Evangeline never imagined her future would begin this way.
Caught in an unexpected, prestigious marriage to a man she barely knows-whose past and temperament offer her little comfort-she steps into a world of refinement and rank, far removed from her quiet country upbringing. For most of her life, she believed she was too unusual, too easily overlooked, to ever be chosen for love.
He has spent a lifetime proving himself untouchable. Raised to believe that love makes a man weak-and weakness makes him worthless-he has built his life on power, control, and achievement. He never intended to want her, never planned for how her unusual ways draw him, or how her light presses against the walls he's built to survive.
Yet the world around them is merciless. Disapproval, loss, and the harsh realities of the life he was born into threaten to pull them apart, testing whether their love can bridge the distance between two worlds on the brink of war.