Prologue
The winds howled, trying to batter its way through the thick, stone walls of the castle.
Somewhere, a new mother clutched the hand of one of her midwives, screaming as she gave one final push.
A few miles away from the castle, another woman in a hovel sang a lullaby to her child, her voice drowned in the storm.
The king stood and watched his wife give birth, a stony expression on his face.
He had a son now. A legitimate son and not a bastard child he would have to claim for his own.
The whole kingdom would know how desperate he had been and how low he had stooped.
He left his wife in the thrones of agony, creeping down to his own chambers where he composed a letter.
“Deliver this,” he said, pressing the envelope into a servant’s hands.
“Now?” The servant blinked, flinching when thunder cracked.
“Immediately.” The king gazed out a window, setting his jaw. “And make sure my orders are followed.”
“What orders, my king?”
“Make sure the woman packs everything she has,” he said, “and make sure she goes far, far away.”
“Your highness—”
“This will not be negotiated. You will take a horse and one carriage.”
“Tonight?”
“And not a moment sooner,” he murmured. “Now, go.”
Then he left the servant and went back to his wife’s chambers, where he sat at her side and smiled down at the red-faced bundle in her arms.
He may have doomed one son, but he had saved everything else that mattered.
