Chapter 1

The court physician rested his fingers on my wrist, their coolness seeping through my sleeve’s thin fabric. I kept my gaze lowered, eyes on my flat stomach, silently praying that this routine wellness check would pass without incident. My wishes did not come through.

After only a moment, his fingers went still. His brow furrowed, and his expression shifted into something strange.

My heart clenched, and I gripped the silk handkerchief in my lap, my voice trembling as I spoke.

"Is something... Is something wrong with me?"

He withdrew his hand, stroking his beard repeatedly, then took my pulse a second time. A long silence passed before he finally looked up, disbelief written across every inch of his face. When he spoke, his words stumbled over one another.

"M-my Lady, you are with child, and... it’s not just one. You have eight children. Eight heartbeats, every one of them strong."

The words hit me like a thunderclap.

I sat frozen in the cushioned chair, my mind utterly blank. My hand subconsciously drifted to my stomach. It was still flat, and yet somehow, it was cradling eight tiny lives.

The women of the Thayne family had always been known for their extraordinary fertility. My mother had me as part of a twin pair, and my aunt had given birth to triplets. However, no one had ever told me that this gift could reach such extremes. Eight children?!

Sunlight flooded the courtyard, but the road ahead of me had never looked darker.

I had been part of the Lord Regent's household for three years as his wife, and in all that time, he and I had never been more than polite strangers under the same roof.

Edric Valthorpe, my husband, was the Lord Regent, the most powerful man in the realm. He was cold in his actions and cold at heart, with an army at his command. I was nothing more than the daughter of an ordinary merchant family.

Three years ago, he had pulled me from the castle lake, and the rumors that followed had left him no choice but to take me as his wife.

Over the past three years, the people of the Regent's household had never looked at me with anything but contempt.

They whispered that I was scheming and manipulative, that I had used every trick in the book to trap the Lord Regent into marriage, that a merchant's daughter had no place among such wealth and privilege.

After the past Spring Gala’s court banquet, he had come back drunk. That was the only night we had ever consummated our marriage, and somehow it had resulted in eight children.

Would Edric even want them?

He could barely stand to look at me. How would he tolerate eight children he never asked for? Would anyone in the Regent's household ever accept children born to a merchant's daughter?

How was I supposed to manage what would come next? Eight children meant food, clothing, shelter… Everything would be multiplied eightfold. I had no allies in this household, and my family's means were limited. What was I supposed to raise them on?

The more I thought about it, the heavier the dread pressed down on me, until I could scarcely breathe and my fingertips went cold.

Just as my eyes began to sting with the threat of tears, a servant called from beyond the door, announcing that Finch Aldwell, the Lord Regent's personal attendant, had arrived bearing a letter from his lordship.

My stomach dropped. Edric was at the frontier, fighting a war. Why would he suddenly send a letter home?

Could he have found out somehow?

I forced myself to my feet and took the letter from Finch's outstretched hand. The handwriting was bold and assured, unmistakably Edric's. There was only a single line, and it struck me like a blow.

"10,000 gold pieces in exchange for your departure from the capital."

There was no explanation and not a trace of emotion, only the gold and an order to leave.

I stared at it for a few seconds, then a grin spread across my face so wide that I could not have stopped it if I had tried. Every last trace of worry vanished from my expression, and my voice was dripping with delight.

"Well, this certainly solves my problem!"

10,000 gold pieces! It was a sum I would never have dared to even dream of.