“What I did to her? I raised her. I put clothes on her back for years. I kept her fed.”
“You terrorized her,” Duncan said quietly. “You never loved her the way a brother ought to love his sister. And then you squandered the money that should have belonged to both of you and left her alone in the world, with nothing but a tarnished reputation. She’s only just beginning to heal from the harm you did.”
Behind them, Henry could hear Thomas breathing heavily, as though deeply upset by what he was hearing. Henry didn’t know why. It wasn’tnews, after all. They all knew how things had been between Lady Valeria and her brother.
Still, hearing Duncan spell it out for Richard made it real, somehow, in a way it never had been to Henry before. He felt a sudden sharp pang of empathy for Lady Valeria’s plight.
Richard said nothing at all for a moment. Henry wondered whether he was absorbing what had been said, finally taking it to heart.
“At least tell me whether she’s all right,” he said at last.
“She’s fine,” Duncan said. “She’s safe and sound with my mother and myself. We are her family now.”
Richard nodded. “Good,” he said. “That’s good.”
“Is it?”
“I’m not kidding myself, Duncan,” Richard said. “You’d see right through me if I tried. You and I both know that. You’ve always been the better man of the two of us. It took me a long time to admit it, but it’s the truth.”
Duncan was quiet.
“I wasn’t a good brother to her,” Richard said. “You’re absolutely right. So yes, I’m glad that she has someone better. As much as it’s not what I ever wanted—I have to let her go. I have to let her live a life that can make her happy.”
Thomas sucked in a breath.
Henry understood what was going through Thomas’s mind this time. Those words must have resonated particularly strongly. After all, wasn’t that exactly what he was being asked to do—to let Lady Valeria go, so that she could live a life that would make her happy?
Thomas is no Richard.
“Is there anything else you wanted to know?” Duncan asked. His voice was still tight, but Henry imagined it had warmed ever so slightly.
“Nothing,” Richard said. “Just… if you think it won’t cause her too much grief to hear it, will you please tell her that I’m sorry I did her wrong? And that I still care about her, and I hope she’s well?”
“I’ll tell her,” Duncan said.
He turned and strode down the hall without another word, and Thomas and Henry hurried to keep up.
Chapter 32
“So what was all that about?” Duncan asked Thomas.
The three of them were sitting at a pub a short distance away from the prison. Thomas had purchased drinks for everyone—it seemed the least he could do to thank them for making the journey with him, for accompanying him into that dreadful prison.
“Yes,” Henry agreed. “What good was that? We’ve learned that the man was a low-life, to be sure, but we all knewthatalready, didn’t we?”
“Be careful, Henry,” Duncan said. “You’re speaking of my cousin.”
“Well, for goodness’ sake,” Henry said. “You’ve called him a low-life yourself on several occasions.”
“I know that,” Duncan said. “But it’s different when I say it.”
Henry rolled his eyes and took a long drink of ale. “If you say so,” he said.
“You asked him about his debt,” Duncan said. “And his experience with debt collectors. Why?”
“Because I wanted to know if his experience was the same as my own,” Thomas said, “or if I was dealing with something unusual.”
“And?”
