"I think I'll skip the side chamber. Didn't my husband just mention there's a banquet going on? My daughter and I are starving. We'll eat there. And while we're at it, my husband can introduce us to everyone."
"Narelle!"
Finn's voice dropped to a sharp growl. "You want to walk into that banquet dressed like that? You'd humiliate the entire marquessate on purpose?"
"At least change your clothes first. Edith, would you take her to—"
Finn froze the moment the words left his mouth. When I said nothing, he rushed to explain.
"Narelle, don't misunderstand. Edith is the only family I have left in this manor. I think of her as my own sister. That's why I call her that."
"There is absolutely nothing between us!"
His frantic explanation only made my stomach turn.
I would never forget what I saw in the moments before I died.
Edith had wept and lied, claiming that my daughter and I had been greedy and eaten pastries laced with rat poison by mistake, and that was how we'd died.
Finn hadn't shed a single tear for us. Instead, his face had softened with tenderness as he pulled Edith into his arms, slipped the clothes from her shoulders, and held her close.