For years she had skirted at the outsides of the Ten Bells, taking grief for being a girl but growing up to give as much as she took. Once they were old enough for such things, half the Bells boasted of having spent a night with her, but at least half of them were liars. Will never paid her no mind, and gave his attention instead to girls he knew he could play with and throw away.

“Why me?” he’d asked one night, lying naked in her arms in someone’s bed, someone who would later come home in time to see them climbing out the window.

“You’re better than them,” she said, with crystal certainty. “Everyone important started somewhere. The other boys will grow up and die here. But this is just where you start. I can see it.”

That had been all he needed. Will wasn’t interested in petty gang territories anymore. They had left Nottingham that night. Will even got on a knee to ask her to join him. She only whispered one word into his ear.

“Anywhere.”

THE ONLY LIGHT CAME with the gords, and left with them, too. That meant the darkness was safest, the shadows became security. The moment she was capable of seeing something, the future became dangerous.

They told her she’d hang, and she had no idea how long ago that had been. In all that time, she had not been harmed. Only once had she worried, when a gord came alone, scratching between his legs and sucking in his breath, eyeing her. That blank stare men get when they can only see one thing. “Go ahead,” she had said, “if you like warts on your cock. I might even enjoy it, since no one else will touch me.”

But something told her that empty threats weren’t the reason she hadn’t been touched. Someone wanted her healthy, which meant she was valuable.

They could take anything they wanted from her, except her collection of facts.

The only time she’d left the cage was for that talk with William de Wendenal. But he had said, “Good morning,” so she had watched the shadows move, slowly. So slowly, but it had been enough. Now she knew which direction was east, so she also knew which direction was north. She had memorized the number of footsteps down each tunnelway as they traveled. She kept a map in her mind. She’d get a chance to use it. Will was somewhere down the north tunnel.

Every bit of information was a weapon in her hands. There’d be an opportunity. She just had to be ready.

When next she awoke, it was noise and light, and she kept herself curled on the ground, pretending to be asleep. An iron gate opened and closed, and for a fierce moment her blood stopped, her skin prickled into ice.