Ransom My Heart is a romance novel by Meg Cabot. It was released in the United States on January 6, 2009, concurrently with the novel Forever Princess. The book is, according to The Princess Diaries series, written by Mia Thermopolis as her senior project, where she told her friends at first that it was a book about Genovian oil. It was accepted for publishing during Forever Princess, the tenth book in the Princess Diaries Series.
Plot
When Finnula Crais, a beautiful yet feisty huntress who wears braies and is one of the late miller's daughters in Leesbury, discovers one of her sisters, Mellana, has become pregnant by a troubadour and spent all the money for her dowry on ribbons and trinkets for her other sisters' weddings (Including Finn's), she agrees to Mellana's insane idea that they could hold a rich man for ransom to pay for her dowry. Hugo Fitzstephen is twenty-five, and is Lord of Stephensgate (From which Finn is poaching the land and giving it to the servants, who are starving to death by Hugo's cousin, Reginald Laroche and his daughter, Isabella), and has a mighty way with women and wears a beard, but after his mother, elder brother and father dies, returns from the Holy Land to hold his rightful place after ten years he has been a soldier, stays at an inn. The innkeeper, the brother of one of Finn's sisters' husbands, tells a short summary of "Fair Finn" after she walks into the inn to talk to the innkeeper, since Hugo seems to have a strong attraction for her, yet he's seen woman more beautiful than her and she is wearing braies. Finn, hearing of Hugo's wealth from the innkeeper, but not knowing he was from those lands, decides that he would be a good man to hold for ransom, and lays out her trap. Hugo's squire, Peter, has his life threatened when two men at the inn want money from Hugo, not knowing that who he was, either, but Finn saves them both by pinning both of the men to the walls and threatening to do worse. She later walks off, leaving Hugo and Peter at the inn. They both try to look for her to say their gratitude, but they just stop and continue their journey, not knowing that she is following them, planning the next step.
Lord Hugo then goes to the springs for a swim, when he sees Finn, naked, going in, too. He stares at her, not knowing that this was her plan, and when she goes to the woods to dry up, he decides he will wait until she reappears to tell her that it is not a good idea to go around undressed when taking a dip. Then all of a sudden, Finnula comes out, as stealthy as a cat, and puts a knife to his throat and ties him up. He learns that she knew he was there and was waiting for a good time to kidnap him. She says that she got Peter too, by tying him up on a tree branch, not checking if he had a weapon. Peter then comes out of nowhere, crashes into Finn on her rib, causing her to become unconscious. Hugo then yells at Peter for crashing into Finn. Hugo makes Peter fetch water to wake Finn up. Finn, fully awake now, holds her knife to Hugo's throat again, and tells Peter to run now, go to where he's headed and to tell Hugo's friends and family that unless they pay ransom, he will never be seen again, and if he tells anyone he has seen the culprit, Hugo will die. She later reveals that it was a lie, since she can't truly kill a person without guilt following her, and Hugo, realizing she isn't dangerous at all, begins to tease her.
Hugo decides to lie to Finn about his wealth and says his name is Hugh Fitzwilliam, and he is a wealthy knight just returning to Leesbury. After having issues with keeping his hands off Finn, whom he has become attracted to, she unbinds him and instead carries his most valuable prize, an emerald, around her neck. On their first night during their two-day trip to Leesbury, they rest inside a barn and Finn hunts for food, since she has become infuriated with Hugo's teasing of her. Later that night, after another round of arguing, Hugo kisses her, and, knowing that if she lets him go to far, she will lose her maidenhood and end up like Mellana, rips away from him and argues with him again. After insulting Mellana after finding out both that she is poaching his property and the reason she kidnapped him, she declares him released and gives back the emerald. He refuses, though, and gives her the emerald again, since he sees Finn as someone who needs protecting from crueler human beings who would've definitely taken advantage of her and her innocence. Finn eventually forgives him and has him be her prisoner again.