Love's Unexpected Awakening Elowen's Choice novel Chapter 52

Chapter 52 The Price of Transgression

Chapter 52 The Price of Transgression

Alaric stared at Elowen for a long, silent moment, lost in his own turmoil.

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Cassian noticed. His brow furrowed. His fingers, resting on the arm of his wheelchair, tapped twice in a gesture of impatience. He let out a soft, dismissive click of his tongue.

The sound snapped Alaric back to the present. He gritted his teeth, steeling himself. “…Aunt Elowen.”

Cassian’s frown did not ease.

Across the room, Theodric noted the odd tension. “What brings you here?” he asked Alaric, his tone pointed.

Alaric glanced at the kneeling Isla and the weeping Maerwyn before lowering his head slightly. “In the Gilded Hall, with Mother and Maerwyn both absent, people are curious what happened.”

Cassian let out a low, humorless laugh.

Theodric snorted, “More like you’re the curious one.”

Alaric didn’t deny it.

Theodric gestured angrily toward Maerwyn, his expression one of profound disappointment. “It’s your sister! On her own birthday, she couldn’t behave! She plotted to harm your aunt!”

Alaric stiffened. “Harm Aunt Elowen?”

“And she’s dumb as a rock. She bought some aphrodisiac wine and gave it to the wrong person –your mother drank it!” Theodric continued, exasperated. “If not for the Duchess alerting me in time, who knows what chaos would have ensued!”

Understanding dawned on Alaric. “So when El- when Aunt Elowen came to find was because of Mother?”

Isla, still on her knees, looked up sharply. “What else would it be?”

Alaric fell silent. I thought… she came to see me.

you earlier, it

“Your Majesty,” Cassian’s measured voice cut through. “There is something that puzzles me.”

“What is it?” Theodric asked.

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Chapter 52 The Price of Transgression

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“From what you and the Crown Prince just said, when my wife went to get you, she ran into the Crown Prince?” Cassian’s tone was deceptively casual.

Theodric nodded. “Yes.”

“Which would suggest,” Cassian continued, his words dropping like stones, “that the injury to my wife was His Highness’ doing?”

Theodric paused, taken aback.

Alaric’s heart lurched with sudden panic.

Theodric remembered the scene earlier-the tension between Alaric and Elowen, her claim that he had pushed her.

His face darkened.

“Good… Very good!” he spat, glaring first at Isla. “The daughter you raised! The son you raised!”

He turned to Elowen and Cassian, his expression shifting to one of forced civility. “You have my word. Those at fault will be dealt with. The wrong done to you will be made right.”

His face hardened as he addressed Alaric. “You caused injury to the Duchess. You will cover all costs for her physician and medicine. Furthermore, as Crown Prince, your disrespect toward your elder is intolerable. You are suspended from court sessions for the next week. You will spend the time copying texts on propriety and duty until you understand your error!”

That was Alaric’s sentence.

Later, Elowen discovered what Theodric meant by “making it right.”

She and Cassian had just returned to Duskmoor Manor when a royal carriage arrived hard on their heels.

It contained a chest brimming with solid gold and silver coins, and a gilded ivory scepter inlaid with emeralds and rubies, as long as a man’s forearm.

Though her father and brothers had held high military rank, their expenses were great—often covering the families of fallen soldiers-so the Hale household had never been wealthy, often living on the edge of scarcity.

Elowen had never seen a piece of ivory so large, so perfectly formed.

She ran her fingers over its cool, smooth surface, her eyes wide with wonder. “This is truly for me? So exquisite.”

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Chapter 52 The Price of Transgression

Who knew being shoved by Alaric could yield such a treasure?

Perhaps I should have let him push me a few more times.

She lifted her head and glanced at Cassian.

He was leaning back in his wheelchair, his expression detached, almost indifferent.

He had been like this since their encounter with Alaric, speaking little to her.

Elowen wasn’t sure why.

She turned it over in her mind and arrived at the only logical explanation-

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