Extraits

I honestly didn't believe her

"Fine. I'll go play the game and get ready."

I started to turn toward the door, and he blocked my way.

"Adelaide ... I'm sorry. I really am."

"I know," I said, "I am too. But it can't change aything."

Spoiler(cliquez pour révéler)"You can't think like that," he said. "It's not your fault."

"Really? Then whose fault is it? Whose fault is it she was on that ship?"

"Hers, She made that decision, and she was just as stubborn as you. We're all in charge of our own lives - and we have to live with the consequences of the choices we make."

« Really, at a glance, you wouldn’t think there was anything wrong with my old life. I was young and healthy. I liked to think I was clever. I belonged to one of the noblest families in Osfrid, one that could trace its bloodline back to the country’s founders. Sure, my title might have been more prestigious if my family’s fortune hadn’t evaporated, but that was easily fixed. All I had to do was marry well.

And that was where my problems started. »

« Most noblemen admired a descendant of Rupert, First Earl of Rothford, great hero of Osfrid. Centuries ago, he’d helped wrest this land from savages, thus forming the great nation we enjoyed today. But few noblemen admired my lack of resources, especially in these times. Other families were fighting their own financial crises, and a pretty face with an exalted title no longer held the appeal it once might have.

I needed a miracle, and I needed one fast.

“Darling, a miracle’s happened. »

« Cedric studied me for a beat, and there was something in his eyes. A calculation, or maybe a reassessment. “The new nobility. They don’t need a title or right of birth to claim power and prestige. They’ve earned it through hard work and have become a nobility—of sorts—and now need suitably ‘noble’ wives. But since women of your rank aren’t exactly lining up to sail over, the Glittering Court has taken it upon itself to create a cohort of young women willing to transform. We take lovely girls like Ada here, girls of common birth, girls with no family—or maybe too much family—and we train them up to greatness. »