The trials and tribulations of 16th century France spare no one and no place, not even the City of Fountains…
It’s 1567 in Aix-en-Provence. Oste Lézin, the scandalous leader of a local confraternity, the Order of Saint-Mitre, is a commissioned city doctor at long last. Dorotèa Galoup, a member of the order, carries the secret that she’s the masked duelist who has playfully sparred with him for years. Their friendship and deceptions tarry without trouble until the times catch up with them and leave Oste severely wounded after taking a stand during Reformation conflict.
Though he’s back to work come summer, Oste is displeased to find that his own confraternity sent Dorotèa to assist him with his duties, and even more displeased when he encounters her next to a murder victim her first day on the job. Dorotèa and Oste find themselves working together in a reluctant alliance not only in a desperate bid to get a killer off the Aixois streets, but to find peace in what it means to love and be loved in return
Tropes: Friends to Lovers, MC in Disguise, Touch Him/Her & Die, Cloak & Dagger, Renaissance era, Girls with Swords, Bisexual rep, Disability rep.
Trigger Warnings: Violence, Death, Depictions of dead bodies, references to off-page SA, prejudice.