Alaric’s eyebrows raised in amusement. “A wizard beau?” Everyone knew that mages could have their choice of women, and they never picked lowborn kitchen maids.
My cheeks went hot. “I ought to return to my duties. Tell the master cook of my crime, if you must.”
Barnaby snorted. “We don’t want our way with you, you silly girl. We want to, uh, reward your considerable skill.”
“You want me to steal for you,” I said flatly. “That way when I get caught with Lady Haddock’s jewels, I’ll be the one strung up to feed the birds. No, thank you.”
I turned to leave. Alaric moved to stand in my way. “You don’t strike me as the sort of girl who wants to spend her life pounding bread dough and cleaning pots. If that’s the case, and your abilities are as good as my brother claims, certain organizations might wish to employ your talents.”
“Organizations meaning whom?”
He lowered his voice. “Just as Fletcher is in the wrong to starve those under her care, lords who buy and sell servants are also in the wrong. We ought to have some say in our wages and a choice of whom to work for. We ought to control our own fate.”
That was renegade-speak, traitor-speak, and yet I nodded in agreement. The law stated a master had to pay his bought servants wages. The idea being that after twenty years of service, a person would earn enough to pay off their indentured servitude. I wanted my freedom long before then.
“Those organizations,” Alaric went on, “might even buy your freedom, should you prove useful.”
He was taking a chance to speak to me like this. I might report him to the steward, although, new and friendless as I was, Alaric was well aware his denial would trump any accusation on my part.
I folded my arms. “How do I know your organization would carry through with such promises?”
“You’ll have to trust me.” Alaric shrugged. “Or if you’d rather, you can continue to wait for your wizard beau. I’m sure he won’t desert you here.” Alaric stepped out of my way, allowing me to return to the kitchen if I wished.
I stayed where I was. This wasn’t one of the times when I deluded myself that Ronan would come for me. “What do you want me to steal?”
The answer to that, it turned out, was many things. First I just stole from Lord Haddock and his highborn guests. Usually documents. Sometimes other treasures. Once I replaced the ruby in a baroness’s necklace with an imitation. After a year, I’d stolen so many secrets from Lord Haddock that King Leofric no longer trusted him. Highborn visitors stopped coming to Carendale.
True to Alaric’s word, the renegades arranged to have a highborn woman come to the castle, claim to be my long-lost aunt, and pay off my serving price. Lady Edith Thornton also paid for Alaric to join us as a groomsman. Lord Haddock didn’t mind selling him. With fewer guests to entertain, he didn’t need all of his stable hands anymore.
Although Lady Edith was technically my adopted mother, it was clear she had little desire to be anyone’s parent. She had no children with her late husband, and my arrival at her estate did little to alter her daily schedule. She was busy with the demands of her lands and tenants, and her attentions rarely turned toward me.
Paxworth was rundown, understaffed, and in constant want of repair. The renegades had paid Lady Edith handsomely to adopt me, but I was grateful for her generosity in taking me in, nonetheless. Without letting anyone know, I used growth spells to increase her fields’ and orchards’ output.
For the last two and a half years, I lived peacefully enough, learning the rather tedious arts of the upper class: needlework,dancing, and playing the dulcimer. The peace was only broken by Alaric stopping by to take me on one mission or another. I always went with him. I owed the renegades my freedom, and they paid me too. Besides, by then Alaric and I were friends. I trusted him.
When I finally reached The Painted Stallion, dawn was just lightening the edges of the sky. I expected Alaric to be waiting for me in the rented cottage.Waitingmeaning sleeping in a chair with an ear cocked toward the door.
Instead, he sat by a lit fireplace, speaking to a gentleman and a woman. The man was at least two score with thinning brown hair. He wore the sort of wool tunic, hose, and overrobe one saw on men who were wealthy, but not wealthy enough to pay much notice to. The woman was of the same age, plain, stout, and wore a simple maroon gown and linen headdress. Her erect posture more than her clothing marked her as one who was used to giving orders.
It was much too early for social visits, and I could tell from Alaric’s pleased expression these were no normal guests.
I stepped into the room, quite visible now. I’d canceled the invisibility spell on the ride into town. It only affected objects smaller than my mass, and the night watch tended to think something was amiss if they saw a riderless horse going down the street.
Alaric stood and waved me over as proudly as if he was my father. “Here is Marcella now. May I present Master Grey and Madame Sutton to you? They’re guild leaders.”
Part of the renegades. This was unexpected. And important. Alaric had never introduced me to his superiors before or even told me their names lest I be captured and give away information to enemies.
Master Grey and Madame Sutton stood and nodded genially, studying me with hawk eyes. Neither appeared perplexed to findme dressed in leggings and a tunic, indicating they knew where I’d been. Men’s clothes were much more practical when it came to scaling walls.
“Pleased to meet you,” I murmured.
Without waiting for more pleasantries, Alaric asked, “Do you have the letter?”
I retrieved the parchment and handed it to Alaric. “It’s a copy. The original is back in his lockbox. That way no one will know we have it.”
“Well done.” Alaric read over the list and gave it to Master Grey. “I told you she would retrieve it. The woman can steal anything.”
“Yes.” Master Grey scanned the document. “So it would seem.” He showed the parchment to Madame Sutton before folding it and slipping it into the top of one of his leather boots. He took five silver denarites from his pocket and dropped them in my palm. My usual payment.
