Edward Jeremias Koertig walks through the halls of the house of his Eisenfurst alone. Or mostly alone, aside from his thoughts.

Morgan was Freiarr Innesbruck all this time. Before Dietlinde. During their marriage when Edward asked Adalbrecht so many times to take the land back from being under Karstens control and set Morgan and Dietlinde up there, denounced certainly, but no longer causing issues for Sudlachenburg. He'd been fairly confident that Morgan would have given up his rule without much fuss had their father commanded it. Innesbruck would have done them, and their daughter, well. 

But Karsten had swapped the stillborn baby with his illegitimate child, and no-one knew that when Uncle Hans had died in June '64. Months before Morgan married her, he was a Freiarr, free to live in his own lands, and choose not to follow the rules and make her his mistress, but to wed her and only damage his own reputation.

And then Edward would have had less duels. Less humiliation. Less work. Less time without Mina. He heads towards the drawing room, still brooding.

Edward wouldn't have ground himself down trying to protect Sudlachenburg far from the woman he loved. He could have been betrothed, happy. He could have had the happiness and love Morgan got to have. Morgan got to be happy though he broke the rules. Edward followed the rules and got only unhappiness and strain of the responsibility. How had it been fair? 

And when Edward could do no more,  Morgan was Freiarr Innesbruck on the day he found an assassin. Two lives to off-set the loss of hundreds that would be lost when Sudlachenburg fell. A command he had never felt good about. But he had been angry at Morgan, and desperate, and out of hope.

He'd hoped so long and hard that Morgan would see sense. She could have been his mistress. They could have lived in the cottage. They could have had many more children that Morgan acknowledged. And then he could have one day had a political marriage to benefit Sudlachenburg. Edward hadn't known then what he knew now.

Morgan was Freiarr Innesbruck. He could and should have been in Innesbruck instead with Dietlinde, and none of the last six years should have happened. Edward should have been married years ago and preparing to be the Graf one day. Morgan should still have had Dietlinde and Jana alive. And Edward should not have been living with this guilt.

But should was not enough. It was different now. Morgan seems happily married, and Molly seems to be holding her own in the noble circle even though she is also common. And Edward finally, after so many years, had Mina. 

He taps on the drawing room door, interrupting Mina and Stef, and goes to sit beside her, taking her hand. The past is the past. He made a bad decision without all the information,  but for the right reason. That cannot be undone.  He can only try to do better.