He was silent for a time, eyes transfixed in the hearth for several measured heartbeats. Peytra worried she had struck a nerve. Then he swallowed and answered, “While I was a very young child, I did not. I remember being frightened by the prospect that my mother’s attention would go to someone else. Then when she left, I remember wishing that there were others there to share in my father’s wrath, that I did not take on all of it. When my father died, I cursed that I never had an older brother to take on the responsibilities of a dukedom. I resented that I had been born alone then.
“To be fair, I had a type of siblinghood. Marcus has been with me, and we love and fight like brothers. I’ve often felt that Elle was a sort of sister, and Gani as well. But now I am overjoyed to be marrying int
