“Nothing is going to happen to us, Hugh.”
“I should have known the moment you asked me to dab his brow and I complied, I would never win an argument with you again,” Hugh muttered. His lips pulled up in disgust.
A throat cleared, drawing their attention to Lash, who appeared, large as a post, in the archway.
“Oh, good, you’re here, finally,” Hugh muttered. “Perhaps now you can shed some light on what the deuce is going on?”
Lash nodded. “I wish to bid you a farewell and thank you for your hospitality,” Lash answered. “It’s for the best that I go.”
The blood drained from Honoria’s face.
Was he leaving? No. Out of the question. He couldn’t go! Not yet. Not before she learned his dance. Not without her.
“Don’t be absurd,” Hugh snapped, to Honoria’s complete astonishment. She glanced at Isla, but her sister’s eyes were on Hugh, wide with shock.
“You have not fully recovered from your wound,” Hugh carried on chastising. “And by the looks of the men after you, you will need all of your strength.”
Even Lash had a look of astonishment on his face before his brows drew together in a scowl. “You should be tossing me out on my arse, not encouraging me to stay.”
“Aye, usually, I would agree, but I will not be responsible for sending a man off to his death. That was your brother. He was the one who stabbed you.”
Honoria watched as Lash clenched his jaw, his features growing somber. A cloud of dark torment spiraled in the depth of his green eyes, and she dearly wanted to kiss his grief away.
“His name is Danior,” he admitted. “Our relationship is . . . complicated.”
“Complicated?” Hugh’s incredulity tore through the room.
Lash sighed. “Danior has always loathed me. One eve, there was an incident with the man my sister favored. Danior beat him to a pulp. There’d been no need for such force. My sister was devastated. I stood up for her, fought Danior to teach him a lesson. I thought that would be the end of it.”
“But it wasn’t?” Honoria asked.
Lash shook his head. “Even after agreeing to leave willingly in the morning, that night they came to cast me out, Danior and our cousins, looking to shed blood.”
“But tokillyou? I thought the Rom valued life?” Honoria asked, saddened that his brother could be such a monster.
“Not all of them.” A dark glow entered his eyes. “My father is an evil man, and my brother inherited that darkness. TheRom Baro, the leader of our tribe, banished our family after my father beat me near to death because I wouldn’t help him and my brother steal fromgadjos. My father never forgave me; neither did Danior. But the night I knocked him out changed everything for the worse.”
“That is detestable,” Isla murmured, clutching her throat.
Honoria agreed. She wished there was a way to comfort him, to take that look from his eyes. It must have been dreadful to live with such cruelty. “You never mentioned a brother when I asked about your family.”
“Danior is dead to me.”
The finality of the statement tore at Honoria’s heart.
“And the tribe will not take you or your sister back?” Hugh asked.
“No—TheRom Baro’sdecision is final. Blood is blood.” Lash sighed. “I was resigned to depart from my sister. But a week after I left, I received word from a friend that Syeira had run off in search of me. Something must have happened for her to leave. . . Maybe I was wrong. Maybe she wasn’t safe from them as I first believed. I’ve been searching for her for seven months. Her path led me to the Highlands—only it seems Danior followed me here.”
“Why would he follow you?” Honoria asked.
“That I cannot say.”
Honoria’s heart pinched as a shadow passed over Lash’s face when he spoke of his sister. She couldn’t imagine a life without her brothers. It had been heartbreaking when Ewan died, and they all still felt his loss keenly. But to have your brother stab you? Your sister missing? She could not begin to imagine how Lash must feel.
“But why does your brother want you dead so badly?” Isla murmured. “Pride alone?”
“You will have to ask him that.”
