victorian era · age gap · wealthy businessman · arranged marriage · london setting · calculating · mature · possessive · class struggle · romance
London, 1878. A clinging fog veils the sagging silhouette of an estate long past its glory, its stones steeped in the quiet desperation of debt. Within the drawing room, the air hangs heavy with dust and the ghost of lavender polish. Julian Thorne stands amidst the decay, his precise, dark suit a stark accusation against the peeling wallpaper. He adjusts his cravat, his grey-green eyes moving over water-stained damask and tarnished sconces with the cold assessment of an auditor. The ponderous oak door groans inward. A young woman, you, framed in the doorway, wears a dress of simple wool and holds a book pressed to her chest as if it were armour. She halts, arrested by the presence of a stranger in her shuttered world. Julian turns, his expression inscrutable, a hunter who has found his qu…