Her hand falling to her side, Sloane sat down on the edge of the bed. “I needed to talk to you as you are the only person I can trust with this information.”
“Wait, before…” Torrie’s eyes closed for the longest moment. With a heavy breath, her eyelids cracked open, her look grave. “I’m sorry I asked you.”
Sloane’s breath caught in her throat. She shook her head. “You don’t need to apologize, Tor. I ken the pain you were in.”
“It was unfair.” Torrie drew a ragged breath into her lungs. “I’m a coward and I couldn’t kill myself, but I never should have asked you to do it. It would have been too much to bear—for the rest of your life. I’m sorry I did that to you. You were right to leave.”
“You forgive me?”
“It never needed forgiving, Sloane. You were doing what was right.”
Her heart shattering just as violently as it had months ago when Torrie had asked her to do it, Sloane had to lean forward, searching for breath. She had failed Torrie—she hadn’t been strong enough to do as her cousin had begged.
But now, forgiveness. Who knew it would break her just as easily?
Torrie’s right arm moved, her hand splaying onto her stomach. She inhaled a deep breath, her face cringing in a flash of pain. “So tell me, what has happened?”
“I went after him—Lord Falsted. Except he doesn’t own the land. I saw the papers. The Duke of Wolfbridge is the man. So I went after him.”
“You did?” Torrie’s beautiful big green eyes went wide. “What happened?” She shifted, trying to sit up.
Sloane quickly grabbed several pillows, stacking them behind Torrie so she could rest against them.
“I found him, Reiner—the duke. I went to his castle in Lincolnshire and I went there to destroy him. Lord Falsted helped arrange it. All I needed to do was steal a book from him. A book that would ruin him were it to ever get out.”
“What was the book?”
“It’s a ledger of some sort with names. I have looked at it, but I am not sure what it’s for. Lord Falsted said with the book, all of the duke’s sins would be revealed—properties would be revoked, his title removed, charges of treason against the crown. Ruined, fully and wholly.”
“So it is done?” The smallest pained smile came to the corners of Torrie’s lips. “He is ruined?”
“Not exactly.”
“What happened?” Her cousin’s forehead furrowed.
“I still have the book as there was a hiccup before I stole it.”
Torrie’s look narrowed at her. “What hiccup?”
“I slipped and fell when I was trying to gain entrance to the duke’s castle. The fall knocked memories from my head, because I forgot everything of the last six months.”
“Oh no.” Torrie’s eyes squinted in worry. “But you have remembered now?”
Sloane nodded. “I have, but not before I spent time with the duke. With his family.” She drew a deep breath and exhaled it in a tortured sigh. “I like the man, Torrie. Had I known what had happened I could have easily hated him. But I didn’t know and then I—I grew to like him. He is a good man…I think.”
“What do you mean you like him?” Torrie’s words hissed into the room.
Sloane shrugged, avoiding Torrie’s glare by looking to the healthy fire adding heat to the already stifling hot room.
“Let me see your arm, Sloane.”
Wary, her look shifted to her cousin. “Why?”
“Let me see it.” Torrie wiggled her fingers at Sloane.
Her gaze fixed on Torrie’s face, Sloane stripped off the long glove that constantly concealed her left arm.
Torrie grabbed her left wrist, her fingers wrapping along the twisted flesh. “Look at it, Sloane.”