Chapter 8 – Farewell in Silence

“You wished to see me, Miss Whitlow?”

Lady Walfson stood beneath the blooming rose arch, her hands gloved despite the spring warmth. A single pink petal drifted between them.

Sepharine bowed. “Yes, my lady. I came to deliver my formal resignation… and return the ring.”

She placed the velvet pouch into the matriarch’s outstretched palm. The faint clink of metal sounded like the end of something sacred.

“I see,” Lady Walfson said after a beat. “Is this… truly necessary?”

“It is.”

“Draven is strong again. The council may—”

Sepharine interrupted, voice quiet but sure. “He no longer needs me.”

“And you?”

Sepharine looked at the garden path, strewn with petals. “I need to remember who I was before I forgot.”

Lady Walfson’s smile barely moved. “Discretion, of course. I’ll make the announcement quietly. There’ll be no scandal.”

“There was never a marriage,” Sepharine said. “Only duty.”

The matriarch paused. “Do you regret it?”