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some nice weapons, including four huge broadswords that would fetch a fortune in one of the larger market cities. Seeing movement down the road, I whistled to them and leaned forward.
Four knights came in the front, guarding a carriage. I rolled my eyes. Christ’s bones, it were a lady. I hated this. Four knights came behind. It were a high-ranking lady, too. My mother had traveled with no less than eight, often more. Part of that had been my mother’s deserving rank, but part had been her own silly pride. The right things weren’t never important to my mother. Rob were running lead on this one. I liked his style for it. Me, I like to talk, but Rob gets right to the point.
“Stop, in the name of the people of Sherwood!” Rob called. All eight knights charged ahead of the carriage, and I watched as John jumped into the carriage, grabbed the fair lady, and hauled her out of there. She sparkled like the sunny ocean with all her jewels.
“My lady!” the guards called, wheeling around. Rob walked through them. The guards all froze when there were a lady in trouble. I crossed my arms. It weren’t that I were resentful. I liked bowing and scraping and such fair enough if it got the job done. Ladies were prey just like any other far as I were concerned. Rob, ’course, were a bit of a diff erent matter. And it weren’t like I had any right to be resentful of him bowing and scraping. I gave up that life. I gave up being the sort that he’d notice and bow to and such.
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Strange, but none of such thoughts soothed the burning in my belly.
“My dear lady, ” Rob said, bowing over like the lord he were and kissing her hand. “Where are you headed?”
John let go of her, but she were still breathing hard enough to faint. “Northumberland, ” she peeped.
“To what purpose?”
She fl ushed. “Marriage to his lordship. ”
He nodded. “Ah, the duke. He’s a nice fellow. Very rich, ” he told her. “Rich enough that he should buy you a whole new chest of jewels, don’t you think?”
“Step away from her ladyship, ruffi
an!” one of the guards
bellowed. They didn’t move. Couldn’t risk her ladyship, and my boys were closer, with weapons.
She were clutching her heavy necklace. “Why do you want them?”
“He’s a thief, my lady!” her guard roared.
“The sheriff of Nottingham starves his people, my lady, and taxes them into submission. ”
Her mouth opened a little. “And my jewels would help?”
He nodded grave, like she were saving the world. She pulled the rings off her fi ngers, the jeweled comb from her hair, the bracelets from her wrists, and the bobs from her ears. Last she pulled off the huge necklace, and Rob bent his head to let her put it on him. She kissed his cheek.
Oh, she could be a lady and still grant her favors round? Fine bit that were.
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“Then save your people, Hood. ”
Rob smiled like he swallowed a mouthful of diamonds. “You knew me?”
“Women talk, my lord, and everyone loves a legend. I am happy to sacrifi ce my jewels to your cause. ”
He kissed her hand again. “Then be on your way, my lady. And give my regards to your intended. ”
She curtsied. “Guards, let these gentlemen go freely. ”
“What?” her lead guard called.
Rob helped her back into her carriage, and she waved her fi ngers at her guards. “You heard me, sirs. ”
k
Rob were still strutting ’bout it when we brought all her jewels back to the cave. We had loot now that we had to fence, and the jewelry didn’t even need to be snapped apart to sell because the lady wouldn’t be looking for it. Rob were holding and twisting her ring with a big dumb grin on his face. I glared at him through the lot of it, hating the lady, hating the ring, hating him.
“You treat them diff erent, you know, ” I told him. He looked over. “Who diff erent?”
“Ladies. You treat them diff erent than common folk. ”
I were sitting against a tree, holding my long coat wrapped tight round me. He were at the mouth of the cave and he smiled, crossing his arms. “Do I?”
“You know you do. ”
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“Then why are you telling me?”
“Why do you treat ’em diff erent? What’s wrong with common women?”
“I treat everyone with respect, Scarlet, ” he told me, and the way he said it sounded fair insulted.
“Yeah, but there’s no bowing and kissing hands, and you even talk diff erent. You think rich folk don’t understand plain speaking?”
He chuckled. “Of course they do. But they also understand speaking in a gentler fashion. ”
“And you think common folk can’t speak gentle?”
He laughed outright. “You’re sort of proving my point, Scar. ”
I glared. “Would you then assume, because I can speak in a light and lofty manner, that I was born of noble blood?” I asked, aping his “lady. ” More than that, aping the life I didn’t have no more— and it tasted like a mouthful of salt. “Talking this way or that don’t make you no better. And you act like it do. ”
His eyes squinted like he could see straight through me.
“You act like I’m doing an unkindness. ”
“Ain’t you? To common folk? You think you’re some outlaw, Robin Hood, but you were born noble and you won’t change that none. ”
“I am who I am, Scarlet. It’s no secret I was born noble, and that’s part of the reason people look to me as a leader. It’s my birthright to protect them. ”
I tugged my shoulders, pulling my knees under to stand up.
“True enough. Still don’t mean noble folk are any better. ”
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“Never said they were. I’m doing all this for the common folk, Scar, not the nobles. And when did you become the moral compass of the band?” he asked.
That stung. It weren’t meant to, but it did. I took the bag of jewels he’d left. “John, want to come with me to Nottingham to sell these off ?”
“We can wait till tomorrow, ” Rob said.
“Don’t want to, ” I said. “John?”
“Sure, ” John said, running over. “I’ll even carry the bag, m’lady. ” He gave me a big, lord-like bow.
“I’m courteous to common women too, Scar, ” Rob yelled as I walked with John.
I waved a hand, not looking round. Rob weren’t neither. But he didn’t want to cop to that, and I didn’t want to fess that I were a little jealous. He weren’t all “courteous” to me.
You make me
watch you like a hawk, and I don’t want to.
He wouldn’t never say that to a gentle lady.
“You’re frowning, ” John told me.
“Rob’s so high and mighty, ” I said. “Rubs me wrong. ”
“He’s an earl, Scar. We can’t forget that. ”
“He won’t let us. ”
“Come on, now, you follow him for the same reason I do. He’s a good leader and he’s that despite hard injustices. He came home from the Crusades and found he had no home. That’s hard enough. ”
“It’s stupid. Men think they are their title, and women can’t even hold one till they squeeze onto their husband’s. ”
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“I thought all this was arguing against noblewomen. Change of heart?”
“No. I don’t like that Rob thinks he’s better than us, and I don’t like how women get nothing for their own selves. ”
“Rob
is
better than us, Scar. Better than me, for sure. ”
I pushed him. “Don’t say that. Why, because he’s noble?
You’re just as good as he is. ”
He gave a little when I pushed him, and he rocked back and then forward. “You saying you wouldn’t take the chance to be a noble?” he asked. “All silver spoons and ‘yes, milady’s?”
My cheeks fl ushed dark. “No. I wouldn’t. And what do that have to do with being better or worse?”
He shrugged. “Everyone wants to be wealthy, and landed, and titled. That’s why they’re better— because they have what everyone wants. ”
Before I could stop myself, I stamped my foot like a child.
“It ain’t better, being wealthy, landed,
titled
. If I had a choice, I’d choose to be just as I am. Over and over again!” I shouted. Only, that didn’t quite strike true in my chest. Seeing that lady, seeing Rob’s smiles, it all made me wonder. If he had known me back then, before the thieving and the scars and before my soul turned so black, would I have earned his smiles?
Would that have made that whole awful life worth it?
“No, I’d take it in a heartbeat, ” John kept on. “Chests of jewels to shower on all the ladies in the kingdom. Bribe one of them to marry me. ”
I rolled my eyes. “Come off it, John. You needn’t bribe any girl, and you’re a fi ne enough man as it is. ”
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He caught me, pulling his arm round my waist. “Now, who could resist you when you say something like that?”
He pushed me up against a tree and tilted his head like he were going to kiss me. I tried not to laugh as I put a hand over his mouth. “John, ” I stopped him.
He opened his eyes. “What?” he asked, my hand still on his mouth.
“Do you know how many girls I’ve heard you say that to?”
He grinned. “Don’t mean it’s not true. ” He kissed my hand and I pulled it back. “Can I kiss you, or not?”
I put my arms round his neck. “ ’Spose you can, but I don’t reckon you want to. ”
“I don’t?”
“You just like to shine on someone, John. ”
“Yeah, and I’m looking to shine on you for a while, ” he told me, mushing his nose against mine.
I shrugged. “But not forever. I’m not that sort, John. ’Sides, I think I like you better without all the courting. ”
He laughed. “Really?”
I nodded, craning up to kiss his cheek and pulling out of his arms. “Let’s go, you big lug. ”
k
We managed to fence most of the jewelry before dark and got out of the market before the gates closed in Nottingham. I wedged the purse into the back of my vest, along with some bread and dried meat wrapped in muslin that I’d swiped.
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“For the jewels? You were right there!”
“I meant, how much did you steal?”
I blushed a little. “You saw me stealing?”
He chuckled. “No. But that doesn’t mean you weren’t doing it. Every now and again I’d see you someplace I didn’t expect. ”
“What does that mean?”
“That you were thieving, I reckon. ”
I shrugged. “Some bread. Some meat. Coin besides. Let’s stop by Edwinstowe and give it to Lena and the others. Do you know where they’re staying?”
He nodded, stepping closer, his shoulder rubbing mine.
“So, what about your story?”
“My story?”
“You know about my family. What’s your story?”
“I don’t, you know. Much whispered it to me once, that they died in a fi re. I don’t know the whole story. ”
He looked down. “My father was a blacksmith. I was born down in Locksley, you know. I knew Rob as a boy. Well, I met him, really. But we moved a lot, wherever the trade was best. We came to Nottinghamshire not long after the sheriff took over the Huntingdon lands. The sheriff ordered a hundred swords from my father and then wouldn’t pay the price for them.
“My father wouldn’t give them over when he wouldn’t pay, and he sent me to market to fetch a price for them. It wasn’t like we could sell them in Nottingham, so I went up to Newark at the Trent. I had to stay there the night. ” He shook his head. “I tumbled my fi rst girl that night. ”
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I stayed quiet.
“I’d spent every day of my life with my family, Scar. I could look at my little sister and guess her thoughts in a blink. With that kind of closeness, I thought I would have felt it, had some sense that they were in trouble. That they had passed. But I didn’t feel anything. My little sister and baby brother died, crying for . . . ” He trailed off , and I weren’t sure if they cried for him, for help, for their lives, or for what, but it felt terrible. He swallowed, and it looked like he were choking down his own heart. “And I was with a girl. ”
I weren’t the sort for much touching, but I couldn’t help it. I put my fi ngertips on the inside bit of his hand. It didn’t feel so strange, so I slipped them down more. His fi ngers curled on mine, and without meaning to, I were holding his hand. He stopped, tugging my hand so I were pulled against him. I looked up. He held our hands between us like a dressed duck.
“I don’t tell girls that story, Scar. ”
“I won’t tell. ”
“I know. But Bess and Ellie and them— I don’t tell them, all right?”
I bit my teeth into my cheek a little. Were that meant to be a good thing? I didn’t like holding secrets. I had enough to hold on to. “All right. ”
He tugged my hand again, and we started walking. I pulled my hand out. He didn’t need it no more, and if you weren’t careful with things like that, it could go on and on, never letting go of the hands. “So, what about your story?”
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I shrugged. “Got lots of stories. ”
“How’d you start thieving?”
Shrugged again. “Same way most do, I fi gure. Needed something I couldn’t pay for. ”
“What was the fi rst thing you stole?”
The answer to that were only a single question away from Joanna. “I don’t remember. ”
“Sure you do. ”
“I thought you said I wouldn’t have to answer no questions with you. ”
“You never have to. I was just curious. ”
“It were medicine, ” I told him. “From the monks, for a cough. ”
He chuckled. “You don’t go halfway, do you? Awfully brassy of you to steal fi rst from a monastery. ”
I smiled, but it were less for him naming me brassy and most because he didn’t ask who were coughing.
k
Lena were at the Morgans’, a farming family in Edwinstowe, and they welcomed us in as soon as they saw us darken their door.
“John Little, ” Matilda Morgan greeted, wrapping him in a hug. “My dear boy, how are you?”
“Very well, Mistress Morgan. And you look lovely to night. ”
She blushed. “Little charmer. ” She let him go and saw me, and her mouth went fl at like a toad’s. “Will. ”
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