Page 95 of Heart of Iron
“She’s awake!”
Honoria materialized, her face white and pale with lack of sleep.Her hand slid over Lena’s forehead, deliciously cool.“Charlie,” she murmured.“Could you fetch some more water?And something to eat?”The last question was directed at Lena.
She nodded sharply.Her stomach growled at the thought, twisting with emptiness.
Honoria held a glass to her lips.Cool water wet her dry tongue and she gasped greedily at it.The door shut behind Charlie as Honoria settled on the edge of the bed.
“Drink it slowly,” Honoria said.“You’ve been asleep for a long time.”
By the time she’d drained the glass she was feeling marginally better.Looking around, she recognized her old room in the warren.
“Will?”
“He’s still asleep.”Honoria stroked a hand over her damp hair.“Lena, your temperature’s abnormally high.You’re burning with fever.How do you feel?”
She considered her body.“Hungry?”
Concern flashed through Honoria’s dark eyes.“What happened?Can you remember?All Rip could tell us was that he heard a whistle of distress and then Will was gone.We found your carriage turned over in the street, but no sign of either of you.Blade and Rip searched the tunnels but lost Will’s scent trail.Someone had sprayed the area with some sort of chemical that obliterated smell.”
Everything that had happened flashed through her mind.She opened her mouth.Then shut it.She had sworn that she would speak of the humanists to no one.And she didn’t dare get her sister involved.
Tears sprang into her eyes, her emotions strangely raw.“Honor, if I asked you a question, would you answer it?”
“Of course.”
Their eyes met.“Was Father a humanist?”
Stillness radiated through her sister’s body.“Why would you ask such a thing?”
“It’s true then.”Lena’s voice hardened and she struggled to sit up.“What else did you think was best kept secret from me?Father’s work for Vickers?The truth of what he was really doing?”
Honoria stiffened.“Where did you learn of this?”
“It doesn’t matter.It’s all true, isn’t it?”
Something old filled Honoria’s eyes.“Yes.I don’t know how much you’re aware of, but it’s true.In the last years of his life Father grew dissatisfied with the way of the world.He started working on a cure for the craving for Vickers, but in his own time he researched a blue blood’s weaknesses.He wanted to discover methods of destroying them.”
Lena pressed her hands against her face.Everything that Rosalind had told her was correct.
Honoria eased a tentative hand on her shoulder.“Lena?You’re not angry at me?I did as I thought best.The information is dangerous.I was only ever trying to protect you both.”
“You should have told me.”As soon as she said the words she realized how familiar Honoria’s statement sounded.They were all excuses she herself had used.A similarity she never thought she’d ever have shared with her sister.They were so different at heart, and yet she couldn’t deny that Honoria would risk her own life for her and Charlie without pause.Sliding a hand over her sister’s, she squeezed gently.
“Lena, what happened in the tunnels?”
A world she could never reveal.“Someone kidnapped me.I’m not sure who.Will came after them and saved me.”
The story was far too brief to appease her sister and they both knew it.But whatever guilt currently flayed Honoria, she didn’t dare question the statement.
“Do you think I could see Will?”Lena asked softly.
“He’s asleep.”
“Just to check on him.”She’d thought him lost.The urge to make sure he was safe and alive was suddenly a crushing need.“Please.”
Honoria sighed.“I’ll allow it.But only because I understand what you’re feeling.”
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