They Laughed When the Duke’s Daughter Left the Church With a Stableman—Unaware He Was the Heir to..

Chapter 2

Evangeline never knew her mother. The woman who brought her into the world lived just long enough to name her, and then slipped away in the gray hour before dawn, leaving Duke Edwin Ashford with a squalling daughter and a grief so vast he could not find the edges of it. For a while, the grief held them together. He carried his daughter through sleepless nights, walked the length of the nursery with her against his shoulder, and whispered promises into her dark hair — that she would never want for love, that he would never leave her, that she would always be his.

Promises made in sorrow are often forgotten in comfort.

When Evangeline was still small enough to ride on her father’s hip, Edwin married Araminta. She was beautiful, composed, and unfailingly gentle with the child. She brushed Evangeline’s hair, read her stories by firelight, kissed her forehead before bed. Edwin told himself he had given his daughter the mother she deserved. He was wrong, but it would take him twenty years to admit it.