Scholar's Plot by Hilari Bell Read Free Book Online Page B

one, Roseman was reading my letters.”
    “Michael says you were held prisoner for about three weeks. And after that?”
    After that, I’d been afraid that if I wrote to her, Michael would try to track me down. And she wasn’t my sister.
    I hadn’t written to my sisters for about five months, come to think of it. I should probably pen up a letter to Judith, next time I settled in one place long enough for a reply to reach me. But Judith didn’t know I was in trouble (though she doubtless assumed I always was) and she wasn’t used to hearing from me regularly.
    Ahead of us, Michael was walking more and more slowly.
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “I was … I didn’t … well, I’m sorry.”
    “You should be. Fortunately, you now have a chance to make it up to me. Michael, you can come back now.”
    She hadn’t raised her voice to say it, but Michael turned immediately, and I regarded this assured young woman with some alarm. Kathy-at-fourteen hadn’t thrown orders about like this. But then, Kathy-at-fourteen hadn’t been given a reason to be angry with me.
    Michael rejoined us, smirking in a way that told me she’d scolded him, too. I tried again.
    “My thanks to you, Mistress, but I need to get back to my own affairs. I’ll stay in town till this murder matter is—”
    “You’re not going anywhere,” Kathy said. “Either 
of you. You owe me a legal debt till they give my bond back, and I’m claiming it. I want the two of you to 
figure out who framed Benton, and get his job back 
for him.”
    I’d already seen this coming, but that was no reason to go down without a fight.
    “I’m not Michael’s squire anymore—”
    “Which is fine with me,” Michael put in.
    “—and I won’t work for him.”
    “Then work together,” said Katherine. “Or pretend you’ve never met before. I don’t care about either of your sensitive feelings. Once this murder is settled, Fisk will pay his fine and you can both get on with your lives. I think you’re both crazy, but at least you can go where you wish and do whatever you want. Benton can’t. This is the only life he wants, and he’s lost it — permanently, if they hire someone else to take his place. You two are going to clear him before that happens. After that, I don’t care what you do. But no more whining about it. We’re here.”
    She turned into an alley between a couple of buildings, one of them presumably Benton’s lodging. The walls were whitewashed plaster so the alley was reasonably bright, which let me see it was also surprisingly clean, and a stairway angled down the taller building’s wall. Kathy’s hips twitched with annoyance in a very feminine fashion as she climbed to the second floor landing.
    Michael stood at the bottom, looking at me. His expression was mostly unreadable, but there was bitterness there, and maybe anger. He followed his sister up the stairs.
    I could have walked away. Michael wouldn’t chase me down, I knew that now. And in skirts, Mistress Katherine wasn’t likely to catch me. On the other hand, she might get mad enough to send the guard after me. The cells hadn’t been that bad, but I’d now been identified as the Fisk.
    I probably should have whipped off a note before I left Tallowsport, but I’d just finished fighting with Michael and writing to his sister hadn’t seemed necessary. So now, I was stuck.
    I followed them up the stairs, and was almost knocked off the landing by a bouncing whirlwind of dog. It seemed Trouble had missed me, and nothing else could happen till I’d assured him that I’d missed him too — whether I had or not. Besides, watching his dog fawn over me made Michael scowl, so the time wasn’t completely wasted.
    Once Trouble settled down, I followed the others into a front room with two sunny windows and shelves crowded with papers and books, interspersed with bits of pottery and stone. It looked like a pretty fair collection of ancient artifacts, which hardly anyone collects,