Wrede, Patricia C - Mairelon 01 Read Free Page A

Mairelon, and he
was chewing continuously on one end of his mustache.
                Kim
looked back at Mairelon. "Proper knowin' one, ain't you?" she said in her best boyish tone.
                "As
far as you are concerned, not nearly so knowing as I would like to be,"
Mairelon replied affably.
                " You going to call the nabbing culls?"
                "That
depends on how much you are willing to tell me."
                "I
got no reason to keep quiet," Kim said frankly. If the toff who'd hired
her had been more open, she might have felt some obligation to keep her mouth
shut, but not even an out-and-outer would expect her to protect an employer
who'd withheld crucial knowledge about a job. Especially when
she hadn't been too keen on it in the first place.
                "Then
perhaps you would explain just what you were doing in my wagon," Mairelon
said.
                "Lookin'
about," Kim said promptly.
                The
droopy man snorted through the damp ends of his mustache. "Stealing,
more likely."
                "Quiet,
Hunch," Mairelon said. He looked from Kim to the open cupboard with a
speculative gleam. "Just looking?"
                "That's
right," Kim said firmly. "Just lookin' about."
                The
magician's eyes narrowed, and Kim wondered whether her
reply had been too forceful for the boy she was pretending to be. It was too
late to change it now, though.
                "That
accounts for the cupboards, I think," Mairelon said after a moment.
"How did you--"
                "You don't never believe 'im, do you?" the droopy man
demanded.
                "Hunch! Refrain from interrupting, if you please."
                "And
let you get yourself in a mort o' trouble from believing things you 'adn't
ought to?" Hunch said indignantly. "I won't never !"
                Mairelon
gave his henchman an exasperated look. "Then you can go outside until I'm
done."
                Hunch's
face took on a grim expression. "Nay."
                "It's
that or be silent."
                The two
men's eyes locked briefly; Hunch's fell. "Aye, then, I'll 'old my
peace."
                "Good."
Mairelon turned back to Kim, who had been watching this exchange with great
interest. "As I was saying, I think you've explained the cupboards. The
chest is another matter. How did you open it?"
                "Picked the lock."
                "I
find that a little difficult to believe. It's not a simple mechanism."
                "Didn't
have to be," Kim said, allowing herself to bristle at the implied
reflection on her skill.
                Mairelon
raised an eyebrow. "Well, we'll leave that for the moment. Just why were you, er, looking about in my wagon?"
                "A gentry cove at the Dog and Bull said he'd pay five pounds to
know what you had in here. Said he had a bet on it."
                "Did he ." Mairelon and Hunch exchanged glances.
                "He
thought he'd gammoned me proper," Kim said. She took a perverse pleasure
in betraying the toff who'd gotten her into this. "But if it was just a
bet, why'd he let me talk him up to five pounds? And why was he so nattered
over that wicher-bubber?"
                "Wicher-bubber?" Mairelon said, looking startled,
and not altogether pleased. "You mean a silver bowl?"
                "That's
what I said. The toff wanted me to look for it."
                "Did
he ask you to steal it?" Mairelon demanded, his
expression tense.
                "No,
but I ain't saying he wouldn't of been right pleased if I'd a nicked it for
him."
                "There!"
Hunch said. "What was I telling you ? ' E's a
thief."
                "Look,
cully, if I was a sharper, would I be telling you