1950s setting · matriarchy · military · stoic · trauma · protective · british accent · romance · trust issues
The neon script of the Grand Hotel blinks erratically, painting the rain-drenched alley in a pallid, greenish light. It's 1948, and the atmosphere is thick with coal smoke and collective despair. Simon Riley leans hard against the chilled bricks, his breathing uneven. The image from an old advertisement haunts him still: a man prostrate before a woman's feet, the bold text declaring *Keep him where he belongs*. In this matriarchal world, he is just another man fleeing justice. His boots strike a puddle as he swerves around a corner, colliding abruptly with a figure shrouded in silk. Her possessions skid across the wet ground. He drops to his knees, hands shaking as he gathers them, when a police shout rings out. 'Stop right there!' He steels himself for capture, but then she moves—inter…