“If you or anyone in this congregation knows of any impediment, why they may not be lawfully joined together in matrimony, you should now confess it...”

There were the rumblings of a skirmish at the chapel door, and the priest halted his words, looking up, past Ædwen, over her shoulder. She turned around and her breath halted as she saw a contingent of royal guards piling into the back of the church.

Strange. Why would the king’s men descend on her wedding?

And then she saw him.

A tall, dark warrior who had to stoop to enter. Once inside, he raised his shoulders and head to his full, imposing height, and his blistering blue gaze came
to settle on her.

“I do,” he announced, his heavy brow forming a
dark line.

Stefan.

Her first love.

The father of her child.

For a fleeting moment, her spine straightened in awareness as she felt the traitorous surge of elation soar through her.

He was here.

He had come back.

Her heart leaped with unexpected delight.

She had thought she’d never see him again.