Across Dark Seas (Beneath Black Sails, #0.5)

by Clare Sager

“Lady Avice Ferrers,” he said, voice low and private again, “being here, away from family means I haven’t yet asked your father, but if you consent, I’ll go and beg him if I have to. First, though, I beg you”—he went to one knee, hands engulfing hers—“do me the honour of becoming my wife.”

His chin lifted, and he looked down his nose at her, a vein at his temple throbbing. “You will speak only when spoken to. Is that understood?”

Avice’s father is scum

She looked like a piece of jewellery. A bauble—pretty, expensive, but ultimately useless. Exactly as she’d always feared.

That’s all it was to Papa—a business transaction. She was a valuable object sold off to secure his alliance with the Villiers family.

She wasn’t too wild, too bold, too loud. She was just right.