“Leave us,” Henry said to everyone.
His guards hesitated.
“Now!” Henry roared.
They left, but Callie went no farther than the closed door. She glanced at the guard who looked away sheepishly, then she pressed her ear to the door to hear them.
A heartbeat later, the guard did the same.
“Give me those papers, Sin.”
Sin didn’t move. He couldn’t. Everyone in the great hall believed he had killed his own brother. Everyone, including Callie. He shouldn’t care what Callie thought and yet he did. He cared in a way that scared him. “Why did you do it?”
Henry shrugged. “It had to be done.”
How many times had he heard those words? How many times had he murdered for Henry? In truth, it was a miracle he hadn’t been the one ordered to cut Roger’s throat.
“I won’t marry a woman who believes I could cut the throat of my own brother.”
“Whyever not? It’s not as if you haven’t done worse things in your life. Remember what your masterscalled you? Melek in Ölüm. The Angel of Death. It’s what you’ve always been best at.”
Sin’s jaw ticced at Henry’s words. How stupid he had been to even hope he could start anew with Caledonia and live a quiet, normal life. He could never run from his past. From all the things he’d done to survive.
He stared at the papers in his hands and saw his signature below Callie’s. Her dainty, graceful handwriting was a stark contrast to his clumsy attempt.
She was made of such goodness, such kindness. Everything about her was beautiful and he was nothing but evil. Ugly. A scarred soulless monster, incapable of anything save destruction.
Melek in Ölüm. The title rang in his ears. Even now he could hear his masters laughing as they trained him. He had gone by many names back then. Had committed crimes he wished he could bury to the farthest reaches of his mind. He didn’t deserve a second chance at life. And he damned sure didn’t deserve a woman as decent and kind as Callie.
Only a devil like Henry would seek to bind them together.
Through the pain of his memories, he saw an image of Callie’s warm smile. Heard the beauty of her laughter.
She touched him on a level that made no sense whatsoever.
“Now…” Henry held his arm out. “Hand me those papers.”
Sin hesitated. But in the end, he found himself handing them over against his will.
Henry breathed a sigh of relief as he tucked the papers inside the leather pouch on the altar. “I am your friend, Sin. You know that. If not for me, you would have died alone in Outremer without ever being among your own kind again.”
His own kind. Strange, Sin felt as alien here in England as he had ever felt in the Saracen tribes who had bought and sold him.
Henry tucked the pouch under his arm. “Why do you care what the wench thinks of you anyway?”
Sin cut a glare to Henry to let him know he had overstepped his bounds. “That lady happens to be my wife. I would caution you to show her due respect.”
Henry rolled his eyes. “Not another one. I do you a favor and get a snapping lion at my heels. Please don’t tell me you’re going to be like Thomas Becket and turn on me, too.”
“You know me better than that.”
“I thought I knew him better than that, too, and yet look how wrong I was.” Henry stared at him speculatively for the span of several heartbeats. “By the way, if you’re still thinking of thwarting this marriage by trickery, think again. Come morning, I want proof of consummation.”
Sin arched a brow at that. “Don’t tell me you wish to witness the event.”
“Hardly. I’ve already verified her virginal state. Come morning if there is no blood, then I shall have my physicians examine her again. There had best be no maidenhead.”
Sin gave him a dull stare. “You keep speaking as if I care whether or not I live or die. You have no real power over me, Henry, you know that. All that binds us together is my oath of loyalty to you.”
