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He had waited in his room, chafing, for an hour...He had waited in his room, chafing, for an hour to be sure the last of them had goneHaving changed into a dark-brown tunic and breeches, he put on a cap to hide his hair and a woolen overshirt against the coming chill of eveningThen he made his way unnoticed through the now teeming crowds in the streets over to the eastern gate of the city And out, among several empty wagons, goods all sold, being ridden back to the distrada by sober, prudent farmers who preferred to reload and return in the morning instead of celebrating all night in town spending what they'd just earned Devin hitched a ride on a cart part of the way, commiserating with the driver on the taxes and the poor rates being paid that year for lamb's woolEventually he jumped off, feigning youthful exuberance and ran a mile or so along the road to the east At one point he saw, with a grin of recognition, a temple of Adaon on the rightJust past it, as promised, was the delicately rendered image of a ship on the roadside gate of a modest country houseRovigo's home, what Devin could see of it, set well back from the road among cypress and olive trees, looked prada bags cheap comfortable and cared for A day ago, a different person, he would have stoppedBut something had happened to him that morning within the dusty spaces of the Sandreni Palace A half mile further on he found what he was looking forHe made sure he was alone and then quickly cut to his right, south into the woods, away from the main road that led to the east coast and Ardin town on the sea It was quiet in the forest and cooler where the branches and the many-colored leaves dappled the sunlightThere was a path winding through the trees and Devin began to follow it, towards the hunting lodge of the SandreniFrom here on he redoubled his cautionOn the road he was simply a walker in the autumn countryside; here he was a trespasser with no excuse at all for being where he was Unless pride and the strange, dreamlike events of the morning just past could be called adequate excusesDevin rather doubted itAt the same time, it remained to be seen whether he or a certain manipulative red-headed personage was going to dictate the shape and flow of this day and those to comeIf she were under the impression that he was so easy to dupe, a helpless, rolex air king youthful slave to his passions, blinded and deafened to anything else by the so-gracious offer of her body, well it was for this afternoon and this evening to show how wrong an arrogant girl could be What else the evening might reveal, Devin didn't know; he hadn't allowed himself to slow down long enough to consider the question There was no one there when he came to the lodge, though he lay silently among the trees for a long time to be certainThe front door was chained but Marra had been very good with such devices and had taught him a thing or twoHe picked the lock with the buckle of his belt, went inside, opened a window, and climbed out to relock the chainThen he slipped back in through the window, closed it, and took a look around There was little option, reallyThe two bedchambers at the back would be dangerous and not very useful if he wanted to hearDevin balanced himself on the broad arm of a heavy wooden chair and, jumping, managed to make it up to the half-loft on his second attempt Nursing a shin bruised in the process he took a pillow from one of the pallets stored up there and proceeded to wedge himself into swiss rolex watches the remotest, darkest corner he could find, behind two beds and the stuffed head of an antlered corbin stagBy lying on his left side, eye to a chink in the floorboards, he had an almost complete view of the room below He tried to guide himself towards a mood of calm and patienceUnfortunately, he soon became irrationally conscious of the fact that the glassy eye of the corbin was glitteringly fixed upon himUnder the circumstances it made him nervousEventually he got up, turned the chestnut head to one side and settled in to his hiding-place again And right about then, as the grimly purposeful activities of the day gave way to a time when he could do nothing but wait, Devin began to be afraid He was under no real illusions: he was a dead man if they found him hereThe secrecy and tension in Tomasso bar Sandre's words and manner that morning made that clear enoughEven without what Catriana had done in her own effort to overhear those words, and then to prevent him from doing soFor the first time Devin began to contemplate where the rash momentum of his wounded pride had carried him When the servants came half an hour later to women rolex watches prepare the room they gave him some very bad momentsBad enough, in fact, to make him briefly wish that he was back home in Asoli guiding a plow behind a pair of stolid water buffaloesThey were fine creatures, water buffaloes, patient, uncomplainingThey plowed fields for you, and their milk made cheeseThere was even something to be said for the predictable grey skies of Asoli in autumn and the equally predictable peopleNone of their girls, for example, were as irritatingly superior as Catriana d'Astibar who had got him into thisNor would any Asolini servant, Devin was quite certain, ever have volunteered, as one Triad-blighted fool below was doing even now, to bring down a pallet from the half-loft in case one of the vigil-keeping lords should grow weary "Goch, don't be more of a fool than you absolutely must be!" the steward snapped officiously in reply"They are here to keep a waking watch all night, a pallet in the room is an insult to them bothBe grateful you aren't dependent on your brain to feed your belly, Goch!" Devin fervently seconded the sentiments of the insult and wished the steward a long and lucrative bags louis vuitton existe12:57 AM - Tuesday, February 2, 2010
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