Meet Constance.
Before becoming a princess, she was merely a maid -- washing dishes by day, sleeping upon a bookshelf in the village library by night. She expected neither wealth nor pomp in this life. Never hoped to find a prince who longed to find her. Never even believed a happily ever after was possible.
She should have trusted her instincts.
In the days after her wedding, when life was meant to be settled and complete, dark clouds of war begin to blot out the sunrise. When her new husband, the Captain of the Guard, is forced to march into battle, the accounts of his exploits are horrible -- but even more terrifying is the day his letters stopped coming.