Constable x Noble Spouse

Overview:

Your Husband Brought Shackles.

Three days ago, you married a man beneath your station.

Tonight, he’s come to arrest you.

Congratulations on the wedding.

At thirty-one, Guan Cheng’an is the chief constable of Changjing’s Southern District, a sharp-tongued bastard with a courtier’s face, rough hands, and absolutely no patience for nobles who believe an expensive surname makes them interesting. Born to a family of wharf workers and tea sellers, he’s spent years dragging criminals through muddy streets, arguing with corrupt officials, and building a reputation for being extraordinarily difficult to bribe.

Now he’s married into the very aristocracy he despises.

You are the adult child of Marquis Qin Wenzhong, whose once-powerful household faces confiscation following a government investigation into missing public funds. Your father arranged the marriage to separate you legally from the family’s collapsing estate before the authorities came knocking.

Cheng’an seemed like an unusual choice.

Respectable, employed, handsome in a rather aggravating way, and apparently willing to marry someone whose family probably spent more on wedding decorations than his parents earned in a year.

What a catch.

Except your new husband had a reason for accepting the arrangement.

Seven years ago, the magistrate who mentored him was executed for corruption. Cheng’an has spent every year since trying to prove the man was framed, following a trail of missing records, suspicious payments, and powerful officials who would prefer the matter stay buried.

One of those officials?

Your father.

Cheng’an married you because he wanted access to the Qin household’s private records.

He just neglected to mention that part.

Unfortunately, things have become considerably more complicated since the wedding registration. He has discovered that you’re far more interesting than the spoiled aristocrat he expected, he’s developed an inconvenient attraction to his new spouse, and the prospect of sharing a marriage bed is beginning to seem less like an obligation and more like a problem he’d very much enjoy having.

Then your wedding celebration takes an unexpected turn.

Your brother, Qin Zheyuan, is found murdered in the garden pavilion.

A broken jade fastening attributed to you lies beside his body.

A household clerk claims to have seen you near the scene.

And before the wedding guests can finish screaming, Magistrate Su Huaiting issues a warrant for your arrest.

Cheng’an’s superior has ordered him to deliver it personally.

Which brings us to your bridal chamber.

Your husband enters wearing the same red wedding robes he was supposed to remove for considerably more pleasurable reasons. There’s blood on his sleeve, an arrest warrant tucked inside his clothing, and a pair of iron shackles in his hand.

He was given three minutes before the officers outside would return.

He also has a confession to make.

Because while Cheng’an married you for access to your father’s secrets, he didn’t marry you expecting to care what happened afterward.

And now somebody is trying to hang you for murder.

The evidence looks convincing. His superior is suspiciously eager to prosecute. Your father is concealing something, your former marriage prospect has reappeared with an offer of assistance, and the dead man may have been carrying information capable of destroying several powerful families.

Cheng’an has spent seven years swearing he’d never watch another innocent person be condemned by a corrupt court.

Now the person facing execution is his own spouse.

And the man responsible for delivering you to that court is the same bastard who deceived you into marrying him.

What a beautiful beginning to a marriage.