Dear gods, he trusted her enough to suggest such a thing! Calm descended, dissolving her initial panic. "I can do it."

"God bless you, my love." He gave her a swift, hard kiss. "Don't be shocked at anything I say. Now go."

Dropping her plaid so she'd be unencumbered, she ran the length of the keep as Kyle shouted, "You may have rifles, but I have a pistol. Whichever of you comes in here first is a dead man."

"I guessed you might be armed or we'd have been in there already. But we can outwait and outshoot you, so say your prayers, Maxwell."

"Since it's going to be a long wait, you might as well satisfy my curiosity. What the devil have I done that made you decide to kill me?"

"You came to China."

As the conversation echoed hollowly through the ruins, Troth surveyed the door opening two stories up the wall. The climb would be tricky, but the mortar that bound the stones had deteriorated with the years, leaving finger- and toeholds for someone who was light, agile, and desperate. Cautiously she began to climb.

After a lengthy pause, Kyle yelled, "I've racked my brain, but damned if I can remember anything I did that might have offended you this much. We hardly knew each other. If I've insulted your honor, I'd be happy to apologize, or settle the issue in a duel."

Logan gave a bark of laughter. "Affairs of honor are for you so-called gentlemen, not the likes of me. I'm just a lowborn merchant, so I go direct to what I want rather than making a game of death."

Troth reached the sill of the door and scrambled up into it, catching her breath as she evaluated her next step. The adjoining building was smaller and lower than the keep, and had no ground-level entrances at all. Her best bet would be to make her way over and up onto the building's back wall. She'd be able to move along the top quickly, then have only a short climb up to the top of the wall of the slightly higher building beyond.

She took a deep breath and swung from the door so that her face was pressed against the cold, damp stone. Though her nerves screamed for her to hurry, she made sure her new holds were secure before she released the old ones. Moving across a wall like a spider couldn't be rushed.

Again taking his time replying, Kyle called, "Resenting my birth isn't much of a reason, especially since I'm involved in trade myself. Can you honestly say I ever showed disrespect to you or any other Canton trader?"

"Maybe not," Logan said grudgingly. "But you won't soil your aristocratic hands on opium. When you take your seat in the House of Lords, you'll be in a position to damage our business, maybe destroy it altogether. A pity I didn't manage to get you killed in the Settlement."

Troth froze for a moment. So Logan was the Fan-qui who'd hired the assassins to attack Kyle! May demons eat his liver, and soon.

"You greatly overrate my potential power in Parliament."

"The fact that you've actually been to Canton and seen the trade close up will make all the difference," Logan spat out. "Your stinkin' fellow lords will believe your objections. Even some of the traders in Canton started saying that maybe you had a point. You're too damned persuasive."

Limbs shaking from effort, Troth reached the top of the back wall and hauled herself up. Then she made the mistake of looking down at the sheer drop of the crag below. If she fell…

She closed her eyes against waves of dizziness, reminding herself faintly that there was a rim of land below that she'd probably hit if she fell. Possible death rather than the sure doom of falling down the crag. Besides, there was no reason to fall; the walls of this old fortress were all several handspans wide, easy to walk along.

Most of all, she had to do this, or she and Kyle would both die here.

Head steady, she climbed to her feet and began walking along the wall as fast as she dared in the stiff wind. Storm clouds were approaching rapidly and rain would make the stones far more treacherous.

"I have a deal for you, Maxwell," Logan shouted. "I'd rather your body was found without bullet holes in it. If you throw down your pistol and come out, you can die in a nice quick fall off the cliff rather than gut-shot and howling with agony."

Kyle laughed as if they were discussing a minor wager rather than murder. "Either way I'm dead. What's the advantage of surrendering to you tamely?"

Troth reached the end of the second building. The roofless shell ahead of her was higher but not by much. Wind tearing at her garments, she clawed her way to the top of the third building and paused for another survey.

She'd reached the northwest corner and had a clear view of most of the courtyard. The building where she perched was right next to the guardhouse, with both buildings built out from the battlements. By looking down and to her right, she had a clear view of Logan and Scouse, who were lounging in the entrance to the guardhouse with their rifles.

Almost directly opposite them was the door to the keep, with Kyle concealed just to the left. Since he had only a pistol, there was no need for Logan and Scouse to hide. Even if their quarry charged out of the keep, his hand weapon wouldn't be effective across the width of the courtyard.

She recognized Scouse from Canton. Burly and bullet headed, he was well known in the gin shops and brothels of the Settlement. He'd started as a common sailor before the mast and worked his way up to captain by brute strength and cunning. Even though she had wing chun, he would be a very dangerous opponent.

"The advantage of cooperation is that I swear on my mother's grave that I'll see your body is discovered so your family will know you're dead," Logan replied. "Otherwise you'll simply disappear, and they'll never know what happened."

Troth sucked in her breath, knowing how much such a threat would affect Kyle. Too angry to delay his reply, Kyle shouted, "You bastard!"

Logan heard the anger also, and roared with laughter. "Now, now, you insult my mother, who was as sour and upright a woman as ever lived." His amusement vanished. "The longer you make me wait, the more likely I am to decide to hide your body in the hills where no one but the crows will ever find it. You're going to die, Maxwell, but if you surrender soon enough, at least you'll have some say about how it happens."

She started along the top of the last wall. Once she reached the end, she'd be able to climb down to the wall-walk that ran inside the battlements, and from there she could enter the guardhouse and attack. But for now, she must tread warily. If Logan or Scouse turned they'd immediately see her silhouetted against the sky. Her skin crawled at the knowledge of what an easy target she'd make.

She was midwall when the storm hit in a blast of rain that almost knocked her from her precarious ridge of stone. She crouched immediately to regain her balance and was soaked to the skin in seconds. Chilled to the bone, she began creeping forward again.

Logan and Scouse cursed at the onslaught of rain. On instinct she flattened herself along the wall on her belly just before they turned to glare up at the clouds. The storm darkened the sky enough that they didn't notice her clinging, terrified, to the wall. In her soaked garments, she must blend in with the irregular stones.

As she lay there, heart pounding, Scouse said something to Logan, making a sweeping gesture toward the battlements and the south wall of the courtyard. They exchanged several sentences, and she got the impression they were arguing. Then Logan shrugged, conceding the point. Scouse crossed to the rear of the guardhouse and began to climb the steep stone staircase that led to the wall-walk.

Horrified, she realized that the sea captain must have told Logan that they could end this quickly if he followed the wall-walk to the south wall, which separated the courtyard from the lower castle. Crossing the south wall would bring him to the lowest window at the south end of the keep-and from there he'd be able to murder Kyle with a single shot. Easier to dispose of bodies for crows to eat than to stay out in the rain.