“My fault?” he repeated, mildly amused now but wanting to hear what was on the young girl's mind.
“Yes! If you had not dragged us to this wretched, cold place….if you had not…” Her voice trembled. “Charity would not have changed.”
“Changed how?” Duncan grew concerned. He knew that there was more to what was being let on, and he intended to find out if he was ever to solve this issue.
“She keeps things from us,” Augusta said, her voice breaking between anger and hurt. “And I can hardly piece together what is right. It was not always like this, and she used to be more honest with us. But since she has met you, she has begun to treat us like children.”
“You are children,” he said quietly, and she flinched as if struck.
“Lovely, just lovely,” she hissed, “that is exactly how you see us.”
Duncan exhaled slowly through his nose.
“I still do not see how that is reason enough to leave,” Duncan replied calmly.
“It is enough if a reason,” Augusta fired back. “If we do not know what is truly going on, then it would be wiser to make our exit.”
Duncan wanted to sigh loudly, but he tried to keep his expression placid. “Have you wondered, even for a moment, that Charity is behaving in this manner because she is trying to protect you from things?”
“Protect us, why?” Augusta said, gritting her teeth. “She was not the only one whose parents were lost, and we share this grief together. I believe that we can be together in this.”
“She kept things from you because she believes it is her duty to carry them alone,” he said at last. That was his assessment of things, and it made him think of Charity in quite a favorable light.
“You do not know my sister,” Augusta scoffed.
“I know enough,” he stepped closer, lowering the lantern so its light fell gently rather than harshly. “Your cousin drugged her, and that is why she had disappeared.”
Both girls froze.
“What?” Augusta whispered.
“She woke in the woods, alone, poisoned with henbane. Had we not found her, she might have died.” His voice remained steady. “Your uncle has sent threats since, and I do not think that he is going to give up easily. He is a dangerous man, considering what he did to Charity alone. I suppose they would not have minded much if she ended up dead in the process.”
Matilda’s crying stopped entirely while Augusta’s face drained of color.
“That is not true,” Augusta began to shake her head, “surely, Charity would have said something if this was truly the case. That is far too… well… no, it cannot be true.”
“It is.” His gaze did not waver. “She did not tell you because she wished to spare you the fear.”
“No… Robert would not…” Augusta shook her head.
“He would,” Duncan replied. “Whether by his father’s command or his own weakness, he would.”
Silence pressed in around them, and Matilda took a small step toward him instead of away.At leasthe was earning the trust of one of them.
“She was going to send us away,” Augusta said faintly, still trying to come to grips with whatever that she was being told.
“To protect you,” he corrected.
Augusta’s anger flared again, but it was thinner now.
“She should have trusted us,” she sighed. Duncan wondered what Charity was going to say when she found out that he had dished out the entire truth to her sisters, but he knew that such a thing was necessary.
“She trusts you with her heart,” Duncan said. “But she does not trust the world with you.”
There was more silence that filled the space in between them.
“If we return,” she said carefully, “you will not send us away?”
