“Where’s the house?” Erick asked.
I pointed up the hill. From here, it looked entirely dark, which was a relief. If there’d been evidence of anyone awake, I would have made an excuse to cancel the plan. “For a job like this we need quiet,” I said to Erick. “I’ll go in alone and everyone can wait for me.”
“You and I will go in,” Erick said. “This is a test to see how you operate, remember?”
I remembered that all too well.
Erick handed me my knife. “I assume you want this.”
I took it and strapped it to my waist. “What about my sword?”
“It’s still in the tent, still safe. Let’s see how everything goes tonight.”
Once at Harlowe’s home, Erick directed the men to wait at the edge of the estate. He and I would walk the rest of the way on foot.
“I don’t like this sneaking around,” Erick said. “I much prefer the use of force.”
“The last time your thieves used force, several of them came home injured.” I decided not to burden him with the detail of who had caused their injuries. “This is better.”
We fell silent as we got close to the house. I wondered how many people were inside. Did Harlowe’s servants live here or travel to their own homes at night? Did he have vigils like Conner used to have? Every part of me hated what we were about to do, and hated myself for bringing the thieves here.
Once we reached the home I hesitated, debating the best course of action. Erick’s presence made the situation far more complicated. I could climb the exterior walls of the house and enter through an upper story. Erick likely wouldn’t follow me, so it was my best chance to be alone. I could find Harlowe and explain to him as much as was necessary to get his help. But if Erick did follow me, that would put him on the same floor as the bedrooms. I knew very little about the layout of Harlowe’s home. If I startled someone, there was too much risk it would create a fight, and Erick was well armed.
So I led Erick around the front of the home. We’d go directly into Harlowe’s office and hope no servants were still awake.
It was not so many hours ago when I’d been a welcomed guest inside these walls. Could I really have fallen this far so fast? I made a silent vow to repay Harlowe for my crimes as soon as possible. Still, what I was doing felt like the ultimate betrayal. Harlowe would understand someday why I persuaded the thieves not to go to the border settlements. But I wasn’t sure I could ever make him see that I needed to take them somewhere, and that this was the only place I felt I had some control.
The window to what I thought was Harlowe’s office was high off the ground, so I’d have to shinny up a tree to get in. Hopefully that was enough deterrent for Erick to follow me. I doubted he was a man who did much climbing.
I brushed my hands on my pants to dry them. Erick glanced up at the window, then grabbed my shirt and pressed me against the tree trunk. “You swear to me this isn’t a trap?” he hissed.
“It isn’t a trap,” I assured him. “Trust me, I want to get in and out as much as you do.” Probably more.
“If anything looks funny, I’ll signal my men and guarantee nobody leaves here alive. Especially not you.”
“If you don’t want anything to go wrong, then stop making so much noise,” I said, pushing back at him. “Now let’s do this.”
I climbed the tree with no more noise than the occasional rustle of leaves. Then, keeping myself shielded by the wall, I peered into the window. With the little moonlight available, I could see that this was Harlowe’s office and it was empty. Even better, the door was closed, and as far as I could tell from looking beneath the door, the halls were dark. If servants were awake, there would still be some lights on the main floor.
“Wait for me here,” I told Erick. “I’ll be out in five minutes.”
I wormed my fingers beneath the window and slowly raised it. It slid silently and easily, an indication that Harlowe often opened it, perhaps for a breeze during the warm spring afternoons. The leap from the branch where I was perched wasn’t too bad, and within a few seconds I was standing inside Harlowe’s office.
In the low light, the challenge would be to figure out where he kept his valuables. I didn’t need much. Coins were best because they’d be the most valued by the thieves, the easiest to replace, and the least sentimental. If Harlowe had coins anywhere in the home, they were most likely here.
I had worked my way around a desk in his office and was fingering across shelves of books when I heard footsteps in the main hall. I froze, hoping it was only a passing servant.
But the footsteps were followed by voices, and the light of a candle flickered from beneath the office door. They were coming closer.
When it became obvious they were approaching the office, I hurried toward the window. The voices were of two men, though with the muffle of the door I couldn’t recognize them. I assumed one of them must be Harlowe.
The door opened before I was as far as the window, so I began to duck beneath the desk, but a voice commanded me to stop.
I didn’t draw my knife. There was no point in it. And turning around to face the two men who had entered the office was one of the hardest things I’d ever done.
Both men gasped when they recognized me. Harlowe was the one holding the candle. The other man, who had ordered me to stop and who had withdrawn his knife, was none other than Mott.
None of us spoke for what seemed like an hour. Slowly Mott lowered his knife and finally Harlowe whispered, “You’re Jaron. But why —”