I lay beside my husband watching him sleep in the dawn light, grateful again for his boundless capacity for forgiveness. Of me in particular. I admit it had been hard to contemplate this beautiful young girl, seemingly a combination of Frances Stuart and Valentina Gentileschi. Sometimes I wish he could be a little less honest. I paused on that thought for a moment. Did I, really, though? When it meant I could trust him implicitly to tell me the truth, however unpalatable. He had given me his word on it after Valentina. Anyway, Hal had already said how lovely she was after their visit and that Raphael had charmed her. Something else that seemed innate in him. Of course, my interest in her appearance came in some part from thinking of my own. Though that I carried his child, enchanted him. W
