_Kasper’s POV_

Halfway through the lunch, I had the urge to ask a bugging question again. I needed Pierre to admit it.

“But I mean it seriously,” I said. “There’s a difference. I’ve watched men confuse the two my whole life and cause damage because of it. Kaelen confused them. He thought what he felt for Virella was love because it was loud and immediate and it made him feel capable. What he had with Rowena was quieter and he didn’t recognize it until it was already gone. Which I don’t know if my guess is correct since he desont want to let her go.”

Pierre looked up from his food and was quiet for a moment longer. After a while, he cleared his throat and said, “Liking someone is easy. It’s about what they give you, how they make you feel when they’re in the room, how the conversation goes, whether they make your life more interesting. Most people call that love because they’ve never had to distinguish between the two.” He turned his glass slowly on the desk. “Loving someone is different. It’s when you want things for them that don’t involve you at all. When you hope they’re alright without any expectation of being the reason they are. When their life going well makes you feel something even if you’re not part of it.” He paused. “I’ve liked people, Kasper. Several people. I know exactly what that felt like.”

He stopped there again. Left the rest of it implied.

“She’s been back two weeks,” I said.

“I know.”

“And you’re already......”

“I’ve been aware of the situation for considerably longer than two weeks,” he said. Evenly. “I was aware of it when she married Kaelen. I was aware of it every time I heard something about how Moonreign was operating, who was keeping it running, what she was managing alone.” He looked at the map. “I didn’t act on it then because she was married and I respect what that means. I’m not acting on it now because she’s been home for two weeks and the last thing she needs is someone arriving with expectations.” He glanced at me. “I’m coming tomorrow as a friend. That’s what you said and that’s what I mean.”

“But,” I said.

He looked at me.

“There’s a but,” I said. “I can hear it.”

Pierre sat back in his chair, “But if things settle. If she’s alright. If the time is right eventually....” He stopped and cleared his throat again. “I’m not going to sit at a distance forever pretending I don’t know what I feel. That’s not honest and I don’t do things dishonestly.” A pause. “When the time is right, I’ll say something. Directly, without pressure, in a way that gives her every opportunity to tell me no without consequence.” He met my eyes. “That’s as much as I’m committing to right now.”

I nodded slowly.

“There’s something else,” I said. “Something I’ve been sitting with since the hunting trip.”

He waited.

“She loves someone,” I said. “Doesn’t she.”

The quality of Pierre’s stillness changed.

“Why do you say that?” he asked.

“Because I know Rowena,” I said. “I’ve known her since she was a child. She processes things differently from most people, she doesn’t grieve loudly, she doesn’t broadcast her feelings, she holds things internally until she’s ready to do something with them. But there’s something behind her eyes that wasn’t there before she went to Moonreign and is there now.” I paused. “It’s not grief for Kaelen. She left him without grief and that means he was never it. But there’s something she’s carrying that she hasn’t named yet. Or has named and isn’t saying.”

Pierre looked at the desk for a moment. “She mentioned someone once,” he said carefully. “Before the marriage. Not directly, Rowena doesn’t do things directly when she’s not ready to. But the way she didn’t say it was clear enough to anyone paying attention.” He looked up.

“Who was it?”

“I don’t know.”

I sat with that for a moment and thought about what it meant, about what Rowena had been carrying through three years of an arranged marriage, through the dissolution, through coming home. Something underneath all of it that she had been keeping in a separate room from everything else.

“Does it change things?” I asked. “For you. Knowing she might already.....”

“Nah,” he said, without hesitation. “It changes the timeline, maybe. The approach, certainly. But not the rest of it.” He looked at me steadily. “I told you, I want things for her that don’t involve me. If she’s happy, that’s enough. If the person she loves makes her life better, that’s enough.” He paused. “I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a part of me that hopes things go differently. But that’s my problem to manage, not hers.”

That was, I thought, one of the most straightforward things I had ever heard a man say about a woman he loved. Which was either admirable or the kind of discipline that had been built through significant pain, and probably both.

“Kaelen,” I said, shifting the subject. “He’s not letting go cleanly.”

Pierre’s expression shifted into something cooler and more precise.

“He signed the decree and went through the wedding and now he’s sitting in that half-empty house thinking about what he lost. Which he caused himself, but that doesn’t seem to be stopping him.”

“It won’t,” Pierre said flatly. “Men like Kaelen, and I don’t mean this as a particular criticism, it’s just a type, they don’t understand what they have until the having is over. He chose Virella because she was visible and immediate and she made him feel something loud. Rowena was quiet and steady and constant and he mistook that for unimportance.” He paused. “Now she’s gone and the quiet is gone with her and he’s noticing the shape of it for the first time.” He shook his head. “He’ll make some gesture. Probably more than one. He’ll tell himself it’s about her when it’s mostly about him.”

“And when he does?” I asked.

“She won’t take him back,” Pierre said. “Not because she’s punishing him. Because she’s actually done. That’s different from angry, different from hurt, she’s processed it and closed it and moved forward. Kaelen coming back with regret isn’t going to reopen something that’s been properly finished.” He looked at me. “He’s going to regret it for a long time. I genuinely believe that. But that’s the outcome of his own choices and it’s not Rowena’s responsibility to manage.”

“She’s got a lot coming at her,” I said. “From multiple directions.”

“I know,” Pierre said. He stood again, moved to the window. “That’s why I’m not just coming tomorrow and then disappearing. I told you — I’m not going anywhere.” He turned from the window. “Whatever she’s dealing with, another capable person in her corner is better than one fewer. That’s true regardless of anything else.”

I stood up. “She’ll figure out why you’re really there.”

“I expect so,” he said. “Rowena figures most things out.”

I picked up my jacket.

“One more thing,” I said. “Your mother.”

“I’ll handle it,” he said.

“Good,” I nodded gratefully.

We walked out of the office together and down through the building into the evening.

At the car, he said: “Don’t tell her anything specific. Just that I’m coming.”

“She’ll know something’s going on,” I pointed out.

“That’s fine. She can know. She just doesn’t need the details until she’s ready for them.”

I nodded, got in the car and drove north.