Page 72 of Bosse
Hessie snarled at her. “Go chop vegetables. Try to do that right.”
Relieved at not being sent out of the kitchen, Alifair found the vegetable chopping station and turned her body so she could watch for someone to leave with food for one person.
Alifair had worried often that Rez was not being fed until seeing the woman with the blue head covering. She’d carried no food, but her trip from the kitchen to the back hallway gave Alifair hope that someone was nourishing Rez.
Hessie never turned when she said, “Kylie,” in the kindest voice Alifair had heard from that woman. The thin servant wearing the gray dress to her ankles, the same brown apron, and a blue cloth tying back her long black hair walked over to Hessie. She whispered in the frowny woman’s ear.
As Alifair covertly watched her now, she realized she had seen this servant work in the kitchen or setting the table, but rarely. What did Kylie do the rest of the time?
Maybe she washed laundry.
Or maybe she warmed Krol’s bed and did as she pleased.
Icky thought.
Hessie nodded and spoke softly in reply to Kylie’s whisper. She tilted her head toward a cupboard where they stored dried fruit and jerky. Kylie turned in that direction, her gaze sweeping across the room.
Alifair kept her head down, eyeing the scene through her peripheral vision.
Walking calmly through the busy kitchen, the woman opened the cupboard, stayed maybe a minute, and walked away with nothing in her hands.
Argh! That was no help. She needed a good lead.
Then Alifair did a double take at the side view of the woman, which she had not seen before due to high counters and boxes of supplies blocking her view.
Kylie’s apron pockets were full.
Could that be the food delivery service for Rez?
Crud. Alifair couldn’t just walk out right now, or everyone would point fingers at her suspicious action. How often could they be feeding Rez? Was this a lunch meal? If Kylie was feeding Rez, it seemed she’d also do it at night.
Alifair would stay up tonight and watch the kitchen from a sunken alcove she’d used before.
If she found Rez, could tonight be the time to spirit her out of here?
That would be difficult with the guards on high alert, but she had to try or face the possibility of missing her best chance before Krol returned.
Her heart banged around in her chest like a chipmunk on crack stuck in a cage.
There was no way Bosse would be here to help her this soon. He might not even be in America yet. She’d have to do this alone.
She needed a weapon.
The knife in her hand would be as good as it got, but if Hessie found it missing, she’d flay the skin off the back of whoever took it before Krol got to them.
The day had been chaotic, with guards jumping on anyone going outside without permission and ordering the servants to stay at their work locations until they were released for the evening. Once freed from work, servants were expected to remain in their rooms.
Alifair would wait as long as she could, maybe until one in the morning. If her theory of feeding Rez around two or three in the morning when the castle slept was correct, she had to be in her hidden alcove spot early.
She’d washed off the cinnamon and cardamom scent she’d created as a powder to be boosted with a spell and put it in a small vial before leaving home. The guards had taken all her other possessions except her ragged coat when they captured her. The vial had traveled with cash in a false panel she’d sewn inside the coat and clutched to her body while shivering from the temperature that night.
That plan had worked. What guard would want a threadbare coat with patches and a size too small for a man?
She needed tonight to pay off. If not, she had to return to the kitchen before Hessie arrived for any hope of putting the knife back in place.
If she did get lucky, she intended to keep the knife and try to escape with Rez. Should guards find out and race to catch them, she was expected to stay back and slow them down so Rez could escape.
Once again, she felt no sense of value in this position. Had her mother experienced the same feelings or just accepted her place in the clan?
