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The woman rolled back to sit on her bottom, staring once more at her sister. “Did you like him?”

“I will not dignify that with a response,” she answered smoothly while lifting her chin up.

Carwyn tilted her head and frowned. “Did you like him?”

Yes, do tell.Geryon wanted to know the answer more than he cared to admit.

“You did!” The girl laughed, her head thrown back. “You cared for another outside our–”

“Do you wish to pester me with such a trivial conversation out of intrigue because you are useless as a woman?” There was a cold bite to the words, her tone. “To annoying me because I am not, and you are jealous?”

The cheer in the woman’s face dropped into a crestfallen one. Tears watered her eyes.

“You are such a heartless person sometimes.”

She ran off, leaving Valerie by herself. She shook her head as she watched her sister go, then continued with her hair.

He remembered what Valerie had told him of her family, how one of them was not able to carry a child. She wounded her sister on purpose to end the conversation.I have always known she can be callous.

She’d been occasionally cruel to Lady Charlotte.

It was while Valerie was placing a dress over her clean body that Carwyn returned. She was pouting, but she came to stand with her again.

“Are you going to continue the same conversation?”

“No.” She turned her head away dismissively. “You only hurt me like that because you yourself are hurting.”

“You know I must leave.”

Valerie used the long point of a needle clip to twine her hair until it was a loose, messy bun. She threaded the needle into her waves until all he could see was a raven with its wings spread out across the back of her head. It was silver, and he figured this was the heirloom she’d spoken of.

“You are lying. You would not hurt me so directly if that was the cause.” Carwyn removed her gloves, dropping them to the ground so she could raise her bare hands. “I want to know, Valerie.”

She stepped forward with the intention of cupping Valerie’s face.

“No. You will not feel anything worth noting. It is pointless.”

“Let me do this.” She continued to walk forward, and Valerie immediately retreated from her with a spark of certainty lighting in her eyes. “Let me be the one person who truly understands you, one last time.”

Valerie’s actions were what gave away that she was deeply distressed.

“Keep your hands off me, or I will make you regret it.”

“You usually let me do this because you know I will find very little, so why are you running away?” Valerie paused, causing Carwyn to halt as well, as she eyed her sister’s beseeching frown. “This is the last time I will be able to do this with you, Valerie. Please, give me this.”

Geryon leaned forward when Valerie hesitantly nodded, intrigued by the situation.What will be revealed?

He could hardly wait to know.

Carwyn stepped forward and gently cupped Valerie’s cheeks. There was a long pause, a long, silence-filled moment where nothing happened, nothing was said.

Then, as clear as day, heavy tears began to fall from Carwyn’s eyes. Her bottom lip began to tremble while her eyebrows drew together so tightly, it bowed her eyes. There was a shuddering sob that followed, the sound of a squeaking breath caught in lungs.

Carwyn looked as though she was in terrible agony, while heavy tears fell like they would never stop.

Valerie grabbed her wrists and pulled her sister’s hands away from her face, her expression empty and deadened. Yet, she pulled Carwyn forward with one arm while placing her hand on the back of her head, bringing her in for a tight, comforting embrace.

“You are in so much pain,” her sister sobbed, heaving against her. “You have shattered your heart into pieces.”