"Let me up! You let me up right now!"

"You're awfully feisty for a thief."

"Thief!" Outraged, she slammed her fists into the dirt. "I never stole anything in my life. You show me a man who says I have, and I'll show you a damn liar."

"Then what were you doing in my stable?"

That stopped her. She searched her brain for an excuse he might believe. "I-I came here lookin'… lookin'… for a job workin' in your stable. Nobody was around, so I went inside to wait for somebody to show up. Musta fallen asleep."

His foot didn't budge.

"W-when I woke up, it was dark. Then I heard voices, and I got scared somebody would see me and think I was tryin' to hurt the horses."

"It seems to me that somebody looking for work should have had enough sense to knock on the back door."

It seemed that way to Kit, too.

"I'm shy," she said.

He chuckled and slowly the weight lifted from her back. "I'm going to let you up now. You'll regret it if you try to run, boy."

"I'm not a-" She caught herself just in time. "I'm not about to run," she amended, scrambling to her feet. "Haven't done anything wrong."

"I guess that remains to be seen, doesn't it?"

Just then the moon came out from behind a cloud, and he was no longer a looming, menacing shadow but a flesh-and-blood man. She sucked in her breath.

He was tall, broad-shouldered, and lean-hipped. Although she didn't usually pay attention to such things, he was also the handsomest man she'd ever seen. The ends of his necktie dangled from the open collar of his white dress shirt, which was held together with small onyx studs. He wore black trousers and stood easily, a hand lightly balanced on his hip, his cigar still clenched between his teeth.

"What do you have in there?" He jerked his head toward the base of the wall where her bundle lay.

"Nothin' of yours!"

"Show me."