James, as the viscount, held the title; James had married not precisely for love but out of friendship, Robert knew, and out of a need for heirs. Maria Herron had not brought much of a dowry but had brought warmth, good cheer, a sense of duty to the title and the production of children, and sparkling friendliness; her death had left silence and an aching hole in their house. James had not married again; Robert genuinely wasn’t sure whether James merely preferred not to return to the state of marriage, or whether his brother had fallen more deeply in love with his wife than Robert had ever seen, or whether the reason was something else altogether.
The romantic story was the one Society assumed to be true, and the tragic love and loss of Viscount Thorne’s bride tended to prompt coos and sig
