Innocent Fire

Innocent Fire is a historical romance by the American writer Brenda Joyce, published by Avon in 1988 and the first of her Bragg Saga novels, followed by Firestorm and Violet Fire. It is set on the American frontier, and most of its length passes on the road.

Miranda has spent her life in a French convent and leaves it for the New World and an arranged marriage to a wealthy rancher in Texas. She arrives expecting a husband and meets Derek Bragg, her fiancé's friend, a Texas Ranger whose rough manners and direct remarks about her looks make her furious.

Bragg is her escort across country, and the two of them travel through dangerous wilderness while he denies what he is beginning to feel and she struggles with her own attraction to the man taking her to another marriage. The crossing itself, with its rivers, its weather and the constant risk of attack, is what gives the pair their time together and the novel its shape. Miranda has never been away from the convent before, so the journey is also her education.