The Herald's Heart by Rue Allyn

cause this. Someone hit me, then pushed the stones onto me.”
    Talon raised a brow. “Who?”
    “I know not. Whoever it was put out the torch first.”
    “You should create better lies. The torch was burning when we found you.”
    She stiffened her back. “My attacker could have lit it again.”
    The knight snorted. “Cleve said he heard the crash of stones to the floor. He paused only to send someone for me before going to your aid. He found you unconscious, your arm pinned beneath the stones, and fistfuls of gold coin spilling from the pocket of your apron. The rest of the treasure lay scattered about a small chest with a broken lock.”
    “Gold? I know nothing of any gold or a chest.”
    “Do you expect me to believe that you had no knowledge of the treasure hidden within that wall?”
    “The only treasure I sought was the box I told you of.”
    “Yet you had tools that could have been used to break the lock of that chest as easily as chisel mortar from stones. With the gold, you could have purchased a dozen boxes filled with documents and locks of hair and claimed any one of those as the one you sought. What a shame you did not take more care. Your thieving might have gone undiscovered.”
    She fought through the thudding ache that had returned to her skull. “Someone is trying to make me look guilty. How could I pocket so much gold in the time it took the stones to fall? Nor would I have been able to remove anything from behind those stones without first removing them. Were that so, they would not have fallen.”
    He studied her. “You are a very clever woman. Clever enough to frighten an entire keep. You could have found the means to get the chest that would leave the stones unsteady enough to fall on you. But you raise enough doubt that I must investigate more closely.” He started to stand.
    She caught his hand with her good one. “I did not know what lay hidden within that wall.”
    “’Tis difficult to believe when you continue to lie and deceive like a thief.”
    “I seek nothing that is not mine.”
    He heaved a great sigh.
    “I brought the water and all ye ordered, Sir Talon,” Alice interrupted from the doorway. “If ye’ll move aside, I’ll care for her until Mother Clement gets here.”
    Talon clenched his jaw and stood. “We will talk more once your hurts have been tended, but know this. On your oath, you will cease your searches of this keep, or I will place a guard to watch you whatever your task.”
    Larkin moaned.
    “Hush now. Keep quiet, and you’ll soon feel better.” Alice sat and dabbed at her forehead.
    With Alice between them, Larkin could not have responded to Sir Talon had she wished to, which she definitely did not. She would swear no oath to cease her searching. She would have a hard enough time if her arm injury was as severe as she feared. If she could just make Sir Talon believe her. That was impossible without the marriage box. So no matter what he threatened, no matter her injuries, she would find the box or die trying.
    • • •
    His first thought on seeing Larkin in the rubble of the broken wall had been to pray she was still alive. When that prayer had been answered, he prayed that her injuries were slight. She had indeed been lucky. However, when he’d seen the gold spilling from her apron, he’d chastised himself for a fool. He had no business being soft where this woman was concerned.
    Talon trudged down the stairs to the solar where Larkin was cleaning today. On the chance that she told the truth about how her accident happened, he’d gone back to the counting room and examined the entire space. He’d found a burned spot in the rushes below the sconce where the end of a recently extinguished torch might have lain. The rushes near the doorway seemed disturbed, but any number of things could cause that. However, the scorch marks supported Larkin’s tale, if nothing else did. He could not condemn her when she might not be lying.
    He paused in the doorway