To Catch a Thief

---Indigo---

"Yes. They even bought some of my candy with gold, because they didn't have enough change." Lucretia answered her son. "The two young ladies and young man were very patient with me as I counted their change, unlike you, who is always complaining I'm too slow."

"They bought your cheap candy with gold? Mother, do you know what this means?" Philip grabbed Lucretia's shoulders in excitement. "They probably only have gold! Think of all the gold they're carrying!"

"Philip!" Lucretia jabbed a finger in his chest. "Don't you dare get any wicked ideas. We are honest, law-abiding citizens! We do business honorably and honestly!"

"But Mother, they have gold! I could pay off all of my debts! I bet their bags are full of gold coins!" Philip was giddy with excitement. "Mother, I have a plan. You have to help me!"

"Why, I never! You're not thinking of stealing their gold, are you?" Lucretia exclaimed. "And to think you're my son—"

"Shhh! Mother, you'll ruin everything! Let's go inside now, we'll talk later." Philip looked around stealthily and headed for the inn. Lucretia stood there, mouth agape. Philip turned around and waved his fist threateningly. "Mother, if you try to foil my plans, I swear I'll throw you out and leave you to the wolves. For real this time."

"You can't do that! I paid the down payment for this inn!" Lucretia shouted. She stomped towards Philip. "Get back here, you ungrateful little—"

The door to the inn slammed in Lucretia's face. She paused, and sadness flitted across her weathered face. Then she sighed and went in after Philip.

Rachel, Lucian, and I looked at each other. "What do we do? We can't just stay here and get robbed," Rachel said. "But we've already paid for the room, and it's too dangerous to travel at night."

"I say we confront that Philip! We'll teach him a lesson. How dare he try something on the Destined Three!" Lucian cracked his knuckles loudly.

"Don't be rash," Rachel scolded. "We can't bring too much attention to ourselves. The Rosewood Seven are all dead, remember?"

"Then what do we do? Indigo, what should we do?" Lucian looked at me expectantly, as did Rachel.

"I don't know. Why are you both looking at me?" I exaggerated a shrug.

"Because you're our unofficial leader?" Lucian prompted. Rachel nodded.

"Me? Since when?" I stared back at them blankly. I was not notified of this.

"Since we left the Academy? It was always either you or Aaron, and since Aaron's gone, you're the leader." Rachel said. "Plus, you're the mastermind, so aren't you supposed to be in charge?"

I was speechless for a few seconds. "Well, even so, I still need your inputs. Since we don't want to leave the inn, we need to find a way to not call attention to ourselves but still teach Philip a lesson. Did you see how rude he was to Lucretia?"

"Yeah. Poor Lucretia. She doesn't deserve such mean treatment, especially from her own son." Rachel said sympathetically.

"I'm up for anything that involves beating the guy up," Lucian said. "Can we please have that in our plan?"

Just as we were discussing, someone knocked on our door. "It's Lucretia, darlings. I brought up some tea for you three."

Lucian walked over and opened the door. Lucretia walked in, holding a tray with a teapot and three cups. She set it down on the dresser. "How's the room? Do you need any extra bedding or blankets?" She asked, twisting her hands.

"The room's perfect. Thank you for everything," Rachel answered politely. "You shouldn't have bothered yourself with making tea; we are very grateful for everything you've already done for us."

"No, no, you three were so polite and nice to me; I just wanted to say thank you," Lucretia hurriedly explained as she poured the tea. I noticed a slight tremble in her hands, and a few drops of tea splattered out. "Oh, clumsy me. Like I said, not many people are very patient with an old lady like me."

"Thank you again, Lucretia," I said warmly. "Would you like us to bring the cups down after we're finished?"

"Oh, you can just bring them down in the morning." Lucretia answered as she headed for the door. Then she paused, and added almost as an afterthought: "Don't forget to lock your doors, children. We've had incidents of robberies in Sheep Lane, and I'd hate for it to happen to such nice children like you."

We thanked her for the warning and watched as she headed back downstairs. Lucian shut the door and locked it, then turned back to eye the tea suspiciously. "What do you think is in it? She wouldn't just bring us tea for no reason."

"I think there's probably some sort of sedative or sleeping potion in the tea," Rachel mused, raising a cup up to eye level. "Enough to knock us out and make us unconscious when Philip comes in to rob us."

"Poor Lucretia. You could tell she didn't want to do it. That's why she left us with a warning, even though it probably wouldn't stop Philip," I said. "But Philip doesn't know that we know. Let's use his plan to trap him."

* * * * *

It was a little after midnight when we heard soft padded footsteps outside in the hall. It paused next to the bathroom, then continued until it reached our door. Everyone was in position, and we had laid out the bait. With one more look at each other, the three of us slumped and faked unconsciousness.

Click. A key twisted in the lock, and our door opened without a sound. Someone —probably Philip—stepped into the room and closed the door softly behind him. I held my breath as the person stood still, surveying the room. I imagined what the intruder saw: a boy half-flopped over a bed by the door, snoring softly; a girl lying on the floor by the dresser, an empty teacup by her side; and another girl slumped over the desk, a satchel by the foot of the desk. All the candles were blown out, and the only light came from the moonlight streaming in from the window.

After prodding each of us to make sure that we were out cold, the intruder reached for the bag. I was the one hunched over the desk. I held my breath as the intruder approached.