Chapters (46)
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Thirty-nine
- Forty
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
He flashed a quick grin before hunkering down over the table. “Kyra, think about it. Say you pull in a thief to nip some fatpurse’s trinket. You offer her decent coin, but still, you’re paying less than what the trinket’s worth. The thief comes back empty-handed, swearing she couldn’t find anything. What’s your first thought?”
“You think he’d suspect I kept the ruby? That’s silly. If I could find someone to buy jewels, I’d be living in them fancy houses, not cracking them.”
“You know that, and I know that. And maybe even James knows it’s near impossible to find buyers these days. But there was a lot of coin at stake, and James wasn’t suspicious at all. I know. I was waiting with him at the meeting place. When you didn’t show up on time—”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
He shot her a stern look. “As well you should be. But when you didn’t show up on time, he didn’t get suspicious. Didn’t react at all. He just…waited. And you saw how he was when he was asking you questions. Any idiot could tell he didn’t really care.” Flick’s expression turned serious. “Looking back, I’m an idiot myself. I was so sure you’d break your neck in the Palace that I plain overlooked the other ways things could have gone wrong. You were lucky, Kyra, no thanks to me.”
“I can take care of myself,” Kyra said automatically.
Flick laughed. “Better than I would have imagined a lass of seventeen ever could.”
“So I’m seventeen now?”
He made a big show of looking her up and down. “By height alone, I’d wager you were twelve, but wasn’t seventeen Bella’s last guess? Something about you gaining the poise of a young woman? You really should just pick a birthday—let Bella bake you a cake once a year.”
Kyra rolled her eyes. The real version of events was less poetic. She’d started her womanly bleeding three years ago, and she’d been the same height for the past year. Based on these signs, Bella recently declared that Kyra was seventeen. Kyra decided to let Flick keep his version of the story.
“So what do you think James wanted?” she asked.
“It’s a puzzle, but I’ve got a feeling you’ll see him again.”
Flick stopped as Bella dropped off some warmer rolls. “Wait, Bella.” Kyra fished into the pouch James had given her and pushed a handful of coins into Bella’s hand. “You’ve fed us too much lately.”
The older woman looked at the money dubiously.
“I didn’t steal anything,” Kyra promised. “Right, Flick?” Technically, she’d nipped a handkerchief, but she decided to let that slide.