“I’ve known for a long time,” Winton said, his voice low and full of pain. “My mother was eager to marry me to some Duke’s Forest girl. I’ve had to sit through countless dinners and dances and ridiculous formal meetings—even through the Pestilence. It felt so pointless, with so many people dying, but Mother just said that the dynasty was the most important thing in the world. It’s our link to the Ancestors, she said, and it’s the way we carry their blood to the next generation, and the next…”

She had heard the Duchess say so too, glaring at the young Constance as if she were the poison in the bloodline. “But you didn’t want to marry a girl.”

Winton shook his head sadly. “I liked them, sometimes. It wasn’t always a chore. But mostly I felt like the quarry in a strange kind of hunt. Mostly, they would smile at me with their sharp white teeth and I would feel trapped.” He took a deep breath. “It was only when Mother got very ill that those meetings stopped. And my feelings for others … in particular Lord Irvine…” He dropped his head into his hands—his next words muffled and ashamed. “It was a childish adoration. I’m so embarrassed.”

Constance stepped closer, rested her right hand gently on his head. “Don’t be embarrassed. All of us have childish adorations.”

“But not like that … not … twisted.”

“You don’t really think it’s twisted. That’s someone else’s words. Who said that to you?”

Winton sighed, raised his head. “I spoke with my mother once, tried to tell her … We were talking in general terms.”

“Your mother, for all her love for you, wasn’t the most…” Enlightened? Well-traveled? Educated? “ … diplomatic of women. In the City of Kings, it’s accepted. They say the King himself prefers the company of men,” she continued. “I think people here are obsessed with having children—because of the Ancestors—in a way that the rest of the world just isn’t.”

Hope kindled in his eyes before extinguishing. “But I’m trapped here, don’t you see? Because of the storm cloud, and the quarantine, I’m trapped here forever. Or until we run out of supplies and just die.”

She tried not to smile at his melodrama. “Winton, listen to me.” She knelt on the rug in front of his chair, pulled his hands from his face. “Now that my secret is out, I can tell you the truth: I am here to deal with the storm cloud. That’s why I came back. And once it’s gone, you can go anywhere you like.”

He looked dumbfounded. “What about the quarantine?”

“The Pestilence comes from the storm cloud, Winton. If I get rid of it, we won’t need the quarantine.”