“That does not answer my question. Do you believe I tainted you?”
“No.” He held her gaze, willing her to see the truth there. “You could never pollute anyone.”
She was beauty and light. She was the only light that had cracked through the shroud of darkness surrounding him the past seven months.
Her silence lasted only a heartbeat before she breathed air into his lungs with words he never thought he’d hear from anyone.
“You are not unworthy or impure, least of all to me.”
Emotion clogged his throat. She would never understand how much her words meant to him. “Your words are a precious gift.”
Her smile turned sheepish, and she chewed on her lower lip before asking, “Where do you suppose your sister could have gone?”
The unexpected question crashed into him like a wave, knocking him over and hurling him into watery depth. It was a question he had asked himself a thousand times. Syeira had a terrible sense of direction and Lash suspected her lost, hurt, and alone. Not thoughts he willingly ventured into.
“I am not certain,” he finally answered. The painful thud in his chest steadied. “It has been seven months. I’m starting to lose hope that I will ever find her.”
“Are you sure she’s in Scotland?” she asked, gently dragging her finger over Bach, pressing her cheek against his pelt.
“I left a parting letter with my travel plans so that she would not worry. She knew I was traveling to Ireland, Cork. I have hunted down the captains of every ship that docked in that harbor with no luck. Then I learned a ship had been lost on the coast of Ireland and the few survivors that were hauled from the sea were transported to the Port of Inverness. One woman matched my sister’s description.”
And Lash would have felt, deep in his bones, had she perished.
“But if you are both in search of each other, both moving constantly, how will you find one another?” Honoria asked. “Perhaps if you remained in one place and left word of your whereabouts with shops, farmers and country folk, she might find you.”
Lash blinked. He hadn’t considered that. Then he thought of his brother and shook his head. “With Danior in Scotland, I cannot take that chance.”
“After we deal with your brother then.”
“Wewill not do anything. You will stay as far away from my brother as you possibly can. I mean it, Honoria.”
“I—”
“No excuses,” he said sharply. “If you ever put yourself in the same path as my brother again, I will take you over my knee and beat sense into you.”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“I would if it meant putting a stop to you launching yourself at danger.”
“I only meant to help you.”
“You can help me by staying safe.” He dropped the brush and stalked over to her. “Do you have any idea how powerless I felt when you confronted my brother? He could have hurt you.”
“You were close by, and apparently so was Hugh.”
“And we would still have been outnumbered.” He dragged a hand over his face. “This is no light matter. Danior and his men are dangerous.”
“Why can’t your brother leave you be?”
Lash sighed. “Even I cannot begin to explain his reasoning.”
“You must suspect some reasoning on his part,” she insisted.
Evil required no reasoning.
Lash knew that better than anyone. He did not want to tarnish Honoria’s view of the world. She appeared so innocent,fragile—very much untainted by the hardships that had colored his life.
“Did he not say anything after he attacked you?” she pressed.