“Oh.” She corrected the word on the parchment.
Marcus nodded. “Of. He. Up. No.”
Sage wrote as fast as she could sound the words out. “As.”
“Is.”
Sage sat back, gazing at the list. “There are so many. And this is probably not all of them.” Yet, she was already looking at the words that had the same second letter. “On and An. As, Is. Do, Go. No. At, It.” She flipped the parchment over and stared at the first line again.
Marcus picked up the book.
“Zis also the start of the first word,” Sage said aloud.
“What letters do we have that theUcould be?”
Sage turned the parchment over, scanning the list. “Assuming we have all the words, which I am positive we do not, there isN,S,O,T.”
Marcus surveyed the list of words on the parchment. His eyes moved back and forth between the book and the list of words. He leaned against her.
His arm was firm. Sage was suddenly aware of how warm he was and how male. She glanced at him inconspicuously. He was so close she could smell pine in his hair.
“I would sayO. There are many words that end in anO.”
Sage nodded and put anOwhere the letterU’s were in the first line. Then, she grabbed the other parchment piece where she had listed the alphabet and put anOnext to theU.
“What’s that?” Marcus asked, pointing to the parchment she wrote on.
“That’s the code.”
He reached out and took the parchment page from her, studying it.
His hand was large, Sage noted. Firm. Capable. She briefly wondered what it would feel like if she touched it. She scowled and turned to the book. He was becoming a distraction to solving this puzzle. “ThisZ, the first letter…”
He turned his attention back to the first line.
“It is the first letter in the first word and the last letter in these two words.” She looked at him. “Which letter could it be?”
Marcus picked up the parchment page where she had listed the two-letter words and scanned them. “D.G.T.”
“‘To’ is a common word,” Sage suggested.
“Tit is,” he agreed with a nod.
She dipped the quill into the ink and put theTin the places on the first line she saw theZ. She sat back, staring at the first line.
Marcus offered her a piece of bread.
She absently took it, biting off a piece and chewing as she contemplated. “The second line begins with another two-letter word, ‘Mu.’ According to our guess, that second letter isO.”
“But it’s not ‘to’ becauseZisT. Do? Fu? Goo? Hu? Loo?”
Sage looked at him in disbelief. “Yes. Loo. This is a book on how best to use the privy. Everyone is searching for this book; people are dying for it—”
He held up his hands in surrender, a breathtaking smile on his lips. “I was just going through the alphabet.”
Sage had never seen his genuine smile before. It sent warmth spreading through her body. While she was beginning to admire him—he was skilled with a sword, and he was smart—she didn’t trust him.
“Look here.” Marcus pointed to the book. “These words that end inTalso have the same second-to-last letter.”
