His Mate, Her Choice novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Nearly a Claim

I was down the stairs and out the cellar door before Dain finished saying my name.

The yard was white and the torchlight turned it orange.

Two of Halvard's men had dumped an armful of ledgers on the snow.

The third man touched his torch to the pile.

"Stop," I said.

He glanced at me, smirked, and did not stop.

Dain came out of the door behind me.

"Put it down," he said.

He didn't shout it.

Every wolf in the yard heard him anyway.

The man with the torch dropped it in the snow and went down on one knee.

The ledgers were already burning at the edges.

I knelt and dragged the nearest one out by its cover.

The corner burned my palm and I held on.

Dain was beside me, pulling books from the fire with his bare hands.

"You'll be hurt," I said.

"I heal fast." He threw a smoking ledger behind him. "Which ones matter?"

"Green spines are the births. The brown ones with the cracked backs, those are sales and debts."

"Sales of what?"

"I never copied what they sold. I only copied the totals."

He glanced at me, but kept pulling books.

By the time Ansel Henslowe came out with two men of the King's household, we had half of them out of the snow.

Ansel took one look and said, "Beat the edges with your coats."

They did. I did it with my shawl.

The roll stayed safe under my arm in the folds of it.

When the last flame went out, I was on my knees in black slush with my palm blistered and my hair full of ash.

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