The Paradox: The Soldier and the Mystic — Suzette Hollingsworth

A Victorian closet psychic's powers destroy her dreams and outcast her from society.

The Captain of the Princess Royals' 7th Dragoon Guards' life is in grave danger when he unknowingly kills an Egyptian friend in the Battle of Tel-El-Kebir, winning Egypt and the Suez Canal for Britain, creating two orphans in the process, and placing his life in the balance.

The much anticipated day of Miss Alita Stanton's presentation to society at the Queen's Ball in Buckingham Palace, a day which should have been the fulfillment of her dreams is instead her ruination: while on the ballroom floor, a vision of a powerful Black Panther dying on a desultory foreign battlefield overtakes her.

Outcast and ruined from recounting her vision, Alita must travel to a fashionable venue to save her societal standing. Once in Egypt, she meets the last person she wants to see: Val Huntington, the fifth earl of Ravensdale. Who is, coincidentally, the Black Panther of her vision and the man of her dreams.

Miss Stanton is compelled to warn Lord Ravensdale of danger both physical and metaphysical. She knows that he must hear her message to procure his future--which will necessarily be the end to hers: the academic earl of Ravensdale and Princess Royals' captain will not marry a quack or a soothsayer.

Alita must choose between her happiness--and his.