It took a year, but another candidate was found. She was the only child of a bann within the Arling of Redcliffe, so it would also mean it didn't matter if I retained Rainsfere or lost it to a potential nephew or niece someday. Her hair was almost the same honey blond as my own and she gleefully listened to the unfortunate poetry I wrote in her honor. She did not care for dancing, but she made a most extraordinary embroidered shirt as a betrothal gift. I still have it. Her name was Maeve.
She left behind a note, about a common-born lover that she could not leave behind. Her body was found floating in the nearby lake, but no one ever found out who the mysterious lover that she had felt so strongly about had been. Her family was so grieved that they certainly didn't want to talk about any suspicions I had about what had happened. They had their hands full with stupid cousins arriving for the funeral gathering with their hands outstretched, hoping that a title would fall on their heads.
We had been formally betrothed, so it was expected I would go through a proper mourning period before looking again, but it didn't really matter. Such an ill-omened event kept the girls rather far from me for quite some time, even the odd servant or laundress in the stables.
Finally, there was Claire. Her hair fell around her in plain brown curls and she had the most beautiful silver-grey eyes. She and I spent much of our time riding, even doing some light hunting, for she was an excellent shot with the bow.
I was twenty six, and Connor had just been born. He seemed a strong babe, from the little I saw of him. I wasn't allowed to hold him, nor was he left alone that I could tell. I found myself unexpectedly barred from the kitchen of all places.
I was mystified until a wild-eyed Isolde hissed a warning at me: I would not be allowed to harm her Connor.
Two weeks later, Claire, who I think I could have loved, fell while riding and broke her neck. She was a woman that seemed almost part of her horse while riding. I had seen her shoot from horseback, and never, ever have problems with jumps or low-hanging branches.
The column of numbers suddenly added up and I realized that Isolde was plotting against me. I must have been blind to have not realized it until then. Until Conner's birth, I had been Eamon's heir, but what would be the point of becoming Arl without an heir of my own? And so she had kept me from being wed. Or at least I think that's how her twisted mind worked. And now, when Connor became a man, he would take Rainsfere away from me. Oh no, I would become Lord Teagan and not have to keep up that wreck of a house. But apparently this meant I was now out to get her son.