My vision dimmed for a heartbeat, my heart hammering wildly in my chest.
Once, the consort of the late Eldest Princess had disgraced the royal family with his secret affairs.
In his wrath, the former emperor had issued an edict: all imperial clan members, male and female alike, must bear a cinnabar mark on their arm at birth—a seal of their chastity, to be proven unbroken.
But Lord Lucian was known far and wide as a dissolute rake, a lifelong libertine. How could he possibly be chaste?
As if reading the confusion in my eyes, he looked abashed, yet his voice was low and solemn.
"Once, the Eldest Princess's manor wielded unrivaled power in the court. While my uncle lived, he feared my mother's clan bitterly. If I had not feigned this recklessness, this dissolute act, I would have long s
