Ren
November 18, 1842
Marcus Renfield Halden, Ninth Duke of Caversham was about to be brought to tears for exactly the fourth time in his fifty-three years. Gazing down at the beautiful young lady on his arm one last time as they reached the altar at the front of the small chapel at Lyden Castle, he swallowed that hard lump threatening to turn an old man into a watering pot.
Minutes earlier, as they were walking into the chapel, his daughter stopped on a step, mid-stride. She breathed slowly, deeply, as though fighting an imaginary fear that popped into her head with that last gust of breeze.
Looking down at her, her expressive brown eyes were swimming in tears, which she blotted with the linen square she had been hiding in the pocket of her white fur cape. “I know it isn’t rational to
