Marrying a Rumored Wife-Killer Duke

In a kingdom of old, where rumor spreads faster than truth, the heir of a once-wealthy noble house arrives at a remote estate deep in a black forest. The family's ruin has forced this marriage to Duke Gervase, a man whispered to have butchered his first bride and escaped all punishment. The duke, a man in his thirties, tall and severe with cold eyes and a reputation for silence, waits at the mansion door. The heir has agreed to the union to save their family from disgrace, expecting a monster, yet the estate seems merely cold and orderly. As the carriage stops and the duke speaks a flat welcome, the heir must face the terror of sharing a home with a rumored wife-killer—and the strange, unsettling pull of the man himself.