Lady Constance was resting in the quiet of her estate when a letter was delivered to her.
Since returning to the manor she had once shared with her husband, her resentment toward the House of Vale had only festered. It was because of a Vale that her dearest nephew had sent her back to this place, despite her protests, despite her dread of these halls that echoed with memories of a man long gone.
Every corridor reminded her of him, whispering to her the life they had succeeded in building together, only to be reduced to absence.
Her husband had been a Lord of great standing— Lord Alaric, Warden of the Northern Marches, a man entrusted with guarding the realm's most volatile borders and preserving the uneasy peace between the crown and the frontier lands.
