Fran

scraping back. "Seraphina's mother was heir to the Winslo

er mother sold off the last of their assets just to scrape that dowry together! For years, Seraphina

believed I had married a bottomless treasury. It

ast weight that

and urgent. "Ethan, is this true? What about our plans fo

y face and, for the first time, found it jarring. She loved the titl

off, irritated. "

then, leaning hard on her cane. Her

"I warned you that Seraphina was the foundation of this house,

mistakably Blanca.

would have. Instead she turned to the girl, her voice sof

the purse turn her from Ethan." Her eyes rested on Blanca with a gentle, unreadable warmth. "You are marryi

had no choice but to nod, her smile brittle as glass, because

face of this hard truth, all my pride

now!" I roared, my shame turning to

hat from you. But blood does not pay for a house in Dragon's Rest, or the servants, or the palms you must grease, or the table you must set to receive the lords you m

cket of ice water p

ition, had been built on Seraphina's wealth. Now that th

had known the family was out of money. How lon

fit of anger. It had been a carefully laid trap, timed to p

ought of her as meek and easy to handle. I had never imagin

back," I said, pushi

nk she will come? You tried to set another woman beside her, tramp

" I heard the stubbornness in my own v

I should like to see how you, a Dragon Knight without a copper to yo

t required coin. Lodging required gold. Greasing the

tion offered the way one might test the depth of a river. "Pe

obility, the very mark of our rank. To sell it was to confess ou

ree Franks and a suddenly silent Blanca-were like bea

itter clarity that in losing Seraphina I had los

had not been so hasty. If only I had listened to

nlys." There was only t

d to reach Dragon's Rest.

last property the Franks family held in town, a storefront on the main street