THIRTY-SIX
She smiled through her wedding feast and said all that needed to be said, but inside Portia felt empty. Rudolf would scarcely look at her, and every time she tried to get his attention, she'd find some lord or other already occupying it. He never even noticed when she bade him good night and headed up to her tower room, where she slept alone.
Her days were as dull as when she'd lived in the loft, for she saw so little of him, it was like she had no husband at all. At night, he did not come to her room, or summon her to his, as was his right. Why, she did not even know where he slept, or if he did. The lords never left him alone, and rumours circled, each wilder than the last.
Her men were hers no longer – they'd been pressed into doing things for their lordly fathers. Griev
