“Has he been bothering you?”
Leah’s smile was grim. “Nay, he was being kind, asking about my health, pretending that he cared.” Her lovely face turned into a mask of stone as if she remembered Darton’s cruelty to her. “I would gladly cut out his heart if I could.”
“Hush!” Sorcha hissed.
“I didn’t hear a thing,” Nellie said, removing an empty cup and, with a sly wink, slipping through the open door.
“Be careful,” Sorcha warned. “Trust no one in this keep.”
“Nellie can keep a secret.”
“You think so?” Sorcha said, closing the door behind the serving woman. “My guess is that she tells everything to Lady Anne, as does Ona.”
Leah lifted a shoulder. “I care not.”
“Of course you do.”
“What can they do to me that they have not already?” she asked, her eyes suddenly lifeless.
Sorcha grabbed hold of her sister’s hand. “What did he do to you?” she whispered, and Leah shuddered as if an icy blast of winter wind had cut through her small body.
“What did he not?”
“Did he beat you?”
“Nay.” Leah shook her head.
“Touch you?”
Tears sprang to her eyes.
“Lie with you?” Sorcha asked gently, and Leah swallowed, tears drizzling down her cheeks.
“He … He was angry when he discovered that his men had captured me. He wanted you. I thought he would leave me alone, but he was so … filled with wrath that he tore off my clothes and … and forced me …oh, God…There were other men nearby, for they met up with us in the forest, and then … though I was naked and he was fully dressed, he tied together his breeches and ordered me upon a horse.” She sniffed and touched her fingers to her eyes.
Sorcha’s blood ran hot with fury. “The ride. ’Twas painful.”
“Aye … but not the worst. Later, he brought me to that horrid room and left me there, coming and going, taking me whenever he was angry.”
Sorcha’s heart twisted, for she imagined how brutal Darton could be.
“I meant nothing more to him than an animal or a piece of meat. Though I would scream, he would …tell me to do the most vile …” Her stomach wrenched and she shook her head. “When I could stand it no longer, I stole the knife I was to eat with and, praying to God, cut at my veins. I wanted not to live.”
Sorcha blinked back her own tears. “You will be avenged, sister. He will hurt you no more.”
“He could not,” she said without inflection, and Sorcha realized that Darton had taken more than Leah’s virginity, he’d stolen her dignity as well.
“I promise you, he will suffer,” Sorcha vowed, and Leah’s color came back a little. She had been recovering slowly, her appetite had increased, and she had even smiled once in a while, though she never left the chamber, certain that if she did, she would run into Darton. Her wrists were still bound, but her hands moved freely.
“I only hope I am the one who will inflict his pain,” Leah said. She took the necklace of twigs from her neck. “I think I’ll need these no longer.”
Sorcha stuffed the cord and sticks into the pouch hanging from her belt.
“There are many guests arriving,” Leah said, looking out the window.
“Just like home.”
“Aye.” Her voice quivered with sadness. “Have you time for a game?” she asked, and Sorcha, though she was anxious to find Bjorn, agreed, hoping