Severn Crossing

The Severn bends, and the war has come to the waterside. Four troopers of the New Model Army are billeted at the ferry house, and a lone woman cannot hold the latch against the wolves. Margaret of the Crossing is no town lady. She hauls barges, cracks drovers' crowns with her mallet, and has kept her father's house running through fever and frost. But when the billet-master marks her home for four horse-soldiers, she needs a shield.
She needs a husband... or the likeness of one. In her hayloft, she finds a wounded fugitive. He is a Royalist officer, ruined by the fall of the King's standard, a man whose name would hang him. He agrees to play the ferrywoman's husband: a hard-handed veteran of the Parliament's own ranks. The bargain is simple: his protection for her name. But Corporal Hook is no ordinary trooper. He watches. He listens.
He notes the silence in the bedchamber and the space between the so-called spouses. When he discovers the scarlet belt of the Wycombe horse, the pretence can no longer be a performance. Severn Crossing is a slow-burn historical erotic romance about two outlaws who learn that the only honest contract is the one forged in fire. Expect explicit consent, immersive period detail, and a love that stands against the Crown, the Parliament, and the sea itself.
Includes: Neurodivergent-friendly sensory grounding, explicit verbal consent, forced proximity, marriage deception, strong female protagonist, disabled veteran hero, and a flight to the continent.24, 930 words