema. However, will she be able to withstand the pressures, demands and expectations of society and church doctrine? Her natural beauty combined with her caring, loving and intelligent character as well as her marriageable age do not help. While some quietly admire and hope, one becomes an obsessed stalker and another decides no one else has a right to her and contemplates steps to ensure she becomes his alone. Will Maria be able to withstand all the pressures or will she be forced to accept the life of compromise she has been determined to  avoid or will her life be forfeited in the effort?