chapter 61

Tara comes to see me while I’m still changing out of my gown. She bursts into my dressing room and practically pushes Hannah down to get to me.

I hold my injured arm out of the way, so she won’t accidentally bang into it when she collides with me and wraps me in a strong hug.

“What happened to you?” she cries against my hair.

How does she not know? It’s the whole reason she was—and Clare still is—under lock and key. “Nobody told you what was going on?”

Tara steps back, shaking her head, eyes fixed on where my hand should be. “They said the king ordered further investigation of our husbands’ plot. What happened to your hand?”

“An assassin bit it off,” I say, more concerned with what was going on while I recovered. Especially since Tara goes pale, clearly receiving this information for the very first time. “You had no idea I was attacked?”

“No! And I don’t understand…how did an assassin bite your hand off?” She still can’t take her eyes from my bandaged stump. “How could anyone possibly