⚔️ Scandal and betrayal take center stage in this haunting chapter of The Scandalous Hours. Lady Alianor stands before Hawksmere, forced into a false confession, her words tasting like grave dirt 🕯️ as she recants her truth and condemns the memory of Eamon Thorne. Before a crowd hungry for spectacle 👀, Roland de Mowbray seizes his moment of triumph, presenting himself as savior and demanding Alianor’s hand in marriage 💍 — a union that is less a vow of love than a sentence of captivity. 🏰 What follows is a chilling descent into a world gilded in false promise. Hawksmere Keep is transformed into a fortress under Roland’s ruthless control, its halls filled with guards, wealth, and suffocating watchfulness. Bess, pale and broken from her own terror 😔, drifts like a ghost at Alianor’s side, a living reminder of all that is at stake. Sister Margery’s sanctimonious whispers tighten the noose further, reminding Alianor that submission is her only path to “safety.” 💔 Yet beneath the heavy samite of her wedding gown 👗 and the hollow cheer of villagers, a darker truth lurks. The gilded cage is no sanctuary — it is a prison of iron masked in velvet, a place where vows echo like curses 🔔 and love is twisted into possession. In this chapter of gothic romance 🌑 and medieval intrigue, loyalty is betrayed, power masquerades as piety, and scandal festers in silence. ✨ Listen now to The Scandalous Hours: The Gilded Cage — a tale of forced recantation, dark weddings, and vows that bind tighter than chains.