“Friend?” I asked gently. She caught her breath but did not look at me. “I understand,” I told her. She canted her head, giving me a thoughtful smile. “I think that you do. Our relationship was not one I could ever acknowledge openly, you understand. Such a thing is not possible here in England. In the Alpenwald, it would be utterly unthinkable. But she was the love of my life.” “That is why you could not bring yourself to agree to marry Maximilian,” I murmured. “Because your heart lay elsewhere.” “How did you know?” “I found the sketch—tucked under the endpaper of Alice’s ledger. The sketch
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Aw:'(
