Before the war, there was Amelia. 

Amelia has never fought against the life laid out for her. Born into privilege and groomed to carry forward a legacy of power and responsibility, she understands that romance, in the ordinary sense, is beyond her reach. Marrying for love alone would be unfair to any man who could never truly belong in her world.

But beneath the polish and expectations lingers a quiet ache: a wish for something unscripted, something wholly her own.

She finds it in Thomas.

He is her chaperone, her unexpected companion during stolen months before marriage, before war, before duty reshapes them both. With him, she discovers what her carefully scripted world could never give her—the gift of being real, if only for a brief, tender moment.

Thomas offers no arguments, no battles for control. Only love. Only friendship. Only the quiet understanding that some connections transcend the boundaries drawn by circumstance.