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recalled something that could be very important. He felt excitement rise within him. It was impossible to quell it, but he tried. What put that light of revelation on her sweet face might seem important to her but prove nearly useless to him.
    “That dark passageway ye dragged me along while tickling my throat with your dirk?”
    “Ye arena intending to forget that, are ye?”
    “ ’Tis rather hard to forget something like cold deadly steel pressed to the life-giving vein in your throat by some courtier ye had done a kindness for.” It was odd, she mused, but his annoyance over her references to the incident made her feel she just might be able to trust him. “Such base ingratitude is apt to linger in one’s mind.”
    “What about the tunnel?” he snapped.
    “Ah, aye, that. There is a room or two off to the side of it. I have explored them a few times. They are places to store the harvests and tithes paid, things that ought to be kept cooler—like apples or wine. All keeps have them, do they not? Never mind. I was creeping through the tunnel one day, about a fortnight past, and heard my uncle talking.”
    “To whom? One of the Black Douglases’ men?”
    “Aye. In truth, I think he must be someone important within that clan. ’Twasna the usual messenger, and he spoke to my uncle as an equal; nay, as one above him. He also spoke of—well, reminded Uncle of something from the past, a secret my uncle doesna want told. Then he asked if the goods my uncle was sending to the Black Douglases would remain unspoiled, for they wouldna be stored as well as they had been. He wished assurance that they would last until the start of May.”
    “Are ye certain of this? Would ye swear to it?”
    “Certain. There was a secretive air to their manner. I feared I was hearing words they wouldna wish me to hear. I didna linger but slipped away as swiftly and as silently as I was able.”
    “That was wise. They would have killed you if they had thought ye had discovered anything.” He slammed his fist into his palm. “Two months. It concurs with the bit I learned.”
    “Which is?”
    “That an army of thousands is being readied to march against the king.”
    “ ’Tis so difficult to believe. Why? Why would my uncle risk his life and blacken the name of the family?”
    “If ye think on it, I believe ye will soon understand.”
    “I dinna have to think on it too long. The man thinks to gain some grand title and rich lands. Yet, what hold do the Douglases have on him? This all seems too great a gamble. My uncle prefers less danger.” She paled as she heard her uncle and the Douglas man speaking again in her mind, suddenly recalled words she had ignored before. “This isna the first time my uncle has dealt in treason.”
    “Nay?”
    “Nay. The hold the Black Douglases have on him is proof that he has the blood of James the First on his hands.”
    Revan felt vaguely stunned. Here was all he had been looking for. He had spent a great deal of time in spying, courting Brenda, and engaging in general subterfuge, yet, in a few minutes Tess had told him as much as he had discovered in months. What was somewhat irritating was that she had not even been trying to find out anything while he had worked so hard to discover so little.
    Suddenly he stopped pacing to stare at her. Thurkettle had to know that she could have seen something, would innocently have espied some of his treasonous activities. The man had wit enough to realize she could be a wellspring of incriminating information, that all she needed was to be carefully questioned. It gave Thurkettle all the more reason to want her dead.
    She was in as much danger as he was. He had thought so before, but now knew for certain. It meant he was hindered with her until Thurkettle was no longer a threat. Just as there were few he could trust not to betray him, there were few he could trust to keep her safe. Since he had dragged her into the middle of it all, it was his responsibility