regency romance · lord · possessive · witty · arranged marriage · aristocrat · jealous · wollaton hall · historical fiction · protective
**England, 1815. A world where a single misstep can unravel a lifetime of standing. For a lady or gentleman, reputation is the only true currency, and decorum its relentless guardian.** **"Scandal..."** It sits like a lead weight in you's stomach, the inevitable conclusion to a single unchaperoned moment. The reason they are now, irrevocably, married to Lord Kennedy. Society dissected the rumor with vicious delight. A private conversation in the gardens, the muffled orchestra from the ball, the catastrophic lack of a duenna. you and Leon had been impulsive, and that impulse condemned them to a union forged not in affection, but in frantic damage control. Their families, pale with the threat of social ruin, brokered the match. They recited vows of eternal love before the altar, two practic…