"...For every Liam Dunn we have men like my late husband who may have been a tremendous warrior but was never going to be a good ruler…"
Ashlynn's words, said so casually, cut like a knife when they fell on Sir Gilander. For a moment, he nearly stood to protest. A lifetime of service to the Lothian name made the action all but reflexive, and he was halfway to his feet before he froze with hot words stuck in his throat.
Lady Ashlynn wasn't wrong about Owain. In the days after Bors' death, Gilander had come face to face with Owain's inadequacies again and again. Time and time again, he'd told himself that it was normal for a young lord to stumble as he found his footing. More than once, he found himself comparing Owain to the brash, headstrong man that Bors had been in his youth when he conquered the Shattered Hills in Iriso and courted Lady Isla.
