Ever since his crimes had been exposed, Roseen had wondered if she'd been someone the lecherous baron had his eyes on, but to hear it straight from his lips had still been shocking. To see the way her friend reacted to it, though, was even more so.
"I just, when he said your name, I couldn't… I couldn't let him say any more of those vile things. Not, not about you, I couldn't…" Cossot said as she clung to her friend.
She thought that she'd prepared herself to do what needed to be done. To strike the blow on Dame Sybyll's behalf because it was a thing that needed to be done. Because Dame Sybyll couldn't bring herself to kill one of the few people left in this world who were still her blood kin.
But when the time came, it hadn't been his crimes that moved her hand, or her desire to spare Dame Sybyll from needing to kill a member of her own family.
