Gisella shook her head. “He didn’t tell me anything I hold at face value. Though he did say that you had an elder brother once and that he was crown prince before you.”
Ryre didn’t say anything and remained silent after she had divulged this information to him.
Ryre was well aware of the gossip and rumors that spread around the castle upon his return to court and his brother’s absence.
The guilt of being the son left alive had wracked him for years, frosted over by the death of his mother, and he had blamed himself for both of them.
Gisella noted the look on his face and held his head in her hands, “A dark shadow has shown now,” she whispered as her fingers traced the lines over his face. “Frown lines, my beloved.” Her small smile was what reached out to him and brought him from those thoughts again.
