Free The Thief's Gamble (Einarinn 1) by Juliet E. McKenna

why could I not have met him on his own? A less happy thought occurred to me; perhaps he was financing this gentlefolks' tour, not the Archmage. Still, I could be less careful not to win too much off him next time we played the runes.
    'Shiv tells me you're from Vanam?' I commented idly.
    'Yes, that's right.'
    'That's quite a coincidence. That's where I come from originally.' I gave him my warm, sisterly smile. Geris smiled back, reminding me of one of those eager Aldabreshi lapdogs.
    'Whereabouts do you live? Perhaps we have acquaintance in common?'
    It was quite funny to watch his brain catch up with his mouth. As a gambit for polite chit-chat, that was a fine question, but was it really what he wanted to ask a woman from whom he had bought stolen property? His face reflected his dismay as he saw the conversational pit he had just dug ahead. I was tempted to claim a handful of city notables as people I had robbed. Would that count as acquaintance?
    'I doubt it.' I took pity on him. 'My mother is a housekeeper.'
    'Oh, for whom?' Still not the most tactful question but this time he didn't seem to notice.
    'Emys Glashale. He lives east of the river, off the Rivenroad.'
    Geris shook his head. 'I don't really know that part of the city. My family live on the Ariborne.'
    'Oh?' I didn't have to fake a tone of interest. The Ariborne means money, but not necessarily old money. Some very shady characters try to purchase respectability with that address.
    Geris glanced at me and then concentrated on a bend in the road which was badly rutted and boggy with the recent rain. His face showed eagerness to chat was warring with instructions to be discreet, doubtless from Darni. I sat patiently and we negotiated the curve without accident. Geris looked sideways at me again, and I saw his eyes brighten as they lingered on my breeched legs. I stretched them out and leaned back in the seat, which also helped to pull my jerkin tighter over my breasts.
    'There are some beautiful houses on the Ariborne,' I said wistfully. 'Have you lived there long?'
    As I hoped, the social code could not let Geris ignore a lady's conversation, even one as dubiously qualified as me.
    'My father built the house about ten years ago, when he—' Geris broke off and hesitated. He laughed. 'Oh well, you might as well know. My father's Judal Armiger.'
    'Never!' I gaped at him. 'The Looking Glass man? That Judal?'
    Geris blushed but I could see he was proud of his parentage and no wonder.
    'Why are you so shy about it? Judal's the greatest actor Vanam has known in three generations!' I let my enthusiasm have full rein. 'My mother told me how he formed his own company rather than seek a wealthy patron. She says everyone was astounded. And then, to build his own playhouse rather than use the temples like everyone else, well, that was a stroke of genius.'
    'He's a clever man.' Geris sat straighter on his seat as pride filled him.
    'Clever hardly fits it! People are still talking about the first time he staged a Lescari romance. It made the priests livid. How did he find the nerve to go and buy in a Soluran masquerade after that, just to show them what he thought?'
    I laughed; I'd seen the masqueraders as a child on a rare day out with my father and I could still picture them vividly.
    'He writes his own material too,' Geris boasted. 'He's survived mockery, sabotage and imitation to set the standard by which any troupe is judged.'
    That had the sound of one of Judal's own lines to me but I wasn't going to quibble. He is certainly a remarkable man. Incidentally, he has made a great deal of money.
    'My mother and I queued all afternoon to see The Duke of Marker's Daughter , you know.'
    Geris turned eagerly. 'Did you enjoy it? What did you think of it?'
    'My mother said she'd never realised one mother putting a switch across her daughter's backside could have stopped the Lescari wars before they'd got started.' I laughed in sudden remembrance of her dry tone.
    'I don't think