Free Thief (Brotherhood of the Throne Book 1) by Jane Glatt Page A

just to make sure he’d really left. And she’d keep an eye out for him in the next few days. Because if he was looking for her, he knew where she lived. Brenna didn’t like that thought at all.
    She’d always felt safe enough in her rooms. Once in the shop, you had to pass Mistress Dudding in order to reach the back stairs that led up to her rooms. The third step from the top creaked and she’d added a solid lock to the door at the top. She’d lived here for more than two years. Mistress Dudding had been a patient - Brenna had made a salve for the seamstress’s arthritic hands. On her second visit she’d been offered the rooms over the shop.
    They were small and plain – the chair she sat in was only a few steps across from the door and close enough to the window that she could peek out from behind the thick white curtain. A large table – strewn with books, scrolls and old parchments - was squeezed in beside the window and the fireplace, a simple hearth that also fed the heat from the kitchen below through the room. Along the back of the table, up against the wall, she’d filled some old wooden crates with her tools - mortar and pestle, dried herbs and leaves, bottles of viscous liquids - as well as a small pack that held her lock picking tools.
    A separate sleeping chamber was accessed through the small wooden door opposite the fireplace. A tiny room with a sloped ceiling, it had a single window that was just big enough for her to squeeze through, as she’d proved when planning an escape route.
    Brenna pulled the curtain aside and looked out onto the street again. The man was gone - perhaps he really had been having a simple glass of wine? She grabbed her cloak off the wooden peg by the door and pulled it around her shoulders, locked her door and headed down the stairs. After a quick greeting to Mistress Dudding, she went out and headed for the local fruit stand.
    “Hello Pater, what’s the best eating today?”
    Pater the fruit seller had been a fixture on this street of the Quarter for as long as Brenna had been around. A grizzled man with silvery gray hair and beard, his smile was contagious despite some missing teeth.
    “For my best customer I’d suggest a sweet peach, the first of the season from the southern lands in Aruntun.” Pater said. Then he stopped.
    Brenna looked up to find him staring at her oddly.
    “What’s wrong?” Brenna looked around. Maybe the man from the wine sellers was still around?
    “Nothin’ lass,” Pater said and shook his head. “Nothin’ at all. Here, this is for you.” He picked up a plump peach and handed it to her. She fished in her purse for a coin.
    “No.” The old man smiled at her and seemed to relax, finally. “You keep your money today. That poultice you gave me for my sister’s youngest sure enough did the trick and the lad’s up and back at work these past two days already. My sister thought for sure he’d need to be off that foot for another seven days.”
    “If you’re sure? You paid me for the poultice already.”
    “I’m sure. Wouldn’t have no peaches if the boy weren’t back at work. He’s the one who dealt with the Aruntian traders. Besides, that tea you brought me last week helped ward off the chill.” Pater smiled as Brenna put her purse securely under her vest. “Where’re you off to lass?”
    “Just going over to the collegium. I came across a new plant that’s supposed to be good for reducing fevers and I want to check for any other properties it might have.” Brenna took a bite of the peach and smiled at the sweetness of it.
    “Well I guess that’s why ye be the best healer in town.” Pater shook his head. “Ye’re always off to the library finding things out.”
    With a final wave Brenna headed down the street. She grinned - Pater didn’t know the half of it. It was amazing what she could find out in the library, especially with help from her friend Randell. He knew where everything was and tended not to notice when