“Just remember that Darton is your twin.” Anne, who had never had a stomach for seeing blood spilled, kept her eyes averted from the nursemaid’s handiwork. She stood and turned, her back as stiff as a scepter, her arms folded under her breasts. Hagan knew that she detested public displays of emotion and she would go to great lengths to keep any hint of scandal from touching her family. Anne and Darton had been close as children, though Hagan suspected that she knew of Darton’s temper and his ambitions. However, his sister had been blessed with the uncanny ability to delude herself into believing that if she denied something long enough, it didn’t exist.
“I’ll not tolerate Darton’s disobedience,” Hagan said as the nursemaid drew hard on her thread again. Gritting his teeth, he added, “Our brother is not above the law, Anne.”
“Don’t you see what’s happening here? It was all a mistake, a tragic, unfortunate mistake. Surely you know that Darton didn’t ask her to slice her wrists.” As if she could read the protest forming on his lips, she held up a hand to keep him still. “I know that Darton is … well, not like you. He sometimes bends the rules. But he’s not a murderer, for God’s sake,” she declared, though Hagan guessed she was trying to convince herself.
“I pray you’re right.”
“Of course I am. He’s our brother, Hagan. Your twin. The same blood that flows through your veins, runs through his. What I find hard to believe is that you, as baron, won’t stand by him and put an end to this nonsense.”
“I think she tried to kill herself because she couldn’t stand being held prisoner, because she couldn’t allow herself to be used by Darton as his wench.”
Anne’s fine lips clamped into a firm line, and Hagan felt that he’d finally struck a chord.
“Darton held her prisoner and used her for his own pleasure, did he not?”
Swallowing hard, Anne shook her head, but without much conviction. “I know not, Hagan. He … well, he’s always fancied the women, and they find him attractive.” She let out a long, unhappy sigh. “I knew not that he had taken the woman prisoner. I learned of it later.”
“Did you not speak with her?”
“Nay. She was only here a short while, and Darton would not allow it.”
“Still you trust him?”
She shifted from one foot to the other and walked to the window. “He is my brother. That is all that matters.”
Hagan lifted a dark brow. “ ’Twas his men who brought the girl here. On his orders.”
“Darton’s … ambitious,” she said, walking to the bed and trailing a finger along the posts that supported the canopy.
“To a fault. Ouch!”
He slid a glance over his wounded shoulder to the nursemaid, but she only muttered, “Be still.”
Growling an oath, Hagan fixed his stare on his sister once again. “Darton will stay in his chambers until I’ve contacted Tadd of Prydd and told him … God’s
teeth, I don’t know how to explain—” With a grimace, he shot a look at the nursemaid. “Aren’t you finished yet?”
The nursemaid grunted, then clipped the thread with her teeth. “There ye be, m’lord, but I’d be advisin’ you to see the physician—”
“There’s no need to bother Nichodemas.”
Rosemary carried her towels, thread, and water out of the room, and Hagan pulled on his tunic.
“Ona told me the girl will not come down for meals, and only agreed to bathe when she was threatened,” Anne said.
“Threatened?” Hagan repeated, his eyes fixing on his sister.
“Oh, do not worry. ’Twas not by beheading or torture or anything so vile, brother,” she said with a laugh. “Ona told her that if she didn’t get into the tub herself, you had vowed to do it for her.”
Hagan’s jaw tightened in silent fury. “Ona makes trouble. I know not why you decided she was to be Sorcha’s maid.”
“Ona may have a bit of an imp in her, but she’s trustworthy, Hagan, and she will tell me everything that … What is it they call her? The chosen one …?”
“The savior of Prydd.”
Anne’s nose wrinkled in distaste. “Aye, the savior. Ona will tell me everything, and that is good, for the savior is a sly one.” With a lift of her eyebrows, she added, “She was clever enough to pass through our gates, was she not?”
Hagan didn’t answer.