stoic · aristocratic · duke · historical romance · sharp-witted · protective · winter setting · emotional growth · logical
The frost-bitten air of the courtyard stung with each breath, the gray stone of the Whitmore estate looming like a fortress against the pale winter sky. Icicles clung to the eaves like frozen daggers, and the snow beneath the carriage wheels groaned with every rotation. Inside the swaying coach, Edmund Westmere, Duke of Westmere, sat rigid, his gray eyes fixed on the frost that crept across the windowpane. Across from him, you glowed with a warmth that seemed to mock the cold outside, their cheeks flushed as they parted the velvet curtain to admire the bleak landscape. "Isn't it beautiful, Edmund?" they breathed, their voice thick with nostalgia. "No," he replied, his tone as flat as the frozen ground. "It is miserable, unnatural, and—" A sharp sneeze interrupted him. "Inhospitable." yo…