Chapter Twenty-Three
The next several weeks passed in a blur of alternating pleasure and fear, one emotion when I was with Aggrivane and the other anytime anyone else was near us. I was so frightened someone would discover our affair and tear us apart again, something my long-neglected heart, only recently stitched up by Aggrivane’s love, would not abide.
Some nights I carried a change of dress with me as I prowled the halls, praying to make it safely from one bedroom to the other. On others, when Aggrivane had an early morning call to duty, I dared ferry only myself across the border between the ladies’ and gentlemen’s chambers. I felt like a thief in my own home, stealing minutes, hours of happiness from a family that seemed adverse to its very nature. No matter how many times I sneake
