His shoulders drooped as he ascended the stairs and entered the western wing of the castle. He stopped in front of his mother’s room. It had been locked ever since her death. It was only after his father had died that he, Brodie, and Aiden had found the key and seen their mother’s chamber for the first time in years.
It had become a lovely tomb, missing only their mother’s body lying nobly on the bed in a state of eternal repose. The wide windows allowed moonlight to fill the room, washing the soft colors of the robin’s-egg blue walls almost white. The birch carved four-poster bed was still there, and motes of dust swirled in eddies in the moonlight. He trod lightly and respectfully into the room. It felt almost as though his mother were still there, a hint of her perfume, the echo of a l
