Love's Unexpected Awakening Elowen's Choice novel Chapter 68

Chapter 68 Who You Marry Really Matters

Sylvia was effusive in her gratitude, promising through her tears, “When we return, I’ll embroider the finest baby bonnet for you! For when your child arrives.”

Elowen was momentarily taken aback.

Her child.

Her and Cassian’s child?

She… had never even thought about it.

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The remainder of the verse salon passed without further incident. Several young ladies displayed notable talent, but it was clear that Isla and Alaric’s favor had settled on Daphne.

If nothing unexpected happens, she’ll still marry into the Crown Prince’s Wing in this life.

On the way back, Elowen fell into thought.

Some details of her past life were shifting, but the core trajectory seemed stubbornly unchanged.

As for the stolen pen name “Azure,” she found she didn’t mind much. It was just a name.

A name could be stolen, but true talent could not.

She could simply create another name and find a more discreet bookshop.

Reaching the Duskmoor carriage, she found the door already open. Cassian was inside, casually flipping through the pages of a book.

“You’re back so soon?” Elowen asked, surprised. She’d expected him to converse longer with Theodric.

“Not long,” he replied without looking up, his focus on the page. A long finger turned another

leaf.

Curiosity piqued her. “What are you reading?”

She assumed it would be a treatise on military strategy, or perhaps a volume of classic poetry or scripture.

She climbed into the carriage and leaned over to glance at the page before he could react.

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Chapter 68 Who You Marry Really Matters

Her eyes caught a passage-

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“Luminara feigned a pout and turned to leave, but was caught and pulled tightly into an embrace. He was desperate for her kiss, and Luminara resisted no longer. Locked together, they fell back upon the bed…”

Elowen’s face flushed a brilliant scarlet.

It was Tales of Luminara! Her book!

“It’s a popular tale,” Cassian said smoothly, noting her blush from the corner of his attributing it to maidenly modesty.

He smoothly closed the book. “Written by Azure. My brother gifted it to me.”

Elowen was stunned.

The King reads this?

Something in her worldview cracked a little.

eye

and

Yet, a wave of profound relief washed over her. Thank goodness she hadn’t been exposed as Azure today.

The story’s first half was full of witty antagonism between the leads, but the latter half-well, it involved a great deal of kissing and other activities.

If Theodric knew she was the author, he’d either praise her to her face or ask, with unsettling curiosity, how an unmarried maiden had conceived of such amorous scenes.

The sheer mortification would have made her wish to vanish into the earth.

Thankfully, that particular brand of awkwardness was now Daphne’s problem.

Seeing her blush and clam up, Cassian thought she was bothered that he was reading a spicy storybook, that she’d think he wasn’t serious or something.

After a pause, he clarified, “I don’t usually read this sort of thing. It was a gift from my brother. I was merely glancing through it.”

Elowen dragged out a soft “Oh.”

Cassian set the book aside. “How was the salon?”

“It went smoothly.”

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Chapter 68 Who You Marry Really Matters

“Who caught the eye of the Queen and Alaric?”

“Daphne,” Elowen said after a moment’s thought. “She claims to be ‘Azure.”

Cassian’s brow furrowed. “And no one questions the claim?”

“You doubt her?” Elowen asked, surprised.

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He nodded. “I’ve only read half, but I can already sense the author’s character. It doesn’t fit Daphne.”

As he spoke, his gaze flickered to Elowen.

If anything, it seems more like you.

Elowen was inwardly astonished.

Isla, Alaric, so many others had accepted Daphne’s claim without question. Only Cassian had doubted.

Was his intuition simply sharper?

For some reason, the thought pleased her. A small, genuine smile curved her lips.

As the carriage rolled on, Elowen recounted the incident with Sylvia.

“…I confirmed with her that she has no such ambitions; it’s entirely her mother’s doing. But what happened at the salon will mess with our Duskmoor Manor’s reputation once it spreads.”

Cassian listened with half an ear to most of it.

But the phrase “our Duskmoor Manor” resonated deeply.

A pleased, almost imperceptible smile touched his lips. “Reputation is a fickle thing. Pay it no

mind.”

“Really?” Elowen asked softly.

“Really,” he affirmed. “People will whisper behind closed doors. We live within our own walls; we won’t hear a word of it. And if anyone is foolish enough to mention it to your face, you have every right to rebuke them, punish them, or simply tell me, and I’ll handle it.”

Elowen felt a quiet sense of wonder.

In her past life as Crown Princess, Isla had constantly reminded that she represented the

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Chapter 68 Who You Marry Really Matters

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dignity of the Crown Prince’s Wing and the royal family, that she must act with utmost caution. Her failure to produce an heir had been framed as a profound dishonor.

Yet here was Cassian, telling her not to worry about such things. “Tell me, and I’ll handle it.”

She felt that line sink deeper into her bones: who you marry really matters.

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