“Did you punish him?”
He didn’t answer her right away. In fact, he thought that was an odd question, so he cocked his head curiously.
“What do you remember about your struggle with Raymond?” he asked.
Mira drew in a long, pensive breath. “I came down the stairs after Astoria told me that there was rot in some of the grain,” she said, fighting through the cobwebs. “I thought I heard the servants in the vault. Someone called my name, I think. But when I went down to investigate, Raymond was waiting for me. He grabbed me and we fought.”
Douglas nodded, reaching out to take her battered hand again. “Is that all?”
Mira tried to think very hard. “I… I do not know,” she said. “I feel like it was all a dream. I was fighting him. I tried to run. I was still fighting him and then I heard your voice. But I do not remember much more. That is why I asked if you punished him.”
Considering she’d taken a serious blow to the head, he wasn’t surprised that she didn’t remember all of the details, but what he was fixated on was the fact that she didn’t seem to remember Raymond was dead or that she had been the one to smash his brains in with a rock. Perhaps it was her mind’s way of dealing with such a violent event, but in any case, the fact remained that she didn’t seem to remember what happened. He thought not to tell her at all, but inevitably, someone would mention it.
He wanted her to hear it from him.
“Raymond is dead, love,” he said quietly. “You fought him and he tried to kill you. He did not survive his attack against you.”
Mira stared at him for a long time. From her expression, he knew she was trying to remember everything. He could almost see her thoughts and memories in her eyes. But it was clear that some things simply weren’t coming easily to her, and she reached out, grasping him with her other hand.
“God’s Bones,” she whispered. “Did you kill him, then? Is that why I heard your voice?”
“He will not rise up against you ever again.”
She took it to mean that he’d killed Raymond, and a tear trickled down her right temple. “Are you in trouble now?” she asked. “I never meant to cause you such trouble, Douglas, believe me.”
He squeezed her hands. “I am not in trouble,” he said. “You are not in trouble. Raymond is dead and he is no longer a threat.”
That didn’t ease her, and more tears started to come. “But his father is here,” she said. “He surely must be… Douglas, what will his father do to you for killing his son?”
She was becoming distraught, and he sat down on the bed, her hands against his lips as he spoke. “Listen to me,” he said softly but firmly. “Mira, you will not worry over anything because there will be no retribution. You were attacked. Raymond died because he attacked you and for no other reason than that. You did nothing wrong. Do you understand me?”
She was sniffling, her eyes watery. “A-aye,” she said. “But… I remember that he was following me during the feast, too. He told me that he had heard I wished to dance with him. Do you recall that I told you that?”
“I recall.”
“He seemed so insistent.”
Another thing that Douglas was compelled to tell her simply so she would not be so confused by it. The truth would cause her some distress, but it was something she could at least reconcile. Therefore, he decided to be honest with her where Astoria was concerned. Given the situation, she was going to find out eventually.
“He was insistent because Astoria was telling him lies,” he said. “In fact, Astoria manipulated the entire situation. She was the one who told you to go to the vault, was she not?”
Mira nodded. “She was.”
“Because she had created the situation,” he said. “She was trying to force you into Raymond’s arms, which I was to discover so that I would cast you aside. She was the one orchestrating the entire thing to punish you for the fact that you have my attention.”
Mira’s tears seemed to be fading as a shocked expression took hold. The pieces of the puzzle were coming together inher muddled mind as she began to understand the extent of Astoria’s involvement.
“Isthatwhat happened?” she said incredulously. “God’s Bones… I knew she was trying to harass me, but I can honestly say that it goes beyond what I thought she was capable of.”
Douglas wasn’t hard-pressed to agree. “I have seen things like this from much more important and mature people, men playing games that shape nations, but nothing like what Astoria attempted,” he said. “She was trying very hard to separate us.”
“And she pulled Raymond into her scheme.”
“Exactly,” Douglas said. “I suppose we will never know if he would have attacked you without Astoria’s prompting. Mayhap he would have, mayhap not, but her lies pushed him into it. I wish we’d known that from the beginning. Mayhap we could have prevented what happened in the end.”
Mira pondered her last memories of Raymond, remembering the smell of earth in the vault and the terror in her heart but little more than that. “I cannot be glad for his death, though I will admit I am relieved,” she said. “So many years of harassment have ended, Douglas. It seems too good to be true to never have to worry about him again.”
“His reign of terror, where it concerns you, has come to an end.”
