Bitter Gold Hearts by Glen Cook Read Free Book Online Page B

When they stand near a center of power and are as changeable and spoiled as this one probably was, I want to play it very carefully. I thought I saw a way.
    “I’m a charming scamp, I know. Hurt me to the quick though it does, I’m old enough, plain enough, and poor enough to suspect that maybe my profession has more to do with you being here.”
    “Maybe.” She went on trying to flirt. I had a bad feeling she might be one of those who couldn’t deal with a man until she proved to herself she could lead him around by his hopes and fantasies. That kind regards consummation as something to avoid at all costs. She was young but she knew her men well enough to know actu­ally giving in would dilute her power. I assumed she was playing that game, so I did my best to let her think she might get what she wanted without stretching her virtue.
    She did appeal. A whole damned lot. But I’ll have to know a Stormwarden’s daughter a lot better before I take the risks inherent in such a situation.
    “There is one thing you could do,” she admitted. “But that can wait. Don’t you feel crowded in here? Isn’t there somewhere else? That old man could walk in anytime.”
    At which point I made the mistake of sitting down. My sitter was barely in place when a hundred pounds of potential parked her sitter on my lap. So much for Garrett’s infallible estimates of members of the female species. She had me going for a minute — until she giggled. I don’t like my women to giggle. It makes me doubt their maturity. Still, when the culprit is sitting on your lap, wagging her tail...
    “Mr. Garrett.” It was that old man. “Mr. Dotes is here. He says it’s important.”
    Saved!
    Damn it.
     
     

__XI__
     
    “Do you have to, Garrett?” “You don’t know Morley Dotes. If he comes here, it’s important.”
    I had Amber about half pried loose when Dotes blew in. He stopped and gawked, then that sparkle flashed in his eye. I’m going to throw pepper in there someday just to get tears to wash it out.
    “Down, boy. What’s going on?”
    Amber made a show of neatening herself up. I guess she knew she had it and couldn’t help flaunting it.
    “Your pal Saucer head. He’s in the Bledsoe carved up bad enough to kill a mammoth.”
    “Bound to happen in his line of work.” Which was pretty much the same as Morley’s less public line, so he gave me a sour look when he could steal a second from appreciating Amber. “How did it happen?”
    “Don’t have much yet. He staggered in from some­where way the hell out in the country. They say he shouldn’t have made it, but you know him. Too stubborn and stupid to die. They don’t think he’ll make it.”
    “Who does, down there? What the hell was he doing out in the boondocks?”
    Morley gave me a funny look. “I thought you’d know. He left the place early last night because he had a job. Said you recommended him.”
    “Me? I never... Oh. Damn. I’d better get down there.” I had butterflies the size of horses. Amiranda. Had to be.
    “I’ll stroll along with you, then. I haven’t had my exercise today.” Far be it from Morley Dotes to admit he had a friend anywhere in the known universe. As he turned to leave, Amber whispered, “Wait, Gar­rett.” The music was out of her voice.
    “Is it critical?”
    “To me it is.”
    “Wait for me at the front door, Morley. So. Tell me.”
    “My brother came home this morning. They let him go.”
    “Good for him.”
    “That means Domina paid the ransom.”
    “Seems likely. So?”
    “So there’s two hundred thousand gold marks out there somewhere that belong to my family, that somebody couldn’t yell about if it got taken away. Do you think you could find it?”
    “Maybe. If I wanted to bad enough. A chunk like that, in the hands of amateurs, would leave a trail like a rogue mammoth. The trick would be getting to it before all the other sharpshooters in town.”
    “Help me find it, Garrett. You can have