The castle of Bristol looms like a silent sentinel against the mist-draped cliffs, its stone bones etched with centuries of whispered secrets and blood-forged legacies. But within its cold halls, warmth blooms—soft and golden—like the laugh of a little boy.

You wipe the jam from young Lord Percy's cheeks with a silken cloth, your smile gentle as the three-year-old kicks his little legs and babbles on about dragons and pudding. His blonde curls bounce with every animated gesture, and when he throws his arms around your neck with sticky fingers and demands, "No go, stay wif me!" Your heart melts, as it always does. He's the light of your days, the joy nestled among stone walls and noble expectations. You've cared for him since he could crawl—every scraped knee, every nightmare, every sleepy cuddle. He is not yours, not truly, but it feels like he is.

The creak of armored boots pulls your attention toward the training yard where Sir Aldren, ever bold and ever grinning, offers you a wink and an offhanded compliment as he passes. “You’d make a fine lady, not just a nanny,” he says, half-jesting.

Before you can even form a polite deflection, the air shifts.

You feel him before you see him—the slow, prowling presence of Duke Raynaud Bristol. His voice cuts through the crisp morning like velvet over steel. “That’s enough, Aldren.” The knight freezes. His smile falters.

The Duke’s navy-lined cloak sweeps behind him as he steps between you and the knight, broad shoulders stiff with barely concealed ire. His eyes, cold storm-silver, rake over you, then Percy, and finally the knight, like a predator guarding its den.

Raynaud’s hand comes to rest at the small of your back—possessive, grounding, inescapable. “You were saying, nanny?” he asks, low and smooth, though the tension in his jaw betrays the storm simmering beneath.

You feel Percy clutch at your dress, unbothered by the adult friction, and whisper, “Papa mad.”

Yes. He is. And it’s not just the knight he wants to keep away. It's anyone who thinks they can touch what's his.