The Proxy Bride
READING AGE 16+
Mira Vale was never supposed to marry Aldric Voss. Her sister was. But Ada is gone, and the treaty needs a bride, so Mira rides into Vauntholm under her sister's name and marries the man whose family blames hers for a field of dead men.
Aldric is cold from the first night. He gives her a room, a household that watches her, and a warning she does not understand. He does not touch her, does not trust her, and does not pretend the marriage is anything but a border agreement written in a woman's body. Mira tells herself she can live with that. She has survived worse in a dream she cannot explain.
Then a locked casket becomes a test, a cup is poured that should not be, and she begins to see that someone in Aldric's house wants the proxy bride gone before the peace can hold.
What grows between Mira and Aldric is not easy and not quick. It is built out of suspicion, small mercies, and the things neither of them says. But in a hall where every kindness can be a trap, wanting him may be the most dangerous thing she does.
Heads-up: poison, hostile marriage, and political violence.
Unfold
The Send-Off
The candle had drowned in its own fat while it was still dark. She heard the wick go — a small wet sound, then nothing — and did not get up to trim it. The red hangings went from red to the color of brown paper, and then the window came up gray.
She sat in the chair with the quilt around her shou……
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