London, 1877. At a time when a woman who chooses to practice medicine must battle both prejudice and disease, Doctor Rhaena Arlen has learned not to ask permission to live by her own rules. Intelligent, independent, and hardly inclined to let convention dictate her life, she has achieved what once seemed impossible: carving out a place for herself among the men of English medicine.
Then Oswald Marlowe appears.
Reserved, elegant, and difficult to decipher, Oswald moves through London with the freedom of a man who knows too many secrets. A former detective and now an agent for confidential investigations, he carries an unsettling reputation and a life he would rather keep far away from any woman who might come to matter to him.
The attraction between them is immediate, but what follows is far from as simple as either of them expected.
Oswald pulls away.
Rhaena cannot understand why.
What appears to be indifference conceals reasons he cannot reveal, and every new encounter between them makes it harder to maintain the distance Oswald has imposed upon himself. A professional visit, a chance meeting in the streets of London, a mission that places them face-to-face once again... little by little, Rhaena begins to suspect that the circumstances drawing them together may not be as coincidental as they seem.
Meanwhile, Oswald finds himself caught in a web of espionage, corruption, and political ambition that reaches into places where the law can barely penetrate. The closer he gets to the truth, the greater the danger becomes for everyone who might be connected to him.
Amid secrets, blood, power, and an attraction neither of them can suppress, they will both discover that some bonds do not break simply because we try to walk away from them.
Sometimes, the harder we struggle against a thread, the more deeply it becomes entwined with our own.
And perhaps the true challenge is not escaping destiny, but daring to choose it.
