A Heart Closed to Love

In her first life, Katherine married James Wesley, a man who had hated her for a decade after his childhood sweetheart, Emily Hill, took her own life. He requested a transfer to the frontier the day after their wedding, and for ten years her letters went unanswered. After he died saving her from bandits, his last words were that marrying her was his greatest regret. Blamed by his parents, Felicia Axford and Jeremiah Wesley, and by Commander Xavier Bowen, she swallowed pesticide and died.

She wakes on the day before her marriage, determined to fulfill everyone's wishes. She writes Emily Hill's name on the marriage application and resolves to repay James for saving her, then part ways forever. Yet when news arrives that something has happened to Emily, James asks whether she is jealous, and she must hide the bitterness of a love that once cost her everything.