Angel's POV
"My husband woke me up before dawn," Agnes started her story. Quietly. Not the voice she used for strength. "He was… he was already up when I woke, already dressed, and he looked at me when I opened my eyes and the way he looked at me, Angel…" She pressed her hands flat against her thighs. "I didn't understand it then. I was half asleep and annoyed and I didn't understand it."
I said nothing. Just watched her face.
"He said he needed me to go to the neighboring village. Early, before people were up, to collect something from a woman there. And I was furious." A small, broken sound that might have been a laugh. "You know how I am. I told him he was out of his mind, that it was barely light outside, that he could go himself if it was so important…" She stopped. "He begged me."
I had not known my sister's husband well. But I had known enough to know that he was not a man who begged.
