Page 9 of No Ordinary Lady

“Not exactly, but people like us are anywhere there are riches to take,” she warned.

“And you work for them,” he asked, knowing the damning answer already. She was a thief, too, and that explained where his pocket watch and knife had gone. He glanced around somewhat nervously. He was alone with a woman professing to be aligned with thieves and possibly cutthroats. He crossed to the door and made sure it was locked tight against further intruders. His men were too far away, but he could defend himself from one small woman easily. “How many are there?”

“We were five, before I left.”

Daniel turned back to the woman and leaned against the timber frame before thinking better of it. He’d rather not feel a knife stab him through a crack in the wood. He shifted toward his luggage, where he had a pistol and shot tucked between his waistcoats, trying to hide his nervousness.

“I’ve thought the leader of our group was family to me for as long as I’ve known him,” she said. “But I’ve just learned he may not be any relation at all. I’m sorry. I know you can hardly care about my problems, but I don’t want to see you hurt. Tomorrow, you must be on your guard as soon as you step out that door.”

“I will be. Thanks to you.”

She moved a few steps toward the door, her hand lifting for the latch. “Goodbye and good luck to you, sir. Lock this behind me.”

Daniel cursed under his breath. “Stop. Where are you going?”

“I don’t know, but it has to be somewhere they can’t find me. It can hardly matter to you as long as I’m gone away, I suppose. You will never see me again.”

Daniel crossed the room and put his hand on the door to hold it shut. “There is more I need to know about your friends. Their skill with weapons. The arms they carry.”

She looked up at him and that feeling that stuck him in the inn yard returned. She blinked and glanced down. “An old man past his prime, a man nearer your age, a woman close to mine, and a young boy. The boy is no one to fear.”

“He is if he’s the one who crashed into me today,” Daniel grumbled, and then patted all his pockets, only to be reminded that they were empty. “He took my favorite pocket watch.”

“He was only doing what he was told. What I told him to do, and I’m sorry about that, too. Take care tomorrow, sir,” she whispered, attempting to open the door and leave. “I would not like you to be hurt.”

He kept his weight against the door, refusing to let her pass and trying to catch her eye again. “Does that happen often around you? People getting hurt.”

“No, it has not been common. Tommy, the young man in the troupe, is growing impatient with taking orders and his small gains. I think he means to take over soon, whether Crossman likes it or not.”

“Crossman?”

“The man I called Uncle,” she said with a defiant lift of her chin. “Barricade this door behind me when I’m gone.”

“Surely they wouldn’t be so brazen as to mount an assault on me here, of all places,” he said, half worried that they might.

“I did,” she answered, and then smiled quickly. “But not for the same reason as the others might. You should never leave a door unlocked, even if you are wide awake. Let me pass, sir.”

“No. Tell me where you are going first.”

“I need to find somewhere dry to hide for the night until a carriage comes.”

“Which you’ll pay for with ill-gotten gains, I assume?”

She nodded.

Daniel ought to let her leave now, but he clearly heard the patter of rain against his window. Daniel finally caught her eye. “So, you really have left them?”

She gulped. “Yes, with all I own upon me and a little money for a carriage ride tomorrow. I’ll be running for my life for a long time and with no one to call friend.”

He considered her words, likely an exaggeration to garner sympathy and her prospects for a better life elsewhere. A woman traveling alone, leaving the company of thieves and murderers in the hope of a better, safer place to call home, would be grateful for any assistance. He wished her well with her ambition, but feared it was a fairy tale with no happy ending in sight.

She did not seem the type he should trust…but he wanted to help this woman and believe she meant him no further harm. She might have just saved his life tomorrow, and he could repay her in full by offering her shelter for the night. “You seemed fond of the old man,” he asked, seeking clarification before he committed himself.

“That was before I learned he actually did sell me once as a child,” she said, lifting her chin. But her lips trembled. “Like a fool, I escaped to return to him without knowing he was the reason I was taken.”

Daniel reeled back in shock at hearing what had been done to her as a child, but then his eyes narrowed. “He was selling you again today?”

“That was different. It was staged, and we all knew it. A game we play on rich and unsuspecting travelers. I knew what was going to happen today, but the first time, when I was a child, I did not. He made a profit by handing me to a complete stranger,” she growled, voice rising. “And I ran back to him for protection thinking him my family. I feel so stupid.”