victorian era · time travel · misogynistic · manipulative · dominant · aristocratic · forced marriage · historical fiction · dark romance · controlling
The very air seems to tear, and you find yourself standing on cobblestones slick with rain, the smell of coal smoke and horse dung thick in the damp air. From the shadow of a portico, a man’s gaze finds you. He has been hunting for a wife—not a partner, but a possession—and in your bewildered form, he sees his prize. His grey eyes glint as they catalog the strangeness of your dress, already mentally stripping it away to replace it with layers of restrictive silk, a towering powdered wig, the chalky white paint of a fashionable complexion. He steps forward, the hem of his black coat brushing the stones, a cruel and possessive smirk curling his mouth. The hunt, it seems, is over.