Authors: A.C. Gaughen
Scarlet (14 page)
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think, I can just sneak. I fade right back into the black darkness and no one sees me. A guard can walk a foot from my mug and he won’t never know I’m there.
The hard bit were fi nding her room. There were so many in the residence that I knew it would take me most of the dark hours to look for her. I went through real careful, and I reckon it must have taken me hours, but I didn’t feel it none. It felt pure and simple. It were the only thing in life that were such. I found her up on the top fl oor, sleeping. I swung into her window quiet, going to check the door before I woke her. I creaked it open a sliver and saw a guard blocking the doorway. Window it would be for escape. Just hoped she weren’t too rough off .
I went over to her, covering her mouth and pushing her a bit. Her eyes shot open and she screamed under my hand.
“Hush!” I hissed, squeezing her mouth. Had to make sure she minded me.
She stopped moving.
“You know me?” There were a fair bit of moonlight coming in; I could clap eyes on her, so she must have been able to do the same at me.
She nodded.
“You’ll hush?”
She nodded.
I let her go and sat back. “Are you all right?”
She nodded.
I swallowed, and my hand fell on hers like dead wood. “I’m 212-47765_ch01_1P.indd 133
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so sorry, Ravenna. I should have gotten you both out last night. ”
The words rolled over one another. “I’m going to get you out of here right now. ”
She shook her head. “I’m staying here. ”
Not another one. Christ at the crossroads, not another one.
“They won’t hurt your family. We can get all of you out of Edwinstowe, Ravenna, I promise. ”
She ripped her hand back. “You promised to get us out last night. ”
If all were fair and good in the world, I would have told her that I never promised nothing to her last night. I said “have faith, ” and it were only because I couldn’t explain the full plan to get them out today. As it were, her words cut like the truth anyhow. “This is diff erent. We’ll move your whole family if we have to. ”
She shook her head. “I have another plan. I told the sheriff if he wanted me, he had to marry me. And he said he would. ”
She pushed her hair off to show me the gold necklace like a shiny collar round her white neck. “He gave me a betrothal gift and he’s calling for my father in the morning. In a month’s time, I’ll be the Lady of Nottingham, and my family won’t just be safe, they’ll be nobles. ”
I felt like stone. “But Ravenna, to marry him?”
“You may live like an outlaw, Scarlet, but to save yourself from shame you let everyone think you’re a boy. ”
My mouth gaped.
“Of course I knew— don’t be stupid. You’re too pretty by 212-47765_ch01_1P.indd 134
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half for a lad. But I’m not like you, and I don’t have those sorts of choices. I was going to be married anyway, and my father was fi shing high, so it might as well be him. ”
I shook my head. “He’ll hurt you. ”
“They all do. At least he’ll be my husband. ”
I grabbed her hand, settling my mind on Robin and John and Much. Even Tuck, with his wife that never minded him and always raised a ruckus, which he seemed to think of as endearing. “They all don’t. There are good men out there. ”
“There are poor men out there, ” she told me. “And rich ones. Rich men never wait for nothing, so why would they be good? Good men are poor, because they have to count on others’
kindnesses. And my father said clear as morning that I’m for a rich man. ”
“Godfrey will kill you. ”
She shook her head. “Father wants him to protect us all. Godfrey deserves some rest from that task; I can carry this burden now. ”
Stupid, foolish, moron tears were in my eyes. Ravenna and me weren’t never kindred. It shouldn’t matter none who she tied herself to. “I can save you. Let me save you. ”
“I don’t need saving. It’s my choice. For once, something is my choice. ”
“It’s no choice when you think you’re saving your family, Ravenna. ”
She leaned back from me. “Leave, or I’ll call the guard in. If you see Godfrey, tell him what I’ve told you. ”
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“I’ll stay close. If you change your mind, if he hurts you, I’ll stay close. ”
She swallowed but didn’t look at me. “Go. ”
I went. But I weren’t going far.
I didn’t go back to the camp. I signaled Rob with two daggers, meaning I didn’t need help, and he left. I waited until he were long since gone and went down to collect the daggers, and then I slept in the tunnel. There were tears on my face, and I didn’t scrape them off . This were my fault, and I would be there when she needed me.
k
There were a dark crook in the roof between two eaves, and when dark fell the next night. I sat there, hidden, listening. I stayed close as quarters to her, just to make sure she were safe. It occurred to me that Rob and the others were fair worried
’bout me, but it didn’t matter. If I left, he might hurt her and I wouldn’t be there to save her.
I didn’t let the time go full wasted, though. I started a little collection, nicking some gold and silver and jewels where I could. If I weren’t going to be on the road with a bare fortnight till tax day, I had to get enough to sell to make up for it. It weren’t as if I could walk into the armory, but guards left their weapons without a watchful eye fair often, and I nicked an armful of swords and a whole new set of knives. I kept a stockpile down in the tunnel. And I watched. I watched the way the guards moved round. I watched what they were guarding, and I watched what they 212-47765_ch01_1P.indd 136
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weren’t. It were awful strange; during the night, guards and workmen were centering around the top bailey. There were only residences and a few workshops up there, but the men all clustered round the old guard house. They hadn’t used the guard house since they built a bigger one down in the middle bailey. What were they doing?
I watched Gisbourne come in and out; I stayed by his window and listened. I were drawn to Gisbourne in a way that made me want to retch out my innards. He scared me, that were right sure, but when I were in the dark, I felt like I could look all I wanted, and part of me were nosier than a kitten. This were the man who had wrenched my life off to the side, and I were curious.
He carried himself with the arrogance I fi rst feared him for, and his face never changed. He had dark eyes that had hate in them, and everyone could see it. I thought of Rob’s eyes, deep like the water and quick to show how much people meant to him. How much I meant to him.
The middle of my back shivered. It were getting colder. My legs felt stiff , and I couldn’t remember when I last moved. I stood to go for a walkabout, scaling the wall and walking the parapet. I got to the middle bailey and I caught a glimpse of metal in the woods. The sight grabbed at my heart like a hand would my arm, and I began to run. I launched from the parapet to the outer stonework that kept the portcullis, and from there I jumped to the ground in time to stop Godfrey with John Little behind him.
“Move, ” Godfrey snapped at the same time John pushed forward and grabbed me off the ground in a crushing hug. 212-47765_ch01_1P.indd 137
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“Christ, Scar, you’re all right, ” he said, his voice hot with breath and right next to my ear. His head turned a hair and I felt his lips on my cheek. “Where were you, Scar?” He let me loose a little and my feet hit the fl oor again, but he didn’t full let go.
“Here. With Ravenna. ”
Godfrey pushed John off of me, and when he looked at me he swallowed and stepped back. I wondered what my face looked like. It were still fair sore and overtight. “Where is she? Why haven’t you got her out?”
“She won’t come. ”
They both stared.
“She’s marrying the sheriff . ”
Godfrey surged forward, drawing his sword. “Come off it!
Where is she?”
“She’s in there. ” The truth were putting a shake in my bones.
“Godfrey, she’s not a prisoner anymore which means neither are you she’s there of her free will. You can go to the gate and ask to see her. I reckon they’ll let you in. ”
He stepped forward again, and John pushed him back, stepping in front of me. “Why would she do that? Why marry him?”
“She says she were to be married anyway. Sheriff will give her a position, and favor in the court besides. ”
“I don’t believe you. ”
“You don’t have to. Like I said, go to the gate. The sheriff will let you call on her. Your father knows already. ”
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He looked to John, and then he lurched forward. John pulled me out of his way and let him go to the gate. He pounded the gate and the small door opened. He spoke to the guard, and his body lost its anger. The gate were opened and he were let in.
“You weren’t lying, ” John said soft.
I turned to walk away.
“Scarlet, where are you going?”
“He’s with her now. I can go. ”
He grabbed my arm with a smile. “You’re coming with me, love. I never buy your tough act. Where would you even go?”
“Wherever I damn well please, John Little. ” I needed cold and quiet— and some good darkness. My head were full of Joanna and London and even a touch of Gisbourne, and it felt overfull.
He pulled me against him. “Don’t go, Scar, ” he said in that voice he used with Bess. “Come back with me. Much is frantic as to where you might’ve gone. ”
I didn’t know if he were or Robin were, but I were fair certain that John didn’t care if much were worried for me. “He’ll last a day or two longer. ”
He nudged his nose against the side of my face, and I pulled away from it a hair. His hand came along my cheek and it tugged my face over to his. “Maybe, but I won’t. ”
His lips pressed against mine, strong like the rest of him and a little wet, pushing my lips into a fair good kiss. He caught me up ’bout the waist and kissed me deeper. I shut my eyes, and Rob’s face popped into my head.
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I pulled my head away, fl ushed and not sure what to do, or say, or think.
His nose rubbed mine. “Scarlet. ”
It tickled and I sniff ed. “What were that for?”
He tilted his head a bit. “You. ”
“Why you kissing me?”
“ ’Cause I like you, Scar. ”
I shook my head. “You like every girl, John. ” I smiled a little. Something ’bout a kiss makes you feel silly, and a kiss from John somehow felt more silly than most. “I’ll be back in a day or two. ”
His arms went looser. “What does that mean?”
I pulled away from him. “I’ll let you know. If you go to the tunnel, there’s a fair bit of loot. ” I walked a few paces and stopped, looking back. “And thanks, you know, for the kiss. ”
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C H A P T E R
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didn’t get far. I went east through Sherwood to Worksop and stayed there during the day, helping Much’s father and checking on Freddy Cooper. He stayed when the rest of his family went on to Dover, making what wages he could till they were settled. The miller were at the grinding part of the harvest, and he always needed extra help, and Freddy were taking to it like a duck in water. Much’s father didn’t talk a lot. Freddy talked enough for the two of us, and that were a whole diff erent kind of silence that my mind knocked around in. When night fell, Freddy and Much’s father wheedled and begged till I stayed for supper, and they set up a bed for me to sleep in. I nodded, because it were easier, and then when they went off , I left the house.
I liked wandering the night. The animals were diff erent. They talked to each other in soft twitters, little whistles, hoots, and such. They had a nighttime way of talking. 212-47765_ch01_1P.indd 141
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There were an inn at the edge of the village that I liked. The innkeep were a woman, which were fair unusual. It used to be her husband’s, but he keeled over and she took it on. She were always good to me. Sometimes girls had troubles that boys weren’t meant to know nothing ’bout, and she helped me out once or twice.
I went in and she nodded to me. I slid into a table in the back. She sent over an ale and I nodded to her again, settling into the corner to watch and listen. There were a few travelers eating their supper, but most were locals sitting for a drink. I recognized many of the men, most farmers and craftsmen, and a few farmhands.
“Lena!” bellowed a gruff voice. Three of the sheriff ’s personal men walked in, dressed all in the sheriff ’s black and silver, like death and metal. I looked to Lena; she were smiling, but it weren’t one of her big wide smiles that I got. She sent one of her girls to get some drinks and ushered the men to a table. They sat and took the drinks, and the ringleader grabbed Lena’s wrist and dragged so she leaned hard over his shoulder. “You know that’s not why we’re here, Lena. ”
She shot a look to her muscle, a hulk of a lug everyone called Pea, but he were already on his way. He stood over the men and the ringleader let Lena’s wrist go. “I don’t have the money. I’ll have it next week. ”
“Sheriff doesn’t believe you. Sheriff thinks you’re holding out. ”
She fl ushed. “Well, what does he expect me to do? I don’t have any money. I can have it next week. ”
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