Thiefess

Prologue

I lift my hood up over my face, covering my dark hair and shadowing my vivid, very recognisable eyes. My gaze flits to the target: A small jewellery stall just north of the castle gates. I run my plan through in my head for the thousandth time.

The owner is an old woman. Petite, senile, almost blind, easily handled. However, she has a son. 16, strong as an Ox.

I lift my head to catch his eye. His gaze meets mine, and then is immediately drawn to a passing butterfly. He watches it for minutes, maybe more. I laugh to myself.

Dense. Never had an easier job.

I lock on to the target, adjusting my casual lean on the castle wall, making sure to remain in plain sight. Hard to seek a thief, if the thief isn't hiding.

My target is the pearl necklace. Stolen from a lovely woman by bandits, found its way to this stall. This old woman may be ageing, but she certainly doesn't think twice about selling stolen goods. The busy atmosphere is good, maybe I can slip in round the back and-

"Excuse me ma'am, would you like to test our fresh produce?" A voice appears out of nowhere in my ear. I turn to face the voice.

Bloody sellers, ruining my train of thought.

I push past him, offering no response.

Time to make my move.

Suddenly the bustling crowd becomes less of a distraction and an easy mask to come and go from, dancing from stall to stall surrounded by a dense flow of bodies. I see the stall ahead of me and push towards it, carefully manoeuvring my steps in order to figure out an easy escape route. My eyes flash towards to castle gates, and quickly the solution forms in my mind, loud and clear.  I begin walking faster to the stall. 

I crack my knuckles and can't help but squeal a little in excitement.

I love this bit. Hell, I love this job.

My eyes capture the pearls at the centre of the stall, exactly where the woman is situated. I need to think of a distraction, and now.

Luckily, as I approach the stall, a small breeze of wind pushes my hood down from my face. Normally, I would've panicked, but the excited look on the old woman's face, and her quick glance towards her clearly unmarried son, gave me just the distraction I needed.

Now I just have to put up with the flirting. Oh god, the flirting.

Pasting my biggest smile on my face, I walk towards the woman. She grins.
"Hi, excuse me, I was hoping to find a nice necklace for a party I attending tonight?" I make my voice slightly daintier than normal.
"Of course, dear! Hold on a moment whilst I fetch my um- my sales assistant."
I groan inwardly a little. Here we go.

5 minutes and what felt like 5 years of match-making, and I was waltzing away.
Pearl in hand, smile on face, and more importantly,

No future husband.

I slip through the castle gates, into the vast garden surrounding the building, and head towards the back woods. My home.

I can't believe I got away with that so easily. Who would have thought one of the most popular jewellery stalls in the kingdom would have such lax security? Or maybe I'm just a really good thief.

Yes, that's more believable.

Normally, when walking through the castle grounds, I'm entirely on edge. I mean, it's not as if being caught with an expensive necklace in my pocket, bearing the title of notorious thief, the castle guards would just decide to let me off with a warning. If I was caught, that would be the end of my life. But the sun was just setting, and a dusky cover settled on the vast grounds spread out before me, so I relaxed.

I relaxed, and let my thoughts wander.

Well done me.