Dream

Within Earl Rochefort's estate, utterly unlike the tense, brightly lit, clamor-filled night at the Governor's Office in Herwenham, the Earl Rochefort territory had now sunk completely into a deep sleep where every sound was still.

The earl's manor was like a giant beast lying dormant amid encircling hills, its outline blurred and quiet beneath the sparse shimmer of stars and moon.

Only along the crenellations circling the manor's outer wall did the occasional points of torchlight in the patrolling guards' hands, and the regular, heavy thud of footsteps, show that vigilance had not slackened beneath this calm.

On the top floor of the manor's main castle, inside a bedroom elegantly furnished yet inevitably carrying a bit of the cold, deserted air of a place long unoccupied.

Charlotte jolted awake from a chaotic, heart-stopping dream and shot upright!

"Hah... hah..." She panted violently, her forehead and neck beaded with cold sweat. The back of her silk nightgown had been soaked through as well, clinging to her skin and bringing an unpleasant, sticky sensation.

Her heart hammered wildly in her chest, like a startled fawn.

It was that dream again.

In the dream, she had finally crossed a thousand mountains and ten thousand rivers, returned to Carnford, returned to that familiar land with the salty tang of sea wind.

She saw Karl. He stood in the familiar hall of Carnford Castle, his figure tall and straight, just as she had imagined countless times in her memories: handsome, composed, though between his brows there was now a measure of majesty and hardship that was both familiar and strange to her, belonging to a ruler.

He had succeeded. He had done it! He was no longer the heir who needed to hide beneath his elders' wings, but a true Lord who held power over