Kalder was in a dingy hovel of a room similar to the ones in some of the taverns where Cameron had worked over the years. The kind they rented to some of their less-than-moral patrons and wenches for things that their owners were forced to pay hefty taxes on or be forced to lose their licenses over.
He’d just finished dressing and was pulling out his money to pay the harlot he’d been with.
Bound up tight in a grimy sheet on the bed, the dark beauty pouted at him. “Must you leave so soon?”
“Aye, love. Have to meet up with me brother. Can’t keep him waiting or he’ll be kicking me arse and whining all day about it.” He’d handed her the coins, then stepped away from the bed and shrugged on his jacket.
As he started for the door, he’d shaken his head, and swayed a bit, before he reached out to the edge of the dresser to catch his balance.
Tucking her chin beneath the sheet, she’d laughed as if daring to play coy after everything they’d done. “Still a little tipsy?”
Kalder rubbed his hand over his forehead and scowled. A dull ache set in, making his ears buzz terribly fierce. He blinked and tried to clear his vision as it continued to blur and make the room spin even more. All the while, the whirring buzz worsened. “Didn’t realize I’d drunk so much.”
“You have to watch out for Petey’s rum. It’s more potent than most.”
“I guess.” Kalder took another step for the door.…
And hit the floor near the open window.
Unable to move, he’d lain across worn oak boards while the sunlight reflected off the brass buttons of his coat, and the graying lace of the curtains had lightly brushed against his face.
An instant later, everything had gone black.
No sooner was he out than the woman shot from the bed to check on him to make certain he wasn’t about to come to. Once she was assured of it, she’d opened the door to admit three men from the hallway who’d been waiting, hidden in the shadows, for her treacherous cue.
Cameron wanted to curse as she saw them and knew them for the bastard devils they were.
Perrin walked in first, with two of his most worthless brothers at his side. The three of them duplicated the tart’s actions of ensuring Kalder was unconscious on the floor… and mocked him for the fact that he’d been drugged and duped so easily because, unlike them, he’d been forced to purchase a few moments of the kindness that was so generously lavished upon them for free.
Furious on Kalder’s behalf, Cameron watched while they stripped his clothes off and then roughly returned him to bed so that he’d have no idea what they’d done to him.
Laughing, Perrin cleaned out his purse and handed its contents off to the strumpet. And why not? It wasn’t as if he’d earned Kalder’s coin. Why not be free with it?
“Good work. Did you have any trouble?”
“Nay, me lord. He didn’t question it at all. Took the drink and downed every drop without so much as a single comment.”
His shortest brother clapped Perrin on the back. “Told you he wouldn’t be the wiser. None can taste me brew.”
Perrin snorted as he fingered the empty cup Kalder had left on the table beside the bed. “You ever put that shite in me drink, Eyson, and I’ll gut you for it. Asshole to appetite.”
He laughed. “Don’t worry. Unlike Kalderan, Alard and I aren’t stupid.” He glanced to their other brother. “Are we?”
Alard rose up from placing Kalder’s clothes on the floor, where they’d been before Kalder dressed. “Don’t know about all that, but crazy’s another matter entirely. Of that, I have an abundance, sure enough.”
Perrin hesitated as he studied the clothes and then Kalder’s unconscious body on the bed. He narrowed his gaze on hisbrother. “You’re quite certain he won’t remember that he’s been drugged?”
“Nay. He’ll think he passed out drunk. His head will ache just the same.” Hands on hips, Eyson gave him a satisfied smirk.
Perrin passed a warning look to the strumpet before he turned back toward Alard. “And the others? They’ve all been paid?”
“Aye.” Alard cleared his throat meaningfully. “Bothsets. It’s all taken care of. You’ve nothing to fear at all. In a sennight, you’ll be Varice’s right hand in Kalderan’s place, and we’ll never have to answer to this”—he cut his eyes toward Kalder—“prick again.”
Cameron gasped as her mind showed her the truth behind their cryptic meanings.
They’d paid to have Muerig murdered and then the girl killed a day later so that no one would ever know the truth about Kalder’s being drugged.
While they’d assumed their mother would be outraged over their youngest brother’s murder, and that Kalder would be jailed or banished for it, Kalder’s death at her hands had come as a bonus round in their mad scheming that had rid them of two nuisances at once.
