The Bride of the Dead Duke

"Marry a dead man. Inherit a fortune. Survive the year."

When destitute gentlewoman Elara Veyne is offered a legal marriage contract to clear her late father’s ruinous debts, the terms seem too simple to refuse: speak her vows before an altar, sign the register, and live at the isolated Blackmere Estate for twelve months. The only catch? Her aristocratic groom, Duke Lucien Ashbourne, died three years ago. Elara arrives expecting an empty title and a crumbling mausoleum. Instead, when the clock strikes midnight, the hearth fire turns ice-blue, the room freezes, and her husband steps out of the shadows. Devastatingly handsome, wickedly arrogant, and very much present, Lucien makes one thing immediately clear: he considers the marriage entirely binding. Armed with sharp wit and flying candlesticks, Elara tries to resist the phantom Duke. But with every midnight visit, Lucien’s touch turns from biting frost to searing heat, and the steady thud of an impossible heartbeat begins to return to his chest. As lingering hostility turns into dangerous obsession, Elara uncovers the blood-soaked truth behind his demise. Lucien wasn't claimed by illness, he was murdered. And the killer walking the halls of Blackmere will gladly slit the throat of his new Duchess to ensure the Duke stays in his grave.