If One Covets That Which Shines

The noble and beautiful treasure of the kingdom, Princess Cordelia.
When a half-brother who coveted the throne staged a rebellion, the world she knew crumbled, and she was forced to marry a man of lowly birth.

“It seems you have not grasped the situation.”
“What?”
“You are royalty, that is true, but you are royalty without power right now. You have been locked up here all day long, so you should know, right? You are in no position to snap at me like that.”

The vulgar and heartless Ian Lakenon, the loyal dog of her traitor brother.
Even if she was forcibly bound to that insolent man of humble origins, she would never open her heart to him. She had made that vow clearly.
But whether she liked it or not, as the time the two spent together as husband and wife grew longer, a strange feeling began to take root in Cordelia’s heart.

“From the very first moment I saw you, I thought you were the most beautiful person in the world.”

Who in the world could have truly known?
That the man who had been as rough and dry as grains of sand would offer her such a burning confession while looking at her.
And that her firm vow would waver at that confession, truly, was something no one had anticipated.