Arsenic, Aprons, and Aristocrats
By @john1208
Mabli Cinder has three rules for surviving the ruthless streets of Morvan: never look an elite in the eye, always protect her little brother Kip, and don't question why her muscle memory allows her to casually suplex armed guards. After a disastrous alleyway scuffle ends in a frantic rooftop chase, Mabli ducks into the service entrance of the Vossen Estate and brazenly pretends to be the newly hired scullery maid.
Her new boss is Dash Vossen, an icy, paranoid industrial tycoon who hasn't eaten a full meal since his former fiancée slipped arsenic into his tea. He is terrifying, grumpy, and slowly starving to death. But when Dash catches Mabli wildly dancing in the kitchen while frying up greasy, garlic-heavy peasant food, something cracks in his frozen exterior. Soon, he's addicted to her cooking and her shameless, sunny cheek. He finds himself ruthlessly defending his bizarre new maid against his snobby childhood friend, Lady Arabella. But as Mabli's lethal combat instincts keep saving Dash's life from real assassins, she begins to uncover a terrifying truth. Did her forgotten past self deliberately orchestrate this entire infiltration?
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