Grouse Thicket you always was a letdown [m]

Not a family man.

And what kind of woman was Diantha? A family woman? She could hardly call herself that. Her own parents had gone and died on her, and she'd never attached properly to her adoptive ones. Her siblings scattered, her life a string of brief interactions with things that might have been family if they'd done better by her. And none of them had. The pharaoh (the real pharaoh) had been the only one she had even remotely cared for, and he'd gone and died.

Perhaps "not a family man," was exactly what she needed to scratch the itch. Perhaps she didn't need a family at all, save the children she could raise to be her own. Wouldn't they fill the void of unconditional love she'd deserved her whole life? She didn't know, but her instincts told her not to care, and she found herself wordlessly diving head-first into the stranger's embrace.