Chapter 34
He had saved her life, in a strange, roundabout way, calling out a warning just moments before a second wave of rogues nearly caught her family's traveling party unaware, his small voice cutting through the chaos in time for her father's guards to react. She had insisted, afterward, over considerable resistance from her parents, that they take him in, that he become her little brother in truth rather than simply a rescued orphan passed along to some distant relative's care.
It had taken weeks of arguing, of refusing to relent no matter how firmly her parents pushed back, before they had finally, grudgingly agreed.
And then, barely a year into Luca settling into the household, the whispers had started. Cruel, baseless gossip suggesting the boy's sudden appearance in the family
