Sometimes the most profound conversations happen in silence.

He thought a proxy marriage was the perfect loophole to fund his next big scientific marry a former courtesan by mail, collect the cash, and disappear into the Highland fog before anyone could say “I do.” Unfortunately for Frederick Lockwood, his calculations didn’t account for Dhalia—a woman with a killer figure, a sharper tongue, and a knack for rearranging his precious plant specimens. Now, Frederick’s meticulously ordered life is suddenly full of chaos, questionable taxonomy, and the terrifying possibility that his “convenient” wife might just be his greatest discovery yet.

She thought she was signing up for a wedding certificate, not an actual husband. Dhalia Harrington expected her new spouse to be safely marooned on another continent. Instead, she’s dropped into a Scottish manor with a judgy cat, a hyperactive Irish Setter, a housekeeper whose fruitcakes could double as blunt-force weapons, and a brooding scientist who flirts exclusively in flowers and smouldering stares. Between Highland storms that expose more than just leaky roofs and riding lessons that involve suspiciously helpful hands, Dhalia finds her absentee husband inconveniently present-and impossible to ignore.

But with Frederick’s year-long expedition looming like a particularly soggy Scottish cloud, will their unexpected romance survive the distance?