“But why?” Braith asked. “He has no use for me. No love. Why would he care if I was here with you or alone in my cave?”“The Penardduns are matriarchal, child. His first threat didn’t work with us because anything and everything your mother had, including title, was passed down to you. I honestly think that at first, he was just being his usual, vindictive self when he kept you from us.”“We used to openly mock his weak arms and that tiny little neck of his,” Aledwen said, grinning. “He hated that.”“But once he understood the true power of our line, he understood that without you, Emyr and his idiot sons risked losing all of their standing among those court royals who actually give an ox’s shit about all that as well as your mother’s fortune—and that he would not stand for.”“But he wouldn’t have lost his Elder status.”“Do you r

“Or spend your time with that hunk of Cadwaladr meat.”“Oh. Uh . . . yeah, uh . . .”“Look!” Ffraid crowed. “She’s blushing!”“I am not!” Braith shot back.“You are! It’s so cute!”“I am not cute!”“Of course you’re not, luv,” Caron told her. “You’re a Penarddun. No one will call us beautiful or heart-stopping—”“Oh, no,” Ffraid cut in. “They do call Penardduns heart stoppers.”When her cousins said nothing, “Get it?”That’s when they started laughing at a confused Ffraid. “What?” she asked. “Wait. Are you laughing at me or at my joke? Because my joke is quite witty.”Fed up with sitting around, feeling miserable and still cranky, Addolgar threw his legs over the side of the bed.“What do you think yo