It was a remarkably magnanimous statement from somebody that was still occasionally whispered about in catty undertones as somehow being responsible for Noelle’s death. Would that Charles could manage the passage of time with such grace!

“I doubt he sees anything at all,” she said morosely, quite aware that one person Charles probably wanted to see was sat opposite her. “Especially not his daughter.” And Emma was right, Althea didn’t deserve the indifference but the worst of it was that Helena doubted Charles would ever fully reclaim his daughter.

When he married again it would be as though Noelle, and Nimue, had never existed at all.