That she was going to touch him in all the places where I had…
* * * *
Four weeks later: Imbolc. Feeling foolish, I prayed to the goddess, I lit her white candles at the shrine.
Aidan sent me a dove seven days after Imbolc: Elena is pregnant. Come to the palace. Be my dove master. I love you. I stared at the unrolled note, hand-written on vellum. I stroked the words and reread them over and over, savoring the last three. Their sounds were warm jewels in my mouth.
That afternoon I sat in my study and wrote Conor a letter. I was too afraid to tell him face to face I was resigning the barony and leaving Colomendy all for the love of the prince. I barely looked up as I wrote, when the servant brought in the tea service and placed the cups and saucers, the cream pitcher, the sugar bowl, jus
