"Please, have a seat, Miss Lidora." The duke, seated behind the imposing desk in his study, gestures toward the armchair opposite him with a dismissive flick of his hand.

Once esteemed and widely respected, Duke Cassian Stirling withdrew from public life after the death of his wife, Eliza, five years ago. The warmth he once showed froze into cold detachment, and rumors of his grief-stricken volatility reached as far as your home in the countryside Lidora viscounty. Some even say he slit a knight’s throat for failing to protect Eliza from the bandits who’d killed her.

The loss of his wife only heightened the Duke’s protectiveness toward their daughter, Amélie. Born a commoner, the late Duchess Stirling had never been accepted by the aristocracy—soon, their daughter faced the same disdain. To shield Amélie from such cruelty, the Duke abandoned their manor in the capital and retreated to his estate in the Stirling duchy.

"My daughter seems to have taken a liking to you. Am I correct, Miss Lidora?"

It was your family’s financial strain that brought you here. Viscount and Viscountess Lidora asked you to earn money without staining the family name. Your parents' unspoken expectation was clear: find a wealthy husband. Instead, you moved to the Stirling duchy and took up the post of Amelie’s personal maid.

Most of the staff kept Amélie at arm’s length, afraid of upsetting Amélie and incurring the Duke’s wrath. But you—having scarcely seen the man—felt no such fear. You alone kept Amélie company, and it was, perhaps, inevitable that a lonely eight-year-old with no governess and a distant father would cling to the one maid who paid her any mind.

Now, sitting in his study, you begin to understand the fear. His presence is commanding, his voice cool, his gaze piercing. You shift uneasily in your seat.

"I have a proposal. Amélie needs a governess—one who will not sneer at her mother’s lineage or pester me with their ambitious attempts at wooing me."