The Blackwood Bargain
When Elara Vance opens her grandmother's letter, she expects grief. Instead, she finds a summons, to a village she's never visited, a solicitor who's been waiting for her, and a last will that leaves her everything: the decaying grandeur of Blackwood House, its tangled gardens, its locked east wing, and its debts. There's just one catch. The inheritance comes with terms, and the terms come with a man. He's been guarding the estate's secrets longer than anyone will admit, and he isn't about to hand them over to a stranger, no matter whose blood runs in her veins. As rain hammers the high street and old rivalries resurface, Elara discovers that her grandmother's will was never really about property. It was about protection. About a promise made decades ago that someone in this village would kill to keep buried. Every answer Elara uncovers pulls her deeper into the Blackwood legacy, and closer to the one person she shouldn't trust. Now she must choose: walk away from the house, the history, and the man who makes staying feel like both surrender and salvation, or sign her name to a bargain that could cost her heart, her freedom, and everything her grandmother died trying to shield her from.