“Right.It makes sense that the thief has an accomplice.Someone to cover for the theft or provide a distraction.”
“One t’ steal it an’ one t’ hide it.”
He froze.Of course.There weretwothieves.
He’d been searching for a person who had both access to the innermost chambers of the monastery and the freedom to come and go as he pleased in order to stash the treasure at a remote location.
But if there were two thieves, only one would need to have access to the treasure.He might be any monk within the walls.The second thief would simply receive the stolen goods from the first and transport it elsewhere.That person could be any vendor or visitor who came to the gates of Kildunan.
His mission had just gotten a lot more complicated.But for the first time, he believed he was on the right path.
“My brilliant lady,” he declared, “I think you may be right.”
But his new partner in the investigation was already asleep.
Chapter 15
All the day and half the night were gone when Carenza awoke.She’d never slept so long.She’d missed supper.Skipped feeding her animals.Neglected to tell her father goodnight.
As far as she could tell, the opium had had no other lasting effect.But it had certainly made her feel strange.Deliciously relaxed and deliriously happy.As if she hadn’t a care in the world.As if she were perfect just the way she was.
And Hew… Her heart softened.The loyal warrior had stayed with her.Watched over her.
Like her noble champion.Her perfect hero.Making sure she didn’t make a fool of…
Then she remembered.
A silent scream slowly built inside her throat as the words she’d blurted out in her opium-induced state crashed down on her with vivid clarity.
Shehadmade a fool of herself.In front of Hew.
She’d utterly lost control.She’d dished out ridiculous flattery.Uttered unmentionable things to him.Revealed her heart’s secret longings.Let ribald remarks glide across her tongue.Lord, she’d behaved like a doxy.
She’d never be able to look him in the eye again.Not after that.What kind of wanton must he think her?
She pushed up off the pallet and stared into the darkness.She could hear his rough breathing from the bed.
Dawn was several hours away yet.But she didn’t want to be here when he woke.
She quietly left the chamber and made her way down the stairs.
She was hungry.There would be bread and cheese in the pantry.
Dozing clan folk nested in the rushes on the floor of the great hall.She picked her way through them by the dim light of the banked fire.Then she climbed down the steps in the corner of the hall to the lower level, darker and chillier than the floor above.A narrow passageway cut into the stone opened onto four storage rooms.
One was the buttery where casks of ale, bottles of wine, perry, cider, and mead were kept.
The second held tallow and beeswax candles, bottles of scented oils, and spices—pepper, saffron, ginger, cinnamon, clove, cubeb, nutmeg.
The third contained her mother’s things.Things her father couldn’t bear to part with.He’d locked the room long ago and probably never revisited it.Carenza imagined it was full of rotted leines and moth-eaten arisaids.
She entered the fourth room, the pantry.On the shelves were a few day-old loaves of bread, several crocks of butter, and dozens of blocks of cheeses in neat rows.In one corner hung several hams.
She helped herself to a large chunk of bread, using her eating dagger to slather it with butter.
While she was choosing which cheese she wanted, she heard voices.The furious whispering of two men.Coming from just beyond the pantry doorway.
She hung back, pressing herself against the wall to listen.
