She's the illegitimate daughter of a bankrupt baron, about to be sold off to settle debts. He's a northern count who needs a wife to secure his claim before the royal court strips his title — any wife, immediately. A purely political arrangement. Except his county is on the empire's border, and the "barbarians" he's supposed to be fighting are people she grew up with. Now she's caught between loyalty to people who actually cared for her and a husband who's far less cold than he pretends.