Prologue

Autumnwood Hall - 1807

" H e's sending me away to school." Sixteen-year-old Hadrian Oakfield sank onto the mossy riverbank beside his best friend, Lady Lilliana Bennett, struggling mightily not to give into his threatening tears. After yet another fight with his father, the Duke of Blackthorn, Hadrian had raced to this, their special spot, and had been relieved to find her waiting for him.

As expected, Lilly's blue eyes widened in shock, and she reached for his hand, squeezing it tightly. "Oh, Hadrian! He wouldn't!"

"He would," Hadrian replied, blinking furiously. "Ever since George died… Everything's changed, Lilly. Nothing I do pleases him. Now that I'm the heir…"

The heir . Until six weeks ago, he had been naught but the spare, left pretty much to his own devices, running wild in Autumnwood Hall's woods with Lilly, who lived on the neighboring estate. But then his brother George, only two years his senior, had been thrown from his horse and broken his neck. Overnight, Hadrian had become the Earl of Whitby, with all the pressure that entailed.

"Your father's still grieving." Lilly scooted closer to him and laid her head on his shoulder. "He doesn't mean to be so cruel."

Hadrian buried his face in the sweet-smelling cloud of Lilly's dark hair, wishing he could believe her but knowing that his father would never forgive God for taking his cherished oldest son and forcing him to leave the vast Blackthorn holdings to Hadrian.

"It should have been you," his father had snarled this afternoon. "You'll never be half the man your brother would have been."

Those words had cut Hadrian to the bone, but he couldn't argue the point. His father was right. He would never live up to George's memory. Why should he even try?

"He says I need a better education than I can get from my tutors here, but I think that's a crock of shite. He didn't send George away. He wanted him here so that he could teach him how to run the estate. I think he just wants me gone. He can't bear the sight of me now," he managed to choke out past the lump in his throat.

The thought of being sent away, of being all alone at some miserable boarding school, terrified him. Autumnwood Hall was all he had really ever known. He would miss Lilly and his little brother, Henry, dreadfully. If his mother was still alive, she wouldn't have let this happen, but she had died from a fever when he was twelve.

"I don't want you to go," Lilly whispered, her voice ragged. "You're all I have, Hadrian. I don't know what I'll do without you."

At least he'd had George and Henry. Lilly was an only child, and her parents weren't any more loving than his father. They'd always found solace in each other. He drew back and stared down at her, hating the tears that swam in her eyes. How could he possibly leave the only person in the world who understood him?

Desperate to change the subject, he did something he had wanted to do for months, ever since he had started to see Lilly not just as his best friend but as the beautiful woman she was becoming. Leaning forward, he pressed his lips lingeringly to hers, stealing his very first kiss and hers as well.

She froze for a moment, but then she made a soft, breathy sound and leaned into him, her fingertips trailing from his cheek to his shoulder, holding him close.

"Oh, Hadrian," she whispered, burying her face in the crook of his neck. "I've wanted you to do that for so long."

"I've wanted it too." All the grief, stress, and anger of the last few weeks fell away as he hugged Lilly tightly. She had always been his safe place, and kissing her had been everything he had hoped it would be. How could he leave her now that they had just begun to explore the passion between them?

"I'll wait for you, Hadrian," she assured him, pulling away and meeting his gaze, her lovely face flushed. "We'll see each other when you come home for breaks, and I'll write to you all the time. You might not be here, but you won't be alone."

"We could run away," he said hoarsely. They'd done it once before, years ago, spending an entire night in the gamekeeper's cottage on her father's estate.

She lifted a trembling hand to his face, gazing at him with such love and pity that it shattered something deep within him. "You don't mean that. We're not children anymore, Hadrian. You have to do your duty."

Duty. He hated that word, too.

Pushing to his feet, he stared at her for a long moment, feeling bereft and betrayed, even though he knew she had been trying to comfort him. But he had meant it. He wanted to escape, to run so far from his fate that it could never find him. Didn't she understand that?

Maybe she really didn't understand him at all.

"I have to go," he muttered, dashing into the trees. He heard her call after him, but he didn't stop. He knew he couldn't truly run away, but he had hoped she'd be on his side, that she'd agree to hide out with him for a while, just until he got his bearings and could handle his father's edict.

Instead, she had just proven he truly was all alone in the world. From now on, he could only count on himself.