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"Not usual at all," Rhapsody couldn't help but emphasize, remembering how sensibly she had remained even after finding out Bethany had passed away.

"Why do you think this was?"

Rhapsody hesitated. "You'd think it illogical."

"Feelings often are, but there's a way to make sense of them."

"When my Master called me by my name," Rhapsody revealed reluctantly, "it felt strangely...right."

"In what way?" Aurora prodded.

"It reminded me of when I was with...Bethany. She insisted that I call her by her name because she didn't want to be reminded of the fact that she has a daughter. I know it's a small thing—-"

"On the contrary," Aurora countered carefully, "everything a parent says or does has a tremendous impact on his or her child, and you are not an exception."

Rhapsody slowly nodded, seeing her therapist's point. "I guess that's why names hold so much power in my mind. Every timeshe made me call her Bethany, it made me feel she was pushing me away."

"But when the Master called you by your name..."

"It was the opposite," Rhapsody said haltingly. "When he called me by my name, I was...overcome."

"Because he made feel you wanted."

Rhapsody quickly nodded.Yes!

"And normal?" Aurora guessed.

Rhapsody's nod was even more vehement than before.

"If Bethany had allowed you to call her Mother, would that have made you feel wanted?"

"I...suppose?" Rhapsody was caught off guard by the sudden switch in her therapist's questions.

"And do you think if Bethany let you call her mother, would it have also made you feel normal?"

"Yes, I believe so."

"If Bethany had done all those things, would you have loved her?"

"It would have been natural for me to do so, I think."

"So now that it's the marquis doing those things..."

Rhapsody shook her head emphatically when she realized where the therapist's words were leading. "You're trying to trick me," she accused.

Aurora rolled her eyes. "What would I gain from tricking you?"

Rhapsody's lips pursed. Indeed, her therapist had a point, but that couldn't mean Lady Aurora had it right.

Right?

"It can't be," Rhapsody heard herself say. "Maybe this is merely heartkeeping—-"

"You know better than that," Aurora reminded her patient. Heartkeepingcouldlead to romantic feelings, but not the other way around. Love was neither a prerequisite nor an inevitable consequence of heartkeeping, and there were ancient texts to prove this.

"But for it to be what I think it is..." Rhapsody couldn't wrap her head around it.

"Consider all the signs, Rhapsody. You yourself realized that you felt jealousy over the possibility of something happening between the marquis and another girl."