Ihsan scowled. That she was with child from someone else and rushed into a betrothal to hide it? Wouldn’t that be the Wheel’s sinister spin. A bastard child before he’d even been married. He wouldn’t put it past Kadir to engineer such a thing, to make certain Ihsan’s marriage, which was supposed to cement his place in line for the crown, was tarnished from the start. He didn’t like it. He wanted to believe her smiles, the real ones. They felt like the only sunshine he’d been able to bear in Turns. No one at court smiled like that. Genuinely. It was all games and deflections. But it would make sense. A noblewoman appearing out of nowhere, from a father who had been silent at court for decades. To foist off their shame on him. Cold temper sent ice skimming across the table from where his fingers touched it. “It is only a rumor, Efendim,” Bashir said, careful, as he eyed the frost crawling across the map. pg.213













