Poppies & Roses: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast

It's 1918, and the world is at war. Lieutenant Lord David Montgomery barely escaped a deadly hand-to-hand encounter in the trenches, and as he lies in the hospital he receives a mysterious visit from a hedgewitch in the dead of night. She curses his battle wounds to never heal until he learns to love and finds love in return. Weak and shellshocked, he is sent home to England, but his war-depleted household is unable to care for him and keep the manor in one piece at the same time. David's housekeeper insists on hiring a private nurse. Reluctantly, he agrees, not knowing what whoever comes will make of the unnatural nature of his injuries. Clara Prescott just needs to continue earning a wage while she recuperates from the horrific ambulance accident that broke her leg. She accepts a position caring for the lord of her home town in England despite the bad memories coming back stirs up. Clara is an excellent nurse thanks to the secret training as a hedgewitch she received while she was a girl. Even though that training abruptly ended with her mother's death, she does her best with the knowledge she has. She knows returning is a risk given her tarnished reputation in town, but all she has to do is survive until her leg heals and then she can go back to Flanders.But Clara has no idea just how perfect she is for this particular job...