Even bigger than her room, it was one of the largest rooms in the palace. Only the throne room, dining hall, and ballroom were larger.

Darling closed the door to her room and headed for his bed. As gently as he could, he set her down on the mattress.

“Where are you going?” she asked as he stepped away from her.

“I’m not completely helpless, Z.”

“I didn’t say you were, Captain Defensive.”

He paused before he opened the door. “Stay there. I’ll be right back. Have no fear. If I use a razor again, it’ll be to cut my throat.”

Zarya cringed at his warped humor. “That’s not funny, you know.”

He didn’t respond. Instead, he vanished into what must be his bathroom.

A few seconds later, she heard water running.

After a handful of minutes he was back with two warm, damp cloths. He handed one to her to clean herself while he called housekeeping to clean her room next door.

Then he laid back on the bed, and covered his face with the other cloth.

As she leaned against him, she saw a frame on his nightstand. Curious about its contents, she reached over him and pulled it closer, then turned it on.

It was a photo of Darling as a boy, probably around the age of ten. He stood beside his tall, lean father, and behind his mother who sat holding a female toddler with curling red hair. A dark-haired boy a few years younger than Darling stood next to Natale’s knees.

“Is this your family?”

He pulled one corner of the cloth back so that he could see what she was looking at. “Yeah. That’s them.”

They looked so happy together. But that made her wonder something…

“Why isn’t your family here at the palace?”

Shouldn’t they be the ones helping him to heal instead of Maris? Granted Lise was in school, but still…

If Darling was her brother, she wouldn’t have left him alone in the mental condition he was in. He needed people around him who loved him and could reassure and help him while he healed. People who didn’t mind his physical appearance or limitations.

He sighed irritably. “My sister’s at school, mad that I caused her to flunk her classes, and that she’s going to have a permanent limp because of the attack she survived.”

“That wasn’t your fault.”

“Wasn’t it? If I hadn’t pulled her out of school, she would have been fine. Not still going to physical therapy twice a week and living on painkillers that make it hard for her to maintain her course load and grades. But for my interference, she’d have graduated with honors this year. Now, because of me, she’ll be lucky to graduate at all.”

That was twisted logic. “I doubt she thinks that.”

“I don’t. I hear her rant about it every time I call.”

Zarya started to tell him that she’d had an entirely different impression from her earlier conversation with Lise, but she wasn’t sure he wanted her talking to his sister.