Chapter 3
I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. After the storm of emotions passed, my thoughts turned to my children.
I couldn’t help but worry about how Rosamund would raise them.
With that in mind, “Mariette,” I said, “tell Edric’s tutor he’s excused. Bring my son to me.”
I sat in the garden, waiting for Edric.
Less than a quarter of an hour later, he arrived.
His hair reaches the level of his ears and looks very smooth, his cheeks still round with childhood, though the sharpness of Cedric’s features was beginning to show.
Yet he didn’t look happy to see me.
Mariette gently reminded him,
“My lord, this is your birth mother.”
He lowered his head, reluctantly muttering,
“Mother.”
I gazed at him silently, my eyes welling up with tears.
When I had left, he was only one year old, still a child in swaddling clothes. Now, he had grown so much.
I trembled slightly as I reached out to touch his cheek.
He flinched away.
I let my arm fall, forcing calm into my voice.
“All these years, how have your father and Lady Blackthorn treated you?”
He replied, “My father has been busy with promotions and rarely has time for me. But Lady Blackthorn has been very kind. She remembers my likes and always prepares my meals. She even personally hired the teacher who tutors me.”
When he mentioned Rosamund, his eyes brightened.
A pang of bitterness shot through my heart.
But at least, Rosamund hadn’t mistreated him.
I managed a faint smile.
He looked up at me and asked,
“But mother, why have you come back?”
The smile on my lips faltered.
He didn’t notice and continued,
“What will Lady Blackthorn do now?”
I pushed down the emotions bubbling within me and replied calmly,
“She is your father’s wife. That will not change.”
He asked again,
“And what about you, mother?”
I said,
“I too remarried. But I’ve never forgotten you and Lysette. I’ve returned to ask about you…”
Before I could finish, Edric looked at me in shock and quickly interrupted,
“Remarried?”
I nodded.
His eyes widened in anger.
“After years missing, your reputation is ruined! Who would even take you? And what right does such a man have to call himself my stepfather?”
Cedric was right.
Edric no longer recognized me.
He had become a stranger to me.
I stared at him, trying to read his expression.
“Who taught you to say such things?”
He simply pressed his lips tightly together, refusing to speak.
In that moment, I knew the answer. My heart sank with disappointment, and I said,
“Since I’m here now,” I said quietly, “it’s time you had a new tutor.”
Edric scowled.
“If you’ve remarried, you’ve no say in Blackthorn Keep’s affairs.”
With every word, it became clearer—he’d been poisoned against me.
Yet the guilt lingered. I hadn’t been there. So I unfastened the pendant at my belt and held it out.
“If you ever regret these words,” I said, “bring this to me. As your mother, I’ll help you once. But there will be conditions.”
For a long moment, he hesitated.
Then he took it.
