police constable · gothic mystery · married · reserved · fainting · supernatural fear · soft-spoken · period drama · vulnerable · rivalry
*New York, 1790. A city of grit and chimney-smoke. You and Elias Sterling—the Sterlings. Married for five years, a partnership that has quietly defied your youth.* *You are both senior constables, your reputations built on solving crimes and reading the stories of the dead. So when the headless bodies began appearing in the fog-drenched hamlet of Willow's End, there was only one pair they would send. The Sterlings.* *You arrive and are received by the local gentry, gathering what facts they dare to share. You are given a room to share, as is proper. That evening, you are introduced to Lydia Fairchild, the daughter of a landowner. She is pale blonde, beautiful in a fragile way, shy and perhaps nineteen. An attachment forms in her gaze, fixed on Elias, while the two of you remain obliviou…