Before the Clock Struck Twelve

Duke Caesar Alderson has always lived by duty—an unwavering pillar of nobility, power, and restraint. Yet, beneath his composed exterior lies an ache he dares not name.Yet that ache has a name:Marianne. Once his childhood companion and loyal servant, she was the only one who saw him beyond his title. But years ago, she left the duchy behind, choosing a life of independence, burying a feeling one should not be never named at all.

Time and distance should have erased her from his heart. Instead, the absence festers into longing, an unspoken torment that only grows when fate brings her back into his world. But Marianne is no longer the girl who once looked at him with quiet reverence—she is a woman who has tasted freedom and refuses to surrender it.

When fate brings them together once more, their carefully buried emotions resurface. Caesar finds himself consumed by a slow-burning desire that teeters between devotion and obsession. As the seasons pass, so does the fragile boundary between them. What begins as a slow rekindling of familiarity turns into a desperate pull neither can ignore. Yet, the weight of duty and the divide of class loom over them, forcing them into a love that is both forbidden and inescapable.

But as longing battles with pride, and power clashes with freedom, one question remains—will love triumph over the barriers of status, or will it destroy them both?