Page 4 of Dishonor Among Thieves
Before I knew it, he’d leave. Go back into that pub, or to an inn, and I’d be jobless still, with no better prospects in sight. I would need shelter soon as well, but first, I wanted something else. Something bigger. I wanted that job. With no background, no skills, and no references, this might be my only chance. A desperate stranger and even more desperate girl. Could this be the will of the gods? The gentle assistance of my sister nudging the fates to guide me?
I didn’t think I’d ever know. But I did know that I couldn’t let him walk away without trying one more time to secure something that would get me off the streets and in possession of a steady income. “Why did you follow me out here, sir?” I asked, taking an instinctive step closer to him. I’d never been a woman who used seduction to get what she wanted, and I didn’t think I could seduce this man if I had all the forbidden magic—which meantanymagic—in the Realm on my side. But still, I boldly took hold of his arm. “Was there something you wanted?”
He took an uncomfortable step back, shaking his sleeve free of my touch and lifting his hands so I could see they were empty. “I thought… I’m missing my…” He shook his head. “It’s not important now. Forgive me. I see I was mistaken.”
“I believe you need something.Someone.Someone who is clever and brave,” I pressed, angling my chin to get a better look at the marks on his face. “Someone who is one step ahead of whatever problems you’re having. Because you do have problems, don’t you?”
He shook his head. “No, I… No. I’m not having any problems. And you, you already have a job, miss. You’d best return to it.”
“I’d like the job you spoke of inside,” I said. “I’m a most agreeable worker. I can cook, clean, manage horses.” I pulled his knife from my traveling pouch and flipped it open, pointing the blade harmlessly toward the ground before securing it closed again. “I can find lost things,” I said. “And you, sir, look lost.”
Those honey-gold eyes traveled over his knife before hardening like spun sugar as he glared at me. “I didn’t lose that. You took it. Why? Why would you endanger your position at the pub by stealing from a customer?”
“That?” I asked. The door of the pub slammed open as the flood of customers left, heading for inns and cottages and stables—wherever it was they’d spend the hours of curfew. Safely inside places no sea troll would venture, even with all this human meat about. “I don’t work there,” I said with a shrug. “Just passing through.”
The pretty man’s mouth fell open. “How could you… You stole from me? And then you demand a job?”
“I’m applying for it,” I clarified, extending the handle of his knife toward him. “I’m a problem solver,” I explained. “I need a job. You have one. And here, see? I’m returning an item of value that somehow, perhaps through inattention, you misplaced.”
“Misplaced inside your cloak?” he gritted, but he sighed and accepted the knife from me. He tucked it away and turned his back on me. “Seek shelter,” he advised as he turned away. “You may think yourself clever, but you’ll be no match for a hungry sea troll.” He looked at me over his shoulders, his uncanny eyes meeting mine. I thought I heard him add, “Or one like me.”
“If you change your mind,” I shouted, before losing his glossy hair and broad shoulders in the crowd of villagers, “I’ll be in Fish Head End until morning!”
He stopped before heading back inside the pub. “I won’t.” His luxurious voice turned stony.
I watched him disappear inside, then turned and tucked my head, flowing through the square with the crowd of common folk. He might have believed he was done with me, but I had no more time for stolen sausages and pilfered coins. What I did have was a few more tricks up my sleeve. And I’d use every one of them to get what I wanted.
ChapterTwo
It turned out the pretty gentleman was a liar. Those honey-gold eyes were not sweet, but hid the bite of something much more dangerous.
Given the curfew in place, I secured a room at the local inn, a place that offered rooms by the hour or at a steep discount for those who stayed an entire night. The woman at the front desk eyed me with concern, as if I didn’t know what sort of shire I’d wandered into. I gave her a grateful smile and let her know I was a girl just passing through who’d had no idea there was a curfew in place. I just needed a safe roof over my head before departing Fish Head End in the morning.
“Lucky you’ll be leaving these parts,” she grunted, passing a key across the counter. “Not much honest work left for a young one like you.”
I accepted the key without bothering to correct her about my age. I looked younger than my twenty-four years, but if she gave me a little extra courtesy, I wouldn’t argue the point.
“Settle up in the mornin’ when you return the key,” the woman reminded me. “Water’s included in the rate, but any food or drinks’ll be extra. Got a horse?”
I shook my head. If I had a horse, I would’ve considered riding it through the night to someplace without a curfew. To someplace that wouldn’t cost me half the coins in my purse for a place to rest my head. She tapped a long finger on the counter as I headed up the stairs to my room.
“Lock yer door, missy,” she reminded me. “Nights’re rough around these parts.”
I nodded, appreciating the warning. I’d slept in scarier places most of my life. A strange room at an inn by the sea filled with displaced lovers and drunks would probably provide one of the more restful nights I’d had. I unpacked my meager belongings and nibbled the last cold sausage I’d taken from the pretty man’s dinner.
“Should have taken a bit of bread too,” I mused, before stoking the small fire in the room. I examined every inch of the place for anything of value, but the room seemed outfitted for neither luxury nor comfort.
A washing bowl filled with what looked like clean water and a handful of clean-ish looking rags rested on a plain plank table. Just enough twigs and lengths of wood to keep the fire burning through the night were bundled near the very small fireplace. I’d learned long ago to inspect abandoned fires. Ashes and embers could be unusual sources of treasures, as things rarely burned the way people thought they would. I pressed my fingers against the charm around my neck, sending a silent prayer to my sister.
I’m trying,I told her, knowing that my words would never reach her. But still, if I believed that the necklace connected us on some level, it couldn’t hurt to make an effort to nurture the bond on this long, lonely night.
I poked the embers at the base of the fire with one of the longer twigs, digging for anything that might be of value. All I got for the trouble was a nose full of ash, so I tossed the twig on the fire and stripped off my thin shoes.
There was no furniture in the room save the modest bed, but at least that was more than a coarse, hay-stuffed sack tossed on the uneven floor. There was a real wooden frame under the mattress, narrow but solid enough to hold my weight when I sat. The pillow was soft beneath my head, softer than I expected. Exhaustion and the promise of uninterrupted sleep had my eyelids feeling heavy. I got up, hung my cloak on a hook by the door, and secured the lock. Once I blew out the candle, I returned to the bed with something like relief filling my chest.
As I closed my eyes, I emptied my mind, casting out as many worries as I could. Sleeping in a bed like this, protected from the elements, with a real pillow under my head, was a rare indulgence. I hated to waste a night of comfort giving in to the terrors that had driven me from home. Those would chase me down soon enough. Of that I was certain. For tonight, I was hidden away. Safe.
Home. Such a fool’s notion. As if someone like me, an orphan, an outcast, could ever hope to call any place home. I’d been living a life as a burden to those around me for so long, just sleeping someplace away from the shouts and the whispers, the overwhelming feeling that I simply shouldn’t be there made the night’s rest more peaceful than I could have hoped for. Yet the sensation of peace wasn’t to last. I had an escape to make, and I’d need to be clever about it.
