Darcy Branwyn

…“When your father first gave me the blessing of your hand I was ecstatic.”

Zipporah and her mother hadn’t been. Fortunately, her mother had intervened, convincing her father that Gilburn should ask permission to court her first, to give Zipporah a chance to get used to him, but when Gilburn had come to Zipporah, asking—humbly no less—if he could be her suitor, she’d panicked and told him no, even though it would have been better not to have denied him. She’d run away like a coward, and locked herself in her chamber for the whole day…

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