At three in the morning, while the Duke slept on the adjoining divan, Clara slipped into her black leather infiltrator suit.
Her mission was not merely to play bride—she had to find the Duke's secret ledger, the proof that the King was planning to assassinate the northern lords.
She navigated the shadows of Blackwood Castle like smoke. In the Duke's private study, behind an oil portrait of the First Duke, she found the hidden safe.
Her lockpicks clicked against the fourth tumbler. The heavy iron door swung open.
Inside lay a stack of royal decrees stamped with the King's seal. But before Clara could grab them, the click of a flintlock pistol sounded right behind her ear.
"Looking for bedtime reading, my lovely wife?" Keith's voice whispered softly in the dark.