“Aye.” Greer looked at the bed, and her shoulders slumped. “I really dinna want to go back down there. I’m suddenly so tired.”
“Ye dinna have to. We’ll take a tray up here like we planned. There are plenty of nights ahead of us to dine with the others. I’m tired too, Wife. Ye wore me out.”
“Good.” Greer chortled as Thor went to the door and turned to her.
“I’ll be right back. I’ll tell Rose and the cook that we’re retiring early. Nay one will blame us after what’s happened today.”
Greer inhaled and nodded. That was little consolation, but she knew Thor was right. He shut the door behind him and made his way down the stairs and to Blaine’s solar. He wondered if his sister and brother-by-marriage were still there. He knocked and heard Blaine’s voice. Rose swiped tears from her cheeks and rushed to Thor.
“Is she all right? Blaine didna mean aught.”
“We ken.”
“Thor, something happened to her, didna it? Someone did more than just beat her.” Rose’s deep brown eyes bore into his matching ones. His sister was an avenging angel for those who were wronged. She would lead Blaine’s men into battle if she thought she could punish anyone who hurt her closest friend. But Greer specifically said she didn’t want Rose to know.
“She wasna treated right while she lived with her clan.”
Rose’s left eye narrowed, and she cast him a mulish expression. She wouldn’t be satisfied with such a vague answer. She took another step forward. “I have never seen ye so angry as when ye ripped that restraint from Greer’s bed. They werenae there just to keep her from trying to leave her chamber or to punish her. They were there because men—”
“Dinna ye let her ken ye figured it out, Rosie. It will upset her.”
“She’d be ashamed in front of me?”
“That too. That—” Thor pointed at his twin’s face. “—expression of guilt and pity is why she didna want ye to ken. She doesnae want ye to believe ye could have done more. Ye couldnae have.”
“But I could have. If I’d kenned, I would have told ye. Ye would have gone. Da or Grandda—any mon in any part of our family—would have gone to save her. She didna need to endure that.”
“Rosie, to her mind she did. By staying, she gathered information to give to ye. She wanted to protect her people. She couldnae have done that—or at least, she didna think she could have done that—if she left. Edgar wouldnae have stopped, but we wouldnae have had any warning. More Sinclairs and Gunns would have died.”
“That wasna her cross to bear. Did she tell ye all this? Did she tell ye that’s how she felt?” Rose demanded answers she knew she couldn’t ask Greer to give. Thor would have to suffice.
“Nay. I figured it out while we were there. But she told me she doesnae want ye to ken because she doesnae want ye to feel guilty.”
“More secrets,” Rose hissed.
“She’s ma wife now, Rosie. Ye dinna tell me all that goes on between ye and Blaine. Ye canna expect me to tell ye all that goes on between Greer and me.”
“Ye married today. Ye could have told me all of this well before now. Ye kept far more from me than I kept from ye. I kept a friendship from ye. Ye kept a wife, a life ye planned, a bairn—”
“I didna ken aboot the bairn. Do ye think I would have left her there if I’d kenned? I’m tired of ye assuming the worst aboot ma intentions with Greer. I love ye and have since long before we kenned what that meant. Dinna judge me lest ye be judged.”
Blaine came to stand between them, but they shot him matching glares that would have been funny if the siblings weren’t in the midst of a heated fight.
“I dinna just blame ye. I blame Greer too. Even if ye hadnae wanted to tell me, she had plenty of chances to share this.”
“To what avail? We were together for nine moons, then apart for eight years. Did ye wish for each of us to harp at ye aboot what a horrible person we thought the other was?”
“Nay, ye daft sod. I would have fixed it. Ye could have been happy together.”
Thor exhaled through his nose, his head tilting to the right before shaking it. He wrapped his arms around his sister and pulled her close. “Ye wanting to fix it is something Greer and I both love ye for. But she feared what would happen if ye got involved. She didna slight ye. She’s as fiercely protective of ye as ye are of her. This wasna yer mess to fix, even if ye are ma bossy aulder sister.”
Rose didn’t wear her ketch in the solar, but she’d pinned her hair up that morning. Thor grasped the rolled knot and tugged lightly. She pinched his ribs much harder than usual.
“Ye deserve far more, little brother.”
“Three bluidy minutes.”
“And dinna ye forget it. I’m sorry for getting upset with ye. I dinna like kenning I canna make this better for either of ye.”
