And I was not there to comfort her through the pain of it. I was swimming, oblivious, like a fool.He had no doubt that he would regret that forever. It had already haunted his dreams, during the brief spells where he had managed to sleep at all.
“Well?” Luke prompted. “Have things thawed or frosted over again? Has she said anything that could help us discover who attacked her? Ah, yes! Does she remember the night she lost her memories? Do we know if it was an accident?”
Henry shook his head. “It is the only part of her memory that has not been restored to her. She recalls parts of that evening, but nothing out of the ordinary, and nothing of how she ended up coming to the North Tower.”
“The mind can protect itself sometimes,” Owen said quietly. Cryptically.
“What do you mean?” Henry asked.
Owen’s fingertips touched his scarred cheek. “I have seen it in soldiers. They forget so they do not have to dwell on terrible things. You can ask a man what he had for his breakfast three weeks ago, and he can tell you. You ask him if the man he killed an hour ago was wearing a hat or not, and he cannot recall.”
A shudder ran down Henry’s spine, wondering what manner of horror could have urged Thalia’s memory to forget that one night, if that truly was what had happened to her mind. Had she suffered, even before she ended up at the bottom of the stairs? Had she been terrified? Had she thought she might lose her life?
A knock at the door made him jump, snapping him from his awful reverie.
“Henry?” The door opened before he could say anything. “I thought I heard noises, and—oh. Oh, goodness! I did not realize you had company.”
Thalia stood there in the doorway, looking as ethereal as she had on their wedding day. She wore a simple white dress with a pale-yellow ribbon as the only adornment, her honey-colored hair coming free of the bun and the slides that held it back, messy in the most appealing fashion. Particularly the wavy locks that framed her beautiful, slightly flushed face.
At once, Owen and Luke got to their feet, bowing. Henry was slow to join them, uncertain of whether or not he was supposed to bow when his own wife came into the room.
Thalia hurriedly dipped into a brief curtsy. “I apologize for the intrusion, gentlemen. I was in the library and… Well, you heard the rest. Now that I know there are no invaders in the house, I shall leave you be.”
“Or stay,” Luke said with a smile, gesturing to the armchair that was not yet occupied. “We have some celebrating to do, after all.”
Thalia frowned at him in obvious confusion. “We do?”
“A toast to your restored memory,” Luke explained.
She glanced at Henry, staring at him as if he had just opened her diary and read the entire thing from front to back.
Owen smirked and sipped his drink as he sat back down, while Luke went to pour a small measure for Thalia. Something that Henry himself probably should have done, but he could not look away from his wife’s exquisite face, even if her eyes were burning with disbelief.
“They are aiding in the search,” Henry managed to explain. “Theyhadto be informed.”
Her eyes narrowed as she chewed her lip in consternation.
A moment later, she asked a question that made all three men blink; it was so unexpectedly blunt. “Can you be trusted? Can you swear that to me?”
With a look akin to admiration, Owen turned in his chair and dipped his head to Thalia. “I am loyal to just two things in my life, Duchess: honor and brotherhood.” He gestured to Henry. “Any attack on your husband, on you by extension, is an attack on me.”
“And I do what Owen and Henry tell me,” Luke chimed in with a grin, handing her the glass of brandy. “I will not lie and say I do not enjoy gossip, both the listening of it and the sharing of it. But when it comes to secrets of actual importance, there is no safe better sealed than these lips.”
Henry slowly sat back down. “They told no one of the loss of your memories; they will tell no one of the return of them.”
Thalia’s shoulders relaxed a little. “That is… of comfort, thank you.” She looked down at the glass in her hands, as if she did not know how it had gotten there. “But I really should leave you to your evening. I would not want to interrupt.”
“Stay,” Henry said, quiet yet firm. “Please, stay.”
He had missed her these past few days. He did not want to admit it to himself, but he had. And having her here among the company of his friends seemed like the perfect excuse to spend some time with her, where the dangers of being left alone together could not trouble them.
For a moment, it seemed she would leave anyway. Then, with a small breath, holding tightly to her glass of brandy, she walked to the empty armchair and sat down.
“You know my secret,” she said, a nervous smile upon her lips. “I think it only fair that you share one of yours in return. Better yet, one of my husband’s.”
Henry froze, uncertain of how much his friends could be trusted after all.
CHAPTER 24
