"Nae. I’m nae that stupid, Gawain. Do nae think so low of me." Caillen replied as Gawain moved toward the windows, leaning closer to inspect the latch. He was familiar with how easy it was to pry open.
"There’s no sign of forced entry."
"And besides, the window is high up. What fool would jump all the way down from here? How did he even get in from there?" Caillen joined him by the window but was shoved aside by Gawain, who lifted himself on the window frame. "What are ye doing? Get down from there! If ye fall—"
"Shut and lock the window when I tell ye to." Gawain cut him off as he gingerly stepped on the ledge on the outside of the window. With the training grounds below and the view of the village beyond the walls of the keep, Gawain would have stayed longer if he did not jump out of his brother's window for a reason.
"Ye are mad. Mad, I tell ye! If ye fall, ye’ll drop to yer death, and I’ll laugh at ye. What are ye even planning on doing?" Gawain ignored his brother's nagging and looked back down. If he was just careful enough, he could make it back down.
If the person had stuck to climbing windows, they would have been caught. What Gawain could say at most was perhaps the thief was aided. Someone from a window or two below dropped down something they could climb on, a rope preferably. The thief climbed, no, the thief was pulled upward. Climbing would take time, but it would be much faster if two men were to pull one fully grown man with a rope. So yes, the thief was pulled upward just until they could get on his brother's window. He could see the entire thing playing out perfectly in his head. The only thing left to prove was how the thief got in when the windows were locked.
"Aye, Caillen."
"What?"
"Lock the windows."
"Ye will fall, and ye will crack her head open!"
"Lock the windows!" With an annoyed huff, Caillen slammed the windows shut, and when Gawain heard the click of the latch, he took out his dagger, and just as he thought, it slipped in the tiny gap between the two windows. He heard his brother's surprised gasp when he thrust in his dagger below the latch, carefully sliding it upwards and out of the way, and the windows gave way, opening wide for Gawain to see the shocked look on his brother's face. "And that is how yer plans were stolen."
"How did ye—"
"I caught an Irish lass trying to pick me pocket. Gave her some money, and she latched on to me like maggots to a corpse. Caught her sneaking into me room at the inn once, she swore she came fer food, but she had me pouch of coins hidden under her skirts. Asked her how she got in, and she showed me. The inn windows have this exact latch." Gawain explained as he hopped back into the room, looking back to inspect the latch. "It is the same as before, it looks untouched."
"And this thief climbed all the way up in such a short amount of time. I was only gone fer a wee while?" Gawain shook his head. "Me guess is that he was probably pulled up by people a window or two below allowing him to climb up to yer window."
"Now, what do we do?" Gawain raised a brow at his brother, who simmered down at the look. "Well, ye’re obviously better than me when it comes to this sort of thing."
"At least now ye admit it. Our next step is easy. We make another plan. A better plan that can top the last plan and get ready fer a raid." Gawain tucked his dagger away and met Caillen's curious gaze. "I got it at an auction. I turned in a wanted criminal fer a nice-looking blade. Stop staring at it. I managed to find some men. Only a handful, but I can work with them. I’ll have their names submitted by nightfall, so ye can officially put them under me command. The villagers did nae ask fer much. A tax reduction which I do agree with only after we have bought food. They also expressed concern about the good shortage, but I assure them that their laird will solve this problem as he has always done. They were extremely curious about the fire, but I told them we were working on it since we also ken just as much as they do. Ah aye, one kind woman sent ye fresh bread."
"Where is it?"
"I ate it. I was hungry, and the sun was lashing out at me like I had taken the moon from its side. Shared it with the lad who accompanied me into the village. It was quite filling." Gawain stopped at the study door, pulling it open before he turned back to his brother. "It had a unique flavor, different from the one we have at the keep. I do wish ye had taken a few bites with me, but oh well. Another day, I suppose."
"I hope ye fall into a hunter's trap, Gawain!" Gawain threw his head back with mocking laughter as he shut the door behind him, satisfied he had eased his brother's foul mood.
Gawain understood his brother's perspective of wanting to prepare before we got raided, but he felt Caillen could have gone about it a better way. They still had to find the thief, whoever it was.
Why would someone even steal the plans in the first place? For money perhaps? They could sell it to another clan. That was the inky reasons Gawain could think of. With the result of the fire, it should be safe to assume the person wanted money to stock up on food. Still, for them to have easy access into the laird's study they were either a guard or a servant.
Gawain suddenly came to a stop, eyes wide with realization. He was overthinking the whole thing. There were guards at the study's entrance, there was a possibility that one of them had snuck in and stolen the plans. It would be a quicker and neater theft if it were just two people involved. The reason Gawain could not find any proof of forced entry was because the guards had probably been the ones to carry out the task.
Turning back on his heels, he rushed back to Caillen's study, slamming the door open, and he barged in. His brother jumped, almost dropping the jar of ink he was carrying. "Caillen, where were yer guards when ye left the study?"
"Nae present. I sent them off because I did nae want them to overhear the plans. And they could nae have come through the door." Caillen set down the ink before raising up a bunch of keys from the desk. "I always lock me study when I leave."
"Does that key have a duplicate? Who else has it?"
"Hector and I. Nae one else."
"Where are Hector's keys? Where is Hector?"
"He...Gawain, are ye—"
"Where are his keys, damnit!" Caillen flinched before opening the latch of the drawer behind his desk to raise up a similar bunch of keys. Gawain snatched it from his brother as well as Caillen's keys, taking his fine to inspect the two before looking up at his brother. "A key is missing. Care to guess which one?"
Caillen audibly swallowed before he took a shaky step back. "Nae. It cannae be. I took the keys from him meself."
