\Found on the author's website as a Free Read\ In the prequel to the Love & War series: Two families locked in a bloody and endless conflict. The king’s demand for a marriage of convenience to end the war. And a man and a woman, both determined to make their union work.

Beautiful, headstrong Madeleine of Elford has picked her husband. Unfortunately her family disagrees. When her father organizes a tournament to parade alternative suitors in front of Madeleine, she is outraged but determined to stay true. Childhood nemesis, Thomas of Draycott, arrives at Elford and from the moment they meet again, tests her resolve. A skilled warrior, handsome and honorable, Thomas is her father’s favorite, and only has to be near Madeleine for sparks of all kinds to ignite. Thomas remembers Madeleine well from fostering at Elford, and even his desperate need for a rich wife would not persuade him to woo a woman who hates him. Except Madeleine is all grown up and Thomas is experiencing strong feelings of a most inconvenient kind. And Madeleine doesn’t appear to hate him after all. Battle lines are blurred, as enemies become lovers, in the Betrothal Melee...