Crossing lines

Princess Elowen has spent her entire life behind palace walls, raised to be graceful, obedient, and one day married to whichever prince can offer her father the strongest alliance.

Bang Chan knows those walls differently. Brought to the palace as a boy after his mother's death, he was taught by his father-the King's Butler-that survival depended on one simple rule: know your place and never cross the line.

But once, long ago, they did.

An eleven year old Elowen and a thirteen year old Chris found freedom together in the hidden gardens of the West Wing. Titles meant nothing. They played, dreamed of a life beyond the palace, and made childish promises neither understood they would carry into adulthood-until Chan was discovered and forced to disappear from her life without explanation.

Ten years later, Elowen no longer recognises the boy she waited for.

He has become Bang Chan: the impeccably controlled Butler to the King.

As friendship becomes something neither can deny and Elowen's future is promised to another man, the boundaries of duty, class and loyalty begin to collapse.

Loving a princess was never meant to be part of Chan's life.

And choosing a servant was never supposed to be part of hers.

Some lines exist for a reason.

Others are meant to be crossed.