He raked his hair back and blinked the sleep from his eyes.
Carenza looked charmingly disheveled.He realized he actually preferred her that way.She might need to appear perfect for her clan.But he rather liked her imperfections.
She wheeled away from the fire and said, “’Twasn’t an accident.”
He was still half-asleep.“What are you talking about?”
“The opium.”
Was she upset about what she’d said to him while she was drugged?
“There’s no need to fret.I’ll forget what you said last night.And you can forget what I said the day before.”
“But that’s just it,” she said.She neared the bed and began unwrapping the parcels.“Are ye hungry?”
“In the middle of the night?”he asked.Then he realized he was.“I could eat.What have you got?And where did you get it?”
“Cheese.I’ve just been to the pantry,” she said, drawing her eating dagger and slicing off a piece for him.
He shoved it into his mouth, talking around it.“The pantry?How did you…” How had she managed to escape?Some guard he was.He wondered if she’d been up for hours in an opium stupor, gushing to every man in the keep how much she wanted to kiss him.
“That’s not important,” she said.“’Tis what I heard that’s important.”
“What you heard?”
“Men whisperin’,” she said, popping a piece of cheese between her teeth, chewing as she spoke.“One of them was Peris.”
“The physician?”
“Aye.The opium that morn?’Twas no accident.He was tryin’ to kill ye.”
“How do you know that?”
“He admitted as much.”
“Why would he—”
“Ye know what I think?”she said, gesturing with a second piece of cheese.“I think he’s part o’ your monastery thefts.”
Hew stopped chewing.His head was spinning.He already suspected the physician, simply because of his access to the monastery.
She took another nibble.“He was tryin’ to get rid o’ ye, because he knows ye’re investigatin’ the thefts.”
He swallowed the cheese.“You said two men?”
“Aye.I didn’t recognize the voice o’ the second.”
But it appeared she’d been right.Thereweretwo thieves.
She continued.“He was upset that Peris had tried to kill ye.He said ’twould draw too much attention.”
“Attention?”
“Aye.He said ye were too important and…” She trailed off.
“And?”
She answered in a rushed mumble.“And that my father had designs on ye for his heir.”But before Hew could begin to enjoy that heartwarming fantasy, she added, “He was also afraid ’twould draw the attention o’ Father James.”
