Chapter 3

Rowan Hale was nothing like the noblemen in the capital.

He didn't know how to flatter women at balls, nor did he understand the elegant banter of the salons.

But he would hike over a mountain in a torrential downpour just to bring me an umbrella.

If I casually mentioned wanting fresh fish, he would walk out onto a frozen river and hack through the ice to catch one.

I started making every excuse to visit the family's country estate, and my mother finally noticed.

"You've been running off to the country constantly. Are you hiding something from me?"

I stood before her, my fingers twisting together.

"Mother, I want to break the engagement. I don't love Julian."

My mother looked at me as if I were a stranger.

"A noble marriage is never just about love, Evelyn. It is about your future. Have you truly thought this through?"

My father was furious.

"This engagement concerns the honor of both families! Do you think you can just break it off without consequences? If you insist on this madness, I will not clean up your mess!"

I was locked in the house for a full month.

"Evelyn, I'll take you away," Rowan whispered to me through a crack in the garden gate. "No matter where we go, I'll be by your side."

The night we eloped, I sprained my ankle jumping from the window. The pain was so blinding my vision went dark.

Rowan was waiting at the back gate.

Seeing that I had actually come, he pulled me into a crushing embrace.

"Are you scared to leave with me?"

I looked into his shining eyes and shook my head. "No."

He pressed his lips to my ear and swore a solemn vow.

"As long as I'm breathing, Evelyn, I will never betray you."

Life after eloping was far harder than I ever imagined.

We fled to a remote town in the North, using the money I brought to rent a leaky wooden cabin.

Rowan hunted, and I mended clothes. My hands, which had never done a day of hard labor, quickly became chapped and cracked from the cold.

At night, we huddled under a single, ragged blanket.

Rowan would tuck my freezing feet against his chest, his voice choking with emotion. "I'm the one making you suffer."

I leaned into his embrace. "It doesn't matter, as long as you're here."

But Rowan wasn't content being a rural gamekeeper.

I pawned my last piece of jewelry—a necklace my mother had given me for my eighteenth birthday.

I used the money to hire a weapons instructor for him, then bought him a horse and armor.

For three years, I bled my dowry dry. I begged old family connections to write him letters of recommendation.

Finally, he returned.

He came back to the capital as a commissioned officer in the Royal Army, riding a tall horse, flanked by an adjutant and soldiers.

He dismounted and pulled me into a tight embrace. "Evelyn, I'm back."

Once his rank and income stabilized, we finally held a formal wedding.

Seven years after our elopement, I was officially recorded as "Mrs. Hale."

I thought we could finally live openly and with dignity.

But after he bought a beautiful townhouse in the capital, everything changed.

Rowan became increasingly busy. When he came home, he often carried the scent of unfamiliar women's perfume.

Whenever I asked, he claimed it was just from social engagements.

Until one day, I found a smear of lipstick on his collar.

We had a massive fight that night. I smashed everything in the room.

He slapped me. Hard. "Evelyn Ashbourne! Look at what you've become!"

I stumbled backward, my stomach slamming violently into the sharp corner of a heavy oak table.

A sudden, agonizing cramp seized my abdomen. I collapsed, clutching myself.

I hemorrhaged, followed by days of a raging fever.

The doctor said the internal trauma was too severe. If I ever wanted to conceive again, it would be nearly impossible.

Rowan stood outside my bedroom door all night, but the next morning, he went to the military camp just the same.

Later, he brought home an orphaned girl named Lillian Gray.

He said she was gentle and understanding—unlike me, who only knew how to argue and cause scenes.

He wanted Lillian to move into our home. I refused.

"Men in my position dissolve marriages over less," he told me coldly.

"I'm not throwing you on the streets, Evelyn. I'm offering you an annuity. Just sign the divorce papers. I'm being generous."

I shook with rage. "Do you not know why I don't have a child?"

He fell silent and turned his face away.

But a few days later, he actually had the nerve to say, "Lillian is pregnant. She needs to be my lawful wife."

I stared at him in disbelief.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you need to step aside." He avoided my eyes. "You'll have your allowance. You'll never have to worry about food or clothes."

I looked at him as if seeing him for the very first time.

"Do you even remember who pulled you out of the snow all those years ago?"

He frowned. "Why bring up ancient history?"

"Do you remember swearing that as long as you lived, you would never betray me?"

He grew impatient. "For God's sake, Evelyn! People move on!"

It turned out that no matter how deeply we loved each other in our youth, we ultimately reached a point where just looking at one another bred disgust.