In a handful of days, Elspeth Shutterhouse must step into the marriage machine, which will dull her ambitions and join her forever to a complete stranger. She would rather be sent to the Norsea work camps than be turned into a baby-making drone. Instead of following the dictates of her repressive society, Elspeth puts everything on the line to destroy the contraption...never guessing she will come face-to-face with the one person who could stop her: handsome Mark Ramsay, the scion of the family that invented the machine. Jules Verne collides with Jane Austen in this truly different novella by award-winning author Patricia Simpson as she introduces her new series, The Londo Chronicles.

She felt the beast watching her... After street rat Veronique Wilder's mentor is killed, she has nowhere to go. She lands a job playing piano in a gentleman's club, just to get by until her audition for the new Citizen Symphony. If she is chosen for the symphony, she will never be cold or hungry again. When thugs accost Vernonique after her first public appearance, she is taken under the wing of mysterious Colonel Brandt. He believes her life may be in danger and cautions her to not to play in public again. He also claims the symphony competition is a ruse. Veronique doesn't want to believe Roman. Her dreams will be dashed. But what if he's right? Can she trust him? He's the strangest man she's ever met. He looks young but seems much older. And he was there the night her mentor was killed. Her head tells her to run. But her heart longs for the music that only Roman can play.