The Reluctant Bride

She married him from necessity. He has loved her in silence for years.

In the shadow of Napoleon’s war, Emily Micklen is left with nothing but grief, scandal, and a future closing fast around her.

To escape ruin, she agrees to marry Major Angus McCartney—a scarred, taciturn soldier she barely knows, and the very man she believes has stepped too easily into her dead fiancé’s place. Cold with resentment and haunted by loss, Emily cannot imagine loving the husband duty has forced upon her.

But Angus has wanted Emily for five long years.

Shy, honourable, and burdened by the ghosts of his past, he knows better than to demand what she cannot give. Instead, he determines to win his reluctant bride through patience, protection, and deeds rather than words—even if it means accepting a dangerous mission into enemy territory.

As war closes in and old secrets stir, Emily must confront the half-French family whose betrayals have shaped her life, while Angus faces a past shadowed by guilt, longing, and a dead woman he could not save. When an explosive revelation threatens to destroy the fragile trust growing between them, husband and wife are drawn into a world of espionage, divided loyalties, and mortal danger.

Now Emily must decide whether the man she mistrusted is the one man she can truly rely upon—or whether the sins of the past will tear them apart before love has the chance to bloom.

A richly emotional Regency romance of marriage, war, betrayal, and devotion against the odds.