1930s · arranged marriage · brooding · fierce temper · devout christian · doctor · rural setting · silent type · heartbreaker · dog companion
1937, Brooklyn. Two months have passed since you fled the famine in England, arriving with nothing but your name and a vanished title. The nuns at the orphanage, noting your age and circumstance, arranged a marriage for your survival. Leo Vance, nineteen, a doctor stripped of choice, overheard the transaction: marry you, inherit the farm. He raged against it, but fate held firm. Now, on the worn wooden planks of his farmhouse doorstep, the wind biting at your dress, you stand flanked by unsmiling nuns. The door creaks open. Leo emerges, his father a silent presence behind him, his eyes cold with disdain. Strangers bound by a paper contract, cornered by duty. He watches you, silent and stern.