Sherwood (30 page)

Harlow cringed at his
brazen nature toward her. “I-” She started.

“
I only came
because people needed my help.” Enders said, pulling the rope
tightly and successfully keeping his horse in place. He turned to
face her. “That's it.”

Harlow was taken aback. She
wanted to be angry, but couldn't find it in her to do so. He wasn't
wrong to be angry, that much she knew. Instead, she decided to nod
and keep conversation to a minimum.

“
What do you
need my help with?” He asked, transparently trying to keep his
irritation in check.

Harlow nodded over to the
marketplace, where several renegade civilians were trying to lift
walls and nail wooden panels together. “We're trying to rebuild the
marketplace. Then we'll focus on homes.”

Enders nodded, taking off
the green cloak that gently hung about his shoulders. “I'll be
headed over there then.” He rested his cloak on his horses' back,
and turned away from Harlow.

“
Thank you,
Enders,” Harlow said in a voice she thought he probably couldn't
hear.

“
Aye.” He
said, still walking away, raising a hand to let her know that he
got the message.

Harlow looked down, sighing
gently. She couldn't figure out what she was thinking or what she'd
been thinking when she last spoke with him. She felt her heart race
and her stomach flip every time he came close to her, but she felt
the intense need to keep him away. It wasn't normal how much she
wanted to be around him.

“
What?” Harlow asked, unsure how to feel about the
situation.

Enders shrugged. “You were
the only thing that kept me going all that time. Talking about you
made it easier for me to get by.”

Harlow felt breathless, a
slight bit of fear and irritation rising from the depths of her
chest. She wanted to ask why but she couldn't make a
noise.

“
She says
it's a fitting idea. The son of the Prince of Thieves and the
daughter of a Princess.” Enders smiled gently, looking over the
lake.

Silence sat for only
several seconds before Harlow was able to speak, unknowing that
she'd regret it the moment it came out of her mouth. “I can't marry
you.”

Enders turned his head to
Harlow slowly, taken aback slightly by what she'd said.

“
This wasn't
my decision. My father made this decision. I can't live with a
decision that I haven't made. I want authority over my own life. I
want to make my own choices and feel the consequences of only the
things I've done. I can't be held down to things I never wanted,”
She said, her voice rising and falling with the stronger words. She
felt the fear in her heart as she said the words she held to be
truth.

“
You think
I'll hold you down? You think I'll force you to do things?” He
asked incredulously.

Harlow couldn't answer.
She looked out over the lake, her body stiffening. “I can't risk my
own freedom.”

“
What were
you doing back there, then?” Enders asked, his voice rising in
intensity and frustration. “You gave up freedom when you entered
the castle.” He paused, looking back over the lake. “Now that I
think about it, you seemed to enjoy captivity just fine when Parker
was around.” He stood up, irritation coming through his body
language.

Harlow
widened her eyes gently, before gritting her teeth together in
anger, and picking herself up from the pier so she could be eye
level with him. “You think I ever wanted to be around Parker? I was
there to save
you
!”

“
Then make up
your mind!” Enders shouted, his voice echoing throughout the
forest. “You don't want to lose your freedom, but you gave it up to
come for me. Now, for that same reason, you're denying our
marriage?”

Harlow gritted her teeth
again, knitting her eyebrows together in anger. “I never asked for
this marriage! Our fathers set this up! I was fine being on my
own.”

Enders nodded, anger and
pain written on his face. “That's fine, then,” He said, his voice
quieted and doused in anger, “because now you are.”

He turned his back on her
and walked away from her. He tried to fight it as hard as he could,
but he couldn't deny the feelings he had, and out of everything
he'd been through, that was the most painful thing to deal
with.

Harlow watched as Enders,
who'd now simply walked back into her life, picked up wooden panels
and talked with other working men.

He never once
smiled.

She watched him talk with
other civilians, asking them questions and helping any way he
could.

Harlow looked down at the
ground after a few minutes, and walking towards the men who were
working ahead of her.

She made it close to them,
picking up renegade sticks and tools that lie in her
way.

She placed all of the items
to the side of the working areas.

She simply walked around,
slightly dazed, helping the men wherever she could. Many of them
refused her help, saying that women, although in pants, shouldn't
lift a finger in these efforts. She would have been offended if it
weren't for the fact that she knew they were only being polite and
chivalrous.

Normally, she would have
refuted their refusal, but she decided to take it easier on this
particular day.

She was helping a young
man, about her age, lift a wooden panel when the sound of five or
so horses filled her ears.

It captured attention,
causing her and the man with her to look at each other and drop the
panel.

They stepped to the side,
looking over the direction of the sounds.

“
What is
that?” Harlow asked, brushing hair out of her eyes before placing
her hands on her hips.

“
I have no
idea,” The man with her said, scanning the forest just beyond the
two.

Harlow took a few more
steps to the right, trying to see past the ongoing work on the new
marketplace.

That's when six horsemen
came into view, carrying a royal flag, and royal seals gracing
their uniforms.

Harlow narrowed her eyes as
they came closer to the forming crowd. “Get back a little bit.” She
said to the man next to her. The man moved back, knowing from her
voice that she knew what she was doing. She took two steps back as
well, blending into the crowd.

Ba-Bru-Da-Da-Dum
!

A trumpet rang out, almost
sounding rushed, as the six horsemen approached the
crowd.

Five of the horsemen stayed
behind as the front man dismounted his horse and stepped
forward.

The man was older than
Harlow, enough to be her father. He had brown boots that went to
just below his knee caps, his black hair cropped short.

“
Citizens of
England,” He greeted them, speaking up a bit so they could hear him
as he approached the area. “I'm looking for a Ms. Harlow
McBride.”

Harlow contemplated running
or simply not answering, but her anger got the better side of her
and she stepped forward, apart from the rest of the
crowd.

“
Aye. That is
me.” Harlow said, an eyebrow raised as she looked upon the man on
horseback. “And you are?”

The man looked her up and
down, his eyebrow raising gently and small, almost playful smirk
displaying itself on his lips. “I am the King's Royal Advisor.” The
man said, taking off his right glove and pulling a rolled parchment
out of his jacket. “You have been summoned to appear at the royal
court of King Wesley as soon as possible, under the unlawful act of
Outlawry.” The man said, “His Majesty is rather upset with your
actions as of late.”

The man sighed, almost out
of boredom. She saw a small spark of what looked like
disappointment, but kept from mentioning it.

Harlow tilted her head
gently. “I'm being charged with Outlawry?”

The man nodded, again eying
her up and down. “Doesn't seem like much a surprise.” He slowly got
off his horse and rummaged through his things, pulling out a piece
of rolled up parchment and holding it out to her.

Harlow stepped forward,
looking at the man. She took the parchment from his hand and
unrolled it.

It was true, the scroll was
for her presence at the court.

Harlow nodded, looking up
at the advisor. She chuckled gently, taking the parchment and
ripping it down the middle. “I thought the protocol was detainment
and trial. Shouldn't you be cuffing me up and taking me to
prison?”

“
The king
specified that you should have this protocol instead. Seems your
special, or something or another. The king will have your head for
that kind of behavior, though.” The man warned, his eyebrow raised
in amusement and curiosity, as he eyed the ripped parchment in
hand.

“
Ah, like he
had the head of his own daughter.” Harlow said, an eyebrow raised.
She knew it wasn't true. She knew her mother was alive, but she
also know that most everyone in the country believed that she'd
been killed.

The advisor rolled his
eyes. “A good king is impartial to all, even his own
family.”

“
Your King is
a coward!” Harlow snapped, letting the ripped pieces of parchment
fly in the wind.

“
Is he any
more cowardice than you?” The man challenged, his voice depicting
slight irritation as he fixed the glove on his left
hand.

Harlow, anger billowing and
stirring in her chest, smiled sarcastically for a moment, before
turning to her left and grabbing a renegade plank of
wood.

She immediately pummeled
into the man, slamming him against the recently built marketplace
wall. She heard the creaking and cracking of new wood as she held
the man still.

His eyes immediately turned
from boredom to fright as he found himself unable to
move.

“
Is anyone
more cowardice than a man who entraps people and forces them to
serve him as royal subjects? Is anyone more cowardice than a man
who refuses to step a foot outside, on the bare Earth? Is anyone
able to rule with an iron fist if they're to busy hiding behind
mansion walls?!” Harlow shouted at the man as he tried to wriggle
out of her grasp on him.

The sound of horse hooves
and withdrawn blades resonated throughout the land that was once a
village, as the horsemen came closer to the scene she'd
caused.

“
Look around
you.” Harlow said, lowering her voice only so much, “This land was
once where young children played and where good people slept. This
was a land of peace and prosperity!” The man moved his head away,
trying to look at his horsemen, who sat around her, afraid that any
move they'd make would result in her impaling the man with the
plank of wood she held.

Harlow pressed the plank
down on the man, compressing his chest and causing him pain. “What
you see now,” She said, pressing just a little more, “is what your
king has done. This is how much he values his citizens'
lives.”

Harlow pressed the plank a
few centimeters down on his chest, again, making him squirm and
wheeze for air. “You tell your king that if he wants me, he can
come find me himself.”

“
Harlow!”
Enders' voice rang out in the chaotic silence. “You're going to
kill him if you don't let him go.”

Harlow refused to turn her
head and look at Enders because she knew the disappointment that
waited to greet her.

Instead, she tried to fight
the urge to plummet the plank of wood into this man's
heart.

“
I await King
Wesley's army, and I await his throne.”

Harlow dropped the plank of
wood and stepped away from the man, who'd pathetically dropped to
the dirt at her feet. The knights around her eased up just barely,
waiting for any sign of another retaliation.

The man scrambled to his
feet, dashing to one of the horsemen who would take him to the
horse he'd left just feet away.

He pulled himself onto the
back of a horse, behind one of the younger knights. “Go!” He
shouted, distraughtly.

“
Aren't we
going to arrest her?!” One knight asked, confusion lacing his
voice.

“
The king has
given us specific orders! Retreat back to the castle at once!” The
adviser shouted, his voice shaking and his face pale.

Immediately, the knights
took off in the direction they'd come from, barreling past the
destruction that was once a home.

Harlow narrowed her eyes as
the men sped away, feeling Enders' grim presence next to her. He
felt different to her, more serious and ominous.

Nothing felt right
anymore.

No one seemed normal or
just.

Fear started to
reign.

But so did
anger.

She'd been
right.

This wasn't over
yet.

And the worst was yet to
come.

End of Book One