He suspected she was just making the best of the situation she found herself in, and that if she learned they weren’t married and she could leave . . . she would. It was what Adaira had done. Betrothed since birth, they’d grown up as neighbors, always knowing they would someday marry. They’d both been perfectly happy with it. They’d even loved each other, or so she’d said and he’d believed. But when he’d returned home scarred from battle, she’d taken one look at his ruined face and screamed in horror . . . and then she claimed him more monster than man and refused to marry him.
