Chapter 31

Rowena smiled. “My son is like all men when it comes to women. They are weak and easily seduced by—”

“I did not seduce your son!” Elowyn shouted. “Do you believe me proud to be a slave? To know that my choices are no longer my own, and that I can no longer act of my own free will?”

She held the bed sheets tightly against her chest, her cheeks flushed and her eyes flashing.

“Do you think it pleases me to be in love with your son, and know that I am nothing more to him than the whore who warms his bed? Do you think I enjoy constantly wondering when he will grow tired of me and what will become of me then?”

Her voice caught in her throat, but she stared dry-eyed at Alaric’s mother.

“I have no doubt that Alaric will bend to your wishes and marry Rosamund. He will abandon my bed for hers, but I guess I should be happy that he will likely keep me on as a nanny to the children she will bear for him.”

She gave Rowena a pleading look. “I have no desire to