Where was she? For a moment, she had no recollection of that, or of what had happened to her. Then, blinking, she looked around and realised she was in her bedroom. But how had she come to be here? The last thing she remembered was standing in the drawing-room talking to her brother— Robert… Hannah gasped as memory returned. Oh God. Yes, now she remembered. And with the memory, came pain. Terrible debilitating pain that left her gasping for air as she recalled the horrible lies Robert had told her. Because they had to be lies, she thought feverishly. They couldn’t be true. They couldn’t possibly be true! Hannah slowly sat up in bed, groggy and lethargic, as though she’d had one glass of wine too many. Someone had left a candle burning at her bedside but the rest of the room was in darkness. She pressed her fingers to her throbbing temples and tried to shut out the memory. Why had Robert said such horrid things to her? Why would he claim that she wasn’t his sister? Granted, there was little enough affection between them, but surely he did not hate her so much that he would speak to her this way.
