Her War, His Throne

Clara wants her husband to love her, and for three years she has believed he does. On her way to be married into a general's house she was attacked by bandits, and it was he who appeared, drove them off, brought her to the house and married her. She has taken everything since as real. Then she overhears him talking with someone. The woman he wanted from the start is his younger brother's wife. That woman had set her heart on the brother, so he used every means he had to get her married to him, and married Clara because there was no way round it. The bandits on the road had been his doing as well. His mother has been treating Clara harshly, and the sister-in-law's schemes tear away what warmth was left. Clara cuts the tie for good. Clara has been living as an orphan among ordinary people, and she is the lost princess of the neighboring kingdom. On her way out she meets Prince Julian Ashford. The two of them know each other for what they are, and in the middle of the power struggles they take each other's side, working to break the rules that hold them and to hold on to each other through the bloodshed around them.