Page 128 of The Bastard's Iberian Bride
Kincaid swiped a hand across his cheek in a gesture that told more about the depth of his worry than Bink could ever imagine.
“Fair enough. Conceal that somewhere. We must hurry. The scurvy boy says there’s a deadline.” He handed Bink a pistol. It was Bink’s own, loaded and primed. “You still have a blade?”
Bink stowed the letter and the pistol. “Yes.”
“Good.” They started down the corridor. “The boy will take you to Agruen’s man. He will demand to return alone with the letter. Tell him you must see her. He will protest. He’ll want to carry the letter. If he will not give way, kill him. We’ll have the boy, and we’ll get the location out of him, or be damn close.” He stopped at the outer door. “Agruen will try to kill you. We would like him alive.”
“If he hurts Paulette in any way, he’s a dead man.”
“She’s a brave girl. And Filomena, when it comes to the point, will fight for her.”
He doubted that. The bitch had pointed a gun at Paulette.
* * *
Paulette struggledto work the bonds at her back. From the movements of the other woman’s shoulders, she was doing the same.
“Can we untie each other?” Paulette whispered.
“You do not need to whisper. We are quite alone, and that door is locked.” Her voice was strong. The beating had not affected her as badly as Agruen must have hoped.
Paulette eyed the door. “We can pick that. We just need to get loose.”
Her cousin laughed. “Just like that? Sela taught you something more useful than how to darn stockings. Perhaps you are right.” She scanned the room. “Perhaps there is something here we can use to pick locks.”
Perhaps I have a set of lockpicks in my bootalong with a sgian dubh.
She kept her mouth firmly closed and stood. Fil was only a few feet away. A few hops, given the way her feet were bound. “Can you stand?”
“Yes.” Her cousin got awkwardly to her feet and leaned her waist on the table.
She looked small, frail.
It was an illusion. She also probably had a weapon hidden somewhere, in spite of the search by Agruen’s man.
Paulette must be the first one untied.
She backed up to the woman and felt for her hands. “When we are untied, will you kill me, Filomena?”
After a moment of silence, the woman chuckled. “You are giving Agruen the letter and he already has the ring. I think it is him I must kill.”
She hadn’t answered the question. “Was it your ring he took also?” Paulette had worked her way to the end of the rope.
“Why would you ask that?”
“He told me he took a ring just like my mother’s from another woman.” The other woman’s knots were loosening. “I cannot feel your hands working. I shall go and sit down directly if you do not help out.”
“You do not trust me.”
“Why should I? You were going to shoot me.”
“Ah that,corazón. I ran out of powder days ago.”
The tension on her wrists loosened. She wrestled free, and turned, untying the other woman’s bonds.
Filomena plopped down on her chair and started working the bonds on her legs. “Keep the rope handy at your wrist.”
Paulette hurried to sit. She pulled the knife from her boot and sawed at the knot.
