Swordsman's Legacy

She spied the gun but it was a grasp away. Cocking out an elbow, she jammed it into whatever she could, landing on the tender curves of an ear. It was a choice shot. The gunman growled and dropped his head, rolling toward her.

Again willing the sword into her grip, Annja swung out and with the heavy hilt, clocked the man at the back of his head above his ear. He dropped, out for the count.

Scrambling forward, she grabbed the second gun. Another Glock—the clip was full. Stuffing the first at the back of her waistband, she then stood and held the second on both downed thugs.

“Annja!” Ascher appeared, scrambling out from the trees. “What the hell?”

“I’m fine.” She walked toward Ascher, who clutched his left side.

As for her sword, she always seemed to release it without thought. It was safe, wherever it was that it went when she did not need it. That made it very handy when the need to be discreet presented itself. There’d be no long black Highlander coats for this chick.

“How did you do this?” He looked over her carnage. “They both had guns.”

“I charmed them,” she offered, and then smiled because if he knew the truth, he’d never believe it. “You got some rope back at camp?”

“Yes, but—they’re getting back up.”

Annja spun, but instead of leaping forward to swing her sword after the thugs, she couldn’t move. Ascher gripped her by the shoulders, and she could do nothing but watch as the lead thug grabbed the stolen sword from the ground.

“Let them go,” Ascher said. “You have the sword!” he yelled to the thugs. “Now leave us be.”

“I am not going to let this happen.” Annja twisted from Ascher’s grip.

In less than a breath he’d positioned his body before her, his chest up against hers. A bulldog guarding its territory.

“It’s not the sword,” he hissed. “Let them go.”

“They were going to kill us. Or at least try. Are the others all right?”

“They are fine.”

She took a step to the left. Ascher matched her. Taller than her, and bulked with muscle, his physique didn’t give her concern. The idea of simply allowing those men to walk off with the sword—any sword—felt like defeat.

“Come back to camp,” he said, his shoulders dropping and his tone settling to a softer plea.

The SUV revved and pealed across the gravel, heading back the way it had come from.

“There’s more to this than a simple treasure hunt, isn’t there?” she asked.

Ascher rolled his head and shrugged his shoulders in an aggressive move. Then he sighed and walked toward the forest. He left her to follow.

Annja sucked in the corner of her bottom lip. She could walk across the field, hop in her car and be done with this treasure hunt masquerade.

Or she could turn around and hound the deceitful Gascon for the truth.

Seventeenth century

N ICOLAS F OUQUET LOOKED UP from the list of expenditures Cardinal Mazarin had handed him.

“Where is it?”

The king marched into his office, red heels clicking and garish blue silk rosettes bouncing at shoulders, hips and toes.

“Your Highness.” Mazarin turned on the chair where he sat before Nicolas’s desk. He didn’t offer a bow. Instead he held out his hand, for the king to kiss his ring. Louis did. “What troubles you this day?”

“Where are the jewels?” Louis rubbed his fist against his stomach, which was a common habit of anxiety. “My mother’s private stash. Some are missing. Have they been stolen?”

“And how are you aware of these so-called missing jewels?” Nicolas asked, but immediately cursed himself for being so bold. Mazarin may have had the king’s respect, but he yet strived for that elusive confidence.

“Surely—” Mazarin sent a cruel glance toward Nicolas to reprimand “—she must have handed them to the royal jeweler for cleaning?”

“No.” Louis paced between the bookshelf where Nicolas kept his legal volumes and the window that overlooked the Tuileries. “I check our coffers every Sunday. Today there are many pieces missing. She is not wearing them. There are some items she has never worn. I cannot understand that.”

The king looked imploringly at his financier and the cardinal. So young yet, and with an entire nation depending on his guidance.

Nicolas cleared his throat. But when Louis beseeched him silently, he looked down and merely shook his head. He couldn’t reveal that he had seen the map. He valued Queen Anne’s trust immensely.

“They were given to her by a lover,” Louis suddenly said in a very quiet voice. “Or so I suspect as much.”

The cardinal chuckled. “You cannot spite your mother a lover.”

Mazarin rose, but instead of going to the king’s side, he walked in the opposite direction, toward the wall of legal books. Tracing a finger along their leather spines, the cardinal said nothing more.

Nicolas knew why the silence. Queen Anne and Mazarin were very close. And her son, the king, could never imagine such an alliance right beneath his very nose. Which was why Nicolas valued Anne’s trust more than the king’s. For the time.

“She has a lover?” Louis prompted.

Mazarin answered with a guilty silence and splay of his liver-spotted hands.

When the king looked to Nicolas, the financier swallowed back the urge to confess the intrigues he knew, in hopes of gaining the king’s confidence, and merely shrugged. “Possible,” he said.

“If she has a lover—” Louis paced as he spoke, head down in thought “—those jewels may have been gifts.”

“Should not the queen be allowed to accept gifts?” Mazarin posed. “Surely they were mere trinkets?”

Much more than trinkets, Nicolas knew. For he kept detailed records of the royal assets. Though Anne had shown him the jewels, she had insisted he not tally their value.

“It matters not the size of the bauble, or the conditions in which the trinkets were received.” Louis fisted his hips, a petulant child. “All monies within the royal palace are the king’s property. The queen cannot give away an asset without giving away mine. I will have them back.”

Louis marched to the door, but swung back to admonish them with a pointing finger. “I will discover the truth of this matter, messieurs. With or without your assistance.”

The king did not close the door. For long minutes his heels echoed out jaunty clicks as he strode the marble hallway toward the west wing.

Finally, Mazarin heaved out a sigh. He rapped Nicolas’s desk with his beringed knuckles. “Quite the intrigue, eh?”

Nicolas could not be sure if the cardinal could know the complete details behind the missing jewels—that the queen had hidden them, and had plans to then give them away.

To hide her indiscretions.