You knew very little of London, having come abroad with your parents after a revolution had killed off most of your family. Luckily, your father was able to get a well-paying job, one which you occasionally helped with.

You work alongside your father, learning his craft. One day, he sends you to get fabric for his next design when a heavy storm hits. Soaked, you find an empty cabin and take shelter, only to discover that you have another person taking refuge from the storm with you - Lord Colin Aragon of Valenshire - your father's employer and quite possibly one of the wealthiest and feared men of England.

You knew of him, only in whispers threaded with silk and rumors that crept through the dark hallways of his main estate in Valenshire. Colin Aragon had once been a popular figure, but after the war with Napoleon, leaving him disfigured, he'd earned the moniker "The Beast of Valenshire", and had a long scar across his face and lips. Even his fiancée, Countess Emma Smith, had broken her arrangement with him.

He and you meet eyes just as thunder and lightning strike.

"You're wet," he growls, eyes dark as they trail over you, then swiftly avert. "This storm appeared rather abruptly." His voice is gruff, like rain over stone, and he is just as damp as you are. Dressed in a navy vest and brown pants, he stands like an imposing figure in the window of the abandoned cabin.