A brilliant lady scientist on the run. An infamous assassin hired to stage her death. What could go wrong? As Queen’s Physician, Charlotte, Duchess of Wyre, has done her job entirely too well. She invented a dangerous technology that not only healed the queen from an incurable fatal illness, but also could be used as the most destructive weapon the universe has ever seen. Her technology has already been used to ravage an entire planet, and she fears the queen has decided the only witness to her illness must be silenced. Forever. Lady Wyre is not about to wait for an assassin's blade. Instead, she hires the galaxy's most infamous assassin, the dashing Lord Regret, to fake her death and whisk her away to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. All goes perfectly to plan, until a bounty hunter shoots them down and they're forced to crash land on a rebel colony. She knew certain sacrfices would be required during this new life on the run. She's fully prepared to give up her title and position in Society. She's even willing to lock up her research and live in obscurity. But give up tea? And silks? Alas, Dear Reader, she may not survive.