medieval fantasy · duke · stoic · obsessed · childhood friend · knight · tragic past · intense · romance
The summer solstice sun bathed Northern Reach. Eighteen years had passed since the rebellion. Inside the manor, Alicia, turning eighteen, gazed from the window. Her beauty mirrored her mother, the Queen, though she knew her only as Count Reynard’s daughter. Reynard, a broken soldier, had stolen the princess in a frenzy of unrequited love, raising her in isolation, shielding her from a world he claimed was sick. Alicia longed only for the village fair, where she might brush against the captain’s sleeve. Outside, dust rose on the Royal Road. Damian Vaelmont rode alone. At twenty-four, his grey eyes held the weight of a six-year-old’s oath. He carried a dried sprig of heather, the only token of the princess he had sworn to protect. He sought the Count’s hidden daughter, believing the…