Frida is the last surviving daughter of Count Harkbourne, a family whose daughters are notorious for their short-lived fates.

Through the scheming of the Empress Dowager, she was married off to the emperor’s stepbrother, Duke Daniel Richards.

But right after the wedding, tragedy struck—her husband fell unconscious on the battlefield, and she was left with a barren duchy in the Valley, a land with no fertile fields to sustain them. For three long years, Frida struggled to endure each day as best she could.

Then, as if out of a dream, her husband, Duke Daniel Richards, finally awoke!

And yet…

Was he always this handsome? This strong? This perfect?

Daniel, however, finds himself unsettled by his delicate, serious wife who insists on fulfilling her duties to the letter.

Words that clash with his heart do not sit well with him.

“Because I am a duchess, it is my duty to follow the Duke’s line.”

“A fine family indeed, if duty is all you can speak of.”

“If there is someone else in your heart, please do not hesitate to tell me.”

“You would suggest I bring another woman into my life, after hearing of an illegitimate child I never fathered?”

“If you married me without knowing my circumstances, then this is nothing but a fraudulent marriage!”

“Fraudulent, yes… But, my lady, don’t you think you may have fallen for that deception as well?”

Thus begins the unlikely romance of a duke and duchess—two people clinging to the present, bound by fate, and slowly learning how to support one another.