He got up from the bed and made use of a linen square from the tub to clean up.
She settled onto the pallet and began rolling back and forth.
“Och!”she said, arching up as something prodded her in the back.“What is that?”
She knelt by the bed then and began exploring the contours of the pallet with her hands.
“I think there’s somethin’inhere.”
He knelt beside her and felt the same contours.“Orunderit.”
He slipped his hands under the pallet and lifted it up off the knotted frame.
She gasped.
Chapter 22
Though she’d never seen them before, Carenza recognized what they’d found at once.
A gold chalice.A silver cross.A jeweled Bible.And various pieces of costly jewelry—rings, medallions, brooches.They were piled on a large square of linen atop the bed’s rope frame.
“The missing artifacts,” Hew breathed.
“How did they get here?Only my father and I have a key to…” She shivered at a sudden chilling thought.“Ye don’t think…?”
“That your father is a thief?Nay.”
She had to admit it seemed improbable.She was glad Hew thought so too.But all evidence pointed to the Laird of Dunlop.Or his daughter.
“Then how…?”
Hew said, “Someone else has regular access to this room.”
Their eyes widened simultaneously as they recognized the significance of that fact.With prudent haste, they began throwing on their clothes.
“Do ye think ’tis Peris?”she said, shimmying into her leine.
“That would be my guess.”He pulled on his braies.“He could have easily snatched the key from your father.”
“True.”She slid her stockings up over her knees.“Da wouldn’t even notice it missin’.I don’t think he’s come here since that day.”
Hew stuck his leg through his trews.“The physician’s accomplice.He said they planned to move the goods, right?”
“Aye.”She tossed her arisaid over her shoulder, trying in vain to find the brooch to pin it together.“Before Lent, he said.”
“So they mean to transport them from here within…” he said, tying a sloppy knot in his trews as he calculated the days.“A month.”
“Which means we need to catch them in the act.But how?Post a guard at the door?”She shook her head.“My father would ask too many questions.”She found the brooch.
“Nay.”Hew shook his leine out and hauled it over his head.“I’m taking it.”
“Takin’ what?”
“The treasure.”
She winced as she poked her finger with the brooch.“Ye can’t do that.What if ye’re caught with it?”
“’Twas stolen long before I arrived.”he said, buckling his belt.“The abbot will vouch for that.”
