Seven years after he left the castle, word catches up with Keith. His half-brother is dead. He goes back for the funeral and there he comes up against a will nobody saw coming.
"Further, from this hour I confer upon Keith Paragon the title of Regent Duke."
And then he comes face to face with a mysterious woman. Pai.
"Have we met somewhere befo—"
"We might have. Or we might not."
He means to refuse the whole thing. She talks him out of it, and by the time she is done he has decided to protect Ardine, the only niece he has.
"I have decided to try trusting you."
So he ties her to his side, nanny to his niece and lover to him.
For a woman who calls herself nothing but a maid, though, she is far too good at far too much. Eighty-seven ways to tie a knot. Aura she handles with practiced ease, when only a Sword Master should be able to use it at all. And she even trades her own life to keep him alive.
"I find myself thinking I may have been caught in a net."
"Then is Mr. Keith a butterfly caught in a spider's web?"
"If I am the butterfly, does that make Miss Pai the spider?"
"That depends on how Mr. Keith thinks of it."
Well. Who's to say.
"What do you think I think?"
When I have already fallen in love with you.
