Her frustration only mounted with each passing hour that the cursed key remained missing. No doubt the four men trapped here in her solar were grateful she was presently soaking in a tub. Otherwise, she’d have the lot of them hanging from meat hooks on the wall. Godfry she’d leave alone for now. The split-lipped steward had already done his duty, rounding up the master of the mews and his two accomplices. “Odger,” she crooned. “Aye, my lady.” Odger trembled, fidgeting with the hat in his hands, looking as out of place in her chamber as one of his birds. “You betrayed my trust.” “I didn’t mean to.” His gaze kept dropping to her breasts, as if he’d never seen a naked woman before. She half smiled. He’d probably never seen one as lovely as she. “And yet you did.” “The wench stabbed me, my lady,” he said, yanking down his shirt to show her the wound in his shoulder. “I thought ‘twas best to send someone she didn’t know.” “Well, aren’t you clever?” She lifted the rag out of her bath, closed her eyes, and squeezed it, letting the hot water rain down upon her bosom. “Except that the men you enlisted are bumbling fools with the combined wit of a flea.”
