It would have been so easy to accept it. To let herself lean into the warmth of the older woman's concern and admit that she was frightened and exhausted and carrying more than she could bear alone.
More than that, somewhere deep in her heart lurked the shadow of the dream that Baroness Peigi had suggested. Raising children of her own, one to rule the march next, one to return home to Blackwell to take over for her father… the way that Ashlynn's children were supposed to.
That thought alone was enough to pull her from the warm comfort of a cozy fantasy. There would be no happy future for her, not after the things she'd done, or the things she intended to do. And there would be no children for Owain Lothian either. After everything he'd done, she refused to become a vessel for his seed and the mother of yet another Lothian Monster.
