Edilean just shook her head no, and silently motioned for him to follow her. They were very quiet and got within sight of the camp within minutes, with no alert being sounded. Near the fire were half a dozen or so tents that consisted mostly of blankets draped over a rope, but they’d keep the rain off. Inside each one, Edilean could see the dark forms of what had to be people.

“Which one is hers?” she whispered to Cuddy.

He pointed to the one on the far end.

“Stay here and I’ll go to it,” Edilean whispered, but Cuddy shook his head no.

She nodded back in return, letting him know that he couldn’t keep her from doing this.

Reluctantly, Cuddy obeyed her-or seemed to. Ten seconds after she disappeared into the forest, he went after her.

Edilean silently made her way through the woods to the tent that Cuddy had pointed out. Her plan was to sneak inside, put her knife to Tabitha’s throat, and tell her it was either her life or the diamonds.

Edilean put the hilt of the knife in her mouth, and went to her hands and knees to crawl into the tent. Her heart was racing and her breath was coming fast, but she had no doubt whatever that this was what she had to do.

She lifted one side of the blanket tent and looked inside. There Tabitha was, lying on her back, one arm outstretched, and looking as innocent as she told people she was. Just two more feet and she’d be there. When she was at Tabitha’s head, Edilean sat back on her legs, lifted the knife and-

The next second, she was grabbed from behind by the waist and swung out of the tent and into the cold air. For a moment she thought it was Cuddy who’d grabbed her, but she saw it was a man she’d never seen before. He had black whiskers and his breath was foul.

“Let me go!” She fought against him.

“You expectin’ him to come save you?” the man asked, his big arm tightening around her waist.

She looked to one side and saw Cuddy lying on the ground in a heap. He didn’t seem to be breathing.

“You’ve killed him!”

“Naw, he’s all right.”

Edilean saw Cuddy move, but she couldn’t tell how badly he was injured.

“What the hell are you doin’ here?” Tabitha asked as she crawled out of the tent and saw the man holding a squirming, fighting Edilean.

“Came to kill you,” the man said, his voice highly amused. “Woulda too, if I hadn’t caught her.”

Tabitha looked genuinely surprised. “You wanted to kill me? Why?”

“You have something of mine,” Edilean said.

“Angus ain’t here.”

“I’m not-” Edilean gave a double backward hit with her sharp elbows to the man, and he released her.

“I oughta-”

“Go away,” Tabitha said to the man, dismissing him as though he weren’t of any worth. She looked back at Edilean. “I didn’t take your man.”

“He’s a bit big even for you to slip into your pocket,” Edilean said, and she heard someone suppress a giggle. She didn’t look around her, but she could hear sounds of people moving about as they got up to watch the drama.

Tabitha picked up Edilean’s knife off the ground and looked at it in shock. “Why would you come out here to do this? My life ain’t bad enough for you?”

“Bad life?” Edilean said in anger. “You told Angus a lie about why you’d been transported and you ran away from the man who paid your bond. It seems to me that you have caused the bad, not them.”

Tabitha glared at Edilean, her eyes flashing in the moonlight, then she pulled down the side of her blouse to reveal her shoulder. Even in the moonlight Edilean could see the red scars. “He branded me! Put his initials on my shoulder with a red-hot branding iron. He did it because I told him that I’d work for him but not sleep with him. Yes, I’m a thief but I’m not a whore.”

Edilean refused to be swayed by the thick, raw mark on Tabitha’s shoulder because she saw a flash in the moonlight. Tabitha was wearing all three of the bracelets from the parure that Edilean had given Angus.

“Those are mine,” Edilean said, nodding toward the bracelets.

Frowning in puzzlement, Tabitha touched the diamonds, then she looked at Edilean in disbelief. “These are real?”

When Edilean said nothing, Tabitha said, “Lord a’ mercy,” and took a few steps backward.

“You stole them from Angus and I want all of it back,” Edilean said.

Tabitha was looking at the bracelets in wonder. “I thought they were pretty but I never thought they were… What? Diamonds?”

Edilean said nothing, just glared at Tabitha.

“You were going to kill me to get them?” Tabitha asked, her eyes wide. “You were gonna sneak up behind me and…” She put her hand up to her throat and looked at the man standing behind her.

“I’ll take her into the woods and I’ll make her sorry she bothered you,” the man said.

Tabitha looked at Edilean. “All I have to do is say yes and you’ll be dead-or wish you were-in about ten minutes.” She looked at the man. “Take her and that one out to the road but don’t hurt them. You understand me?”

The man grabbed Edilean’s arm, but she wrenched it away. “I’m not leaving here until you give me back the parure.”

“The what?” Tabitha asked.

“The set of jewels,” Edilean said. “They belong to Angus.”

“So why didn’t he come and get them? Why’d he send you to do his dirty work for him?”

“He has no idea I’m here or that I know you stole the jewels.”

“He doesn’t know I took them,” Tabitha said.

“How could he not?”

Tabitha gave a little smile. “He likes me. I saw it in his eyes that first day on that rotten old ship. If you hadn’t been around…” She gave a shrug. “They’re mine now.”

“No they’re not!” Edilean yelled, as she launched herself onto Tabitha and knocked her to the ground.

“It’s a girl fight,” the man said under his breath, and the next minute he was yelling, “Fight! Fight!” and the few people who were still asleep came running.

“Get off of me!” Tabitha yelled as she tried to roll away from Edilean.

“If you don’t give me those jewels back, I’ll tear your hair out.”

“Will you?” Tabitha said. “I’d like to see you try.”

In the next second, Edilean gave such a fierce pull on Tabitha’s hair that her head jerked back so hard her eyes watered.

Tabitha kicked out at Edilean’s shin, but she missed when Edilean adroitly twisted her body to one side.

“She’s got you now, Tabby,” came a woman’s voice.

Still looking as though she couldn’t believe any of this was happening, Tabitha said, “If you don’t stop this, I’m going to have to hurt you.”

“You may try,” Edilean said, “but I’m not leaving here until you give me the jewels. And if you won’t give them to me then I’m going to take them.”

“You can’t-” Tabitha began but stopped when Edilean’s fist hit her in the jaw. Stepping back, she put her hand to her face and moved her chin about, as though feeling if it was broken. In the next second, she jumped in the air and went after Edilean, who moved, so Tabitha landed on the ground. Everyone around the two women started laughing.

Edilean had known this was going to happen. She’d lived with women all her life, and she knew that no matter what class they were, when it came down to it, girls could fight as hard as males. She’d told Cuddy that what she wanted him to do was search wherever Tabitha was sleeping and get the jewels. She didn’t think that winning a fight would make these outlaws turn over thousands of pounds’ worth of diamonds to her. Her only hope was to create enough of a diversion so no one saw what Cuddy was doing.

Edilean glanced in Cuddy’s direction, and when she saw that he was stirring, was sitting up and rubbing his sore head, she sighed in relief. Obviously, he hadn’t been hurt too badly. All Edilean had to do was keep the entire crowd so occupied by her and Tabitha that they didn’t notice what else was going on.

When she saw the man who’d grabbed her from behind glance in Cuddy’s direction, she doubled up her fist and again hit Tabitha on the jaw. The man looked away from Cuddy.