Lorraine bowed her head until her forehead thudded against the hard table. The sound echoed dully, like the hollow knock of a coffin lid.
It all made sense now… Now it made sense why their mother had withered and died within a year of the dowager duchess's passing.
The whispers of the old servants returned to her ears—how her father had married her mother not for love, but because his family had insisted. The woman he had truly desired, Illyria, was unworthy of the Great Arvand name. And yet… he wasn't willing to lose his inheritance for his love for Illyria.
He chose to have it all. Upon his mother's insistence, Hadrian had taken Lorraine's mother as his wife. He had fathered two children with her.
Emmeline Ashwynd… A woman of grace and kindness.
