Once she had said to her mother,
“You have such pretty gowns, Mama, and no one ever sees them except Papa. Would you like to go to a ball and have everyone see how enchanting you look?”
Her mother had laughed.
“I had all that once in my life and I found it only fairly interesting, but nothing like the happiness I have here with your father and when he tells me I look beautiful that is all I want.”
Calina knew that the happiness she could see in her mother’s eyes and the way she spoke made it quite clear that she was utterly and completely content with the quiet life she had chosen.
She had no regrets for what she had given up when she had run away.
‘That is love, real love,’ Calina said now to herself. ‘Perhaps it is something I shall never find.’
Even as she thought about it some
