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What she did hate to see was how frazzled Jules was. Her stepmother didn’t know how to handle this situation any better than Victoria did. The whole of it unfolding was out of Jules’s power, even as she was desperately trying to scrape some semblance of control back.
“You taught Victoria well, Lady Troubant.” Rafe looked at Jules, his gaze even and complimentary.
Jules looked up from her plate. Those were the first words that had been spoken over this table since Jules had found them in the woods.
Jules blinked, her eyes narrowing, suspicious. “Taught Vicky what?”
“To wield a blade.”
Jules’s look swung to Victoria, her brows high and her eyes wide. “You had to use a blade? You didn’t tell me this. What happened?”
Victoria issued a quick glare to Rafe, then looked to Jules. “It was nothing, truly. It was when I got the black eye. I had taken Fox out to relieve himself and several men approached me.”
Her mouth closed. An abbreviated version, but the confrontation was dead and buried in the past. Literally.
“And?” Jules asked, her stare unflinching, studying Victoria’s face.
“And she was rather spectacular with the dagger,” Rafe answered for her. “She sliced one of the cutthroats across the back of the knees, then stuck the blade straight through his hand.”
A smile flickered across Jules’s face. Instant pride. Her look shifted to Rafe. “You arrived to help?”
“I did.”
“Why weren’t you there to begin with?”
“I wasn’t aware she had gone out with the pup. Once I was, I went looking for her.”
“How many were there?”
“Four.”
Jules gave a slight nod, then looked to Victoria. “Well done, Vicky.” Sudden concern laced her eyes. “Did it escalate? Did you have to…”
Her voice trailed off and she looked to Rafe. Unspoken, but Jules was asking whether or not Victoria had been forced to kill.
He met her gaze, his look hard as he shook his head. “I took care of it.”
Relief flooded Jules’s face, and her eyes closed for a long moment. Victoria knew what her stepmother’s past was like, and how very much she wanted to protect her children—Jules included—from the hauntings of lost souls.
Jules opened her eyes, her look intent on Victoria. “You are at peace with what happened? Your heart is kind—you know I worry on it.”
Victoria reached across the table, setting her fingers atop Jules’s hand. “You were right. When I needed to do it, I could. I did not think twice upon sinking the blade into him.”
A sad smile crossed Jules’s face. “I wish you never had to, but I’m proud that you did what was necessary.”
Victoria inclined her head to Rafe. “Without Rafe, though, I do not know what would have happened. It would not have been good.”
Cautiously, Jules looked to Rafe. “Thank you for that. I will take every bit of innocence that can be preserved in this one.”
Jules’s voice trailed off again. The fact that Rafe had taken a very different innocence of Victoria’s only days later hung thick in the air.
Victoria set a bright smile on her face. “Where is Fox? I’ve barely seen him. I would have thought he’d be sniffing after me.”
Jules chuckled. “You lost that dog the second you set him in front of Tarrence. He hasn’t let the puppy out of his sight. Fox has been tucked into his bed at night, Tarrence curled around him.”
Victoria chuckled. Fox deserved the happiest nest to snuggle into and her young brother had a kind soul, especially for animals.
The echo of quick steps clomped along the corridor that led to the dining hall. All three of them turned to the main doorway, waiting to see who would appear.
