The door opened and she turned, her words out before she could stop them. “The duke. He lives?”
Temple’s second, the man who had stood sentry outside the orphanage, tall and broad with skin dark as midnight, did not reply, instead silently indicating that she should walk ahead of him into the dark hallway with a seriousness that suggested it would be a mistake to push him for an answer or to ignore his instructions.
He’d clearly been trained by Temple.
Heart pounding, she did as she was bid, and as she passed him, he did speak, his voice low and gruff. “Try nothing.”
She wanted to tell him she wouldn’t. That she hated what had happened. That, had she known it would come to pass, she would have done everything in her power to stop it. That even at her most angry, she’d never intended to hurt Temple. But she knew the words would be futile and their meaning mistaken for lie or worse. And so, instead, she held herself straight and tall and made her way past him into the dimly lit hallway.
The corridor was lined with men and women in a variety of uniforms—from livery to lady of the evening—each face pale with shadow and concern. Each gaze hot with loathing.
She longed for the mask that had been taken from her after the fight.
They watched her with angry eyes as she made her way through the already unsettling passageways designed to overpower with their size and curvature—designed to make it exceedingly clear to all who passed who held the power. Designed to dissuade Prometheus from thinking he might fare well in his quest.
“I hope you’re taking ’er to Chase,” one of the women said, blond and beautiful and filled with vitriol. “I hope ’e plans to deal with ’er.”
A murmur of agreement rolled through the too-small space at the suggestion, and a man nearby added, “She deserves everything Temple got.”
“She deserves more,” a wicked shout came from behind her, and Mara crossed her arms tightly, moving more quickly, desperate to get away from them. From their hate.
And then her escort opened a door and she threw herself from the hallway into the chamber, pulling up short as she realized where she was.
Wishing she had remained in the corridor beyond.
She was in Temple’s rooms, where she’d watched him strip his shirt earlier in the evening. Where they’d sparred. Where he’d kissed her on lips and more, giving her a taste of a vast amount of pleasure to which he had access. Where she’d tried to stand firm and tried not to notice his muscles and sinew and bone. His warmth. His vitality.
Vitality that was gone now. A woman and two men leaned low over him, candlelight wrapping him in its warm glow, highlighting the paleness of his skin, still as death. She closed her eyes against the words, wishing she hadn’t thought them. Willing the word death away.
She stepped toward him, a knot in her throat. “My God,” she said, her chest heavy with fear and sorrow, unable to stop herself from reaching for him before her guide placed a strong hand on her arm and stopped her forward momentum.
The Marquess of Bourne turned at the sound of her voice, and she noted the bruise blossoming at the inner corner of his eye, feeling the related sting in her right hand. He pointed at her. “You don’t come near him.”
There was hatred in the words, and a different woman might not have replied. But she could not bear another moment of not knowing. “Is he dead?”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“No,” she said, the truth coming on a flood of relief, knowing that the quiet word would mean nothing in this room, but wanting to say it nonetheless. Wanting to remind herself that she’d never intended to hurt Temple. Never. Not since the beginning. And certainly not now. “No.”
He raised a brow. “I don’t believe you.”
She met his gaze. “I didn’t expect you would.”
“Enough, Bourne.” The woman at the table looked up and Mara recognized the blond, bespectacled woman from the mysterious room where they’d watched the fight earlier. “We can’t wait any longer. We must extract the knife.”
It had been an hour . . . longer.
Mara could not keep quiet. “Straight and true, as it went in.”
“She would know how it went in, as she fairly put it there herself,” Bourne said. “Look upon your work, you fucking harpy.”
As though Mara couldn’t see it. As though she hadn’t seen her brother plunge it deep into Temple’s chest.
As though she didn’t will it away.
She met Bourne’s hating, hazel gaze. “I did not do this.”
“Of course you did.” This, from the other aristocrat in the room—tall and ginger-haired. When she looked to him, he added, “You did this the moment you set him up for a murder he didn’t commit. Twelve years end here. With this.”
“It was a . . .” Mara trailed off, shaking her head. They did not understand. Few did.
It was a mistake.
She did not say it, because they neither cared to hear her story, nor deserved to. Temple was another tale. Temple deserved the truth.