Cole never heard his parents argue, so their raised voices lured him beneath the open window.
“You can’t adopt them all,” Duke Aldarius said.
“Someone has to! Those children are our future, and they’re treated like dust beneath their boots. Less than dust.”
“The Church says-”
“And you trust them now?” The duchess’s words were barely a whisper, but infused with so much recrimination Cole winced.
“You’re right,” Duke Aldarius confessed. “I am being a coward. I am the king’s sword and shield. I will figure something out.”