Lady Thief: A Scarlet Novel (18 page)

I weren’t doing much to capture their attention. De Clare and several knights were going for the cart with children and adults alike still scrambling for food, his sword outstretched.

“Gisbourne, de Clare’s going to kill them!” I shouted.

Gisbourne’s eyes never left me. “He will end what you started, Marian.”

He swung his sword again, and I ducked, but he tamped his foot down on my bedraggled skirts. With a cry I fell to the ground, and in a swift breath he caught me up, forcing the knife from my hand and pinning me to his chest. He clutched my one good arm and turned me toward the cart.

I struggled hard as I could as the knights and de Clare grabbed as many people as they had hands. De Clare grabbed a little girl by the arm. I yelled and yelled, and Gisbourne ducked his head to my ear. “This is what you have done, Marian.”

“Thief!” de Clare cried at her. The little girl sobbed and tried to jerk and twist from his hold, but he paid no attention as he dragged her to a short stone wall. “Do you know what the punishment is for those who steal from the prince?”

“Leave her alone, you bastard!” I screamed. I knew what he were about as he called a knight over to him.

“Hold her hand out, sir,” he said, showing the knight how to stretch it over the stone wall so that the wrist were flat and bare.

“No!” I screamed, fighting against Gisbourne as hard as I could. “Stop it!”

The little girl understood as de Clare raised his sword to hack at her arm, and she screamed too.

So did Much. He ran down the wall to barrel into de Clare, knocking him over. Rob took the knight and Godfrey took the little girl and ran.

Gisbourne’s chest pounded and rolled with deep, hearty laughter. “Robin Hood,” he said, not loud enough for Rob to hear. “Seize him. No one else matters,” he said, and turned to drag me into the castle as the guards and knights flooded past us.

I slammed my foot into his knee as he tried to walk, and he dropped me, still holding to one arm so I fell and jerked, twisted and hurt. He gathered me up again. “Behave or I will make you still,” he said.

I did it again, and he dropped me in full, throwing me on my rump so I winced.

“Damn you!” he growled. “Won’t you stop? Don’t you see what you do, how you hurt these people? That girl would have lost her hand because of you.”

“No,” I snarled. “That girl will eat because of me. You cannot do your violence and blame it on me. If she lost her hand it would have been because you sat idly by and watched de Clare hurt an unarmed child. It would have been because de Clare is a bully. If anything the only thing I see is how goddamn powerless a noble lady is meant to be, and I am
not
powerless.”

He dragged me up. “You’re bruised all to hell, your hand is broken, and can you even imagine how much more pain waits
for you tonight?” he asked. “Why won’t you just learn? Why must you make me keep hurting you?”

“I’m not
making
you do anything, Gisbourne. Hurt me if you want, but I’ve felt pain. I know what pain is. And it’s less than love, than loyalty, than hope. You can make me cry, or scream, or whatever else. All that will mean is that I feel the pain, that I’m still alive. And as long as I’m living I can promise I’m not afraid of you, Gisbourne. I’m afraid of sitting quiet while the people that are meant to protect others do their best to hurt them. I’m afraid of people like you and Prince John going by unchecked. That’s what I’m afraid of. I’m stronger than your damn pain, and I do
not
give up.”

His eyes met mine, his terror-dark brown ones bearing into me. “Neither do I, Marian.”

My breath caught and I just hung there, staring at him, both of us too damn stubborn to look away.

I weren’t sure I liked the notion of sharing something with my husband.

He shook his head and started marching me, holding my arm and walking me on my own two feet, and we stopped and turned to hear a clatter behind us.

It took about seven knights with their hands on him, but they held Rob fast, dragging him into the castle and sealing the gate behind them. All the brave words I’d just spoke drained out of me as I met Rob’s eyes for a moment. In the dark and the distance, I couldn’t even see the ocean blue of them.

The last time he were in this castle he were tortured. He
had come back to me broken, and my mind tumbled now with all the new horrors they could inflict. All the things his hurt heart couldn’t withstand and should never have to.

Gisbourne dragged me out of his sight, and I prayed with everything I knew that I would see the ocean blue again.

Gisbourne didn’t bring me to the chambers we shared. He went up, straight to the prince’s chambers. Gisbourne entered without being announced; the prince were awake, in a heavy brocade mantle, the princess in a chair facing away from me. Gisbourne pushed me in front of him and I stumbled, catching her chair to stand. The girl jumped out of the chair and stared at me, but it weren’t the princess; it were one of the young ladies that had attended the princess in the market, in nothing but her underdress and a mantle.

“Out,” Prince John ordered her. She looked at him, pale and wide eyed.

“My lord?” she questioned.

“Out,” he repeated, glaring at her.

She looked at all of us and ducked her head and scurried.

“Sit,” Gisbourne said, pointing to the chair under my hand.

“No,” I said, standing straight.

“She can stand if she wishes,” the prince said, looking at me. “It makes little difference.”

I stared at him. It weren’t so simple as saying it were his evil heart what made him ugly—Gisbourne had the same such heart and I still knew he looked well. The prince were different, like gazing into the eyes of a snake; there were a beauty there, but the only thing it had ever been used for were terrible things, and it made the prettiness terrible too.

“Do you have any idea the ways you have vexed me?” he asked, turning away from me to the window. He opened it, and I could see him watching something. “You and your lover.”

“What have you done with Robin?” I asked, my voice rushing higher than I wanted. I stepped forward but Gisbourne grabbed me back and pushed me into the chair. I cast about; there were a knife by a tray of cheese on a small table too far from me. There were heavy cups in my reach. Gisbourne’s knife were tucked into his belt now, not far from me.

“He’s simply in the stocks. If he doesn’t freeze to death by morning, I’ll deal with him then.” Something caught his eye outside and he sniffed, then looked back at me. “But you. You are a problem.”

He ran his eyes over me, then looked at my face. I didn’t move none.

“Do you have any idea what’s going on here?” he asked, spreading his arms. “Do you?”

“You’re feeding my people rotten food. That’s all I need to know.”

He looked fair worried. “No, my dear. No. We are on the brink of civil unrest; with Richard away and England splintering at the helm, they need someone strong to lead them. Someone beloved. Someone to unite everyone. Someone to bring them back to the faith of the Crown.”

“Faith of the Crown? You make yourself a false idol,” I spat.

“No. They will make me into an idol, Marian. They will
worship
me.” He sighed. “But only if you stop telling people that I’m doing very bad things. It’s my turn to be the hero, not yours.” He waved a hand, not even looking at me as he said, “Gisbourne. Kill her.”

I leapt from the chair, grabbing a cup and sliding sideways, making myself less to aim at. “Oh you can try,
love
,” I growled at him.

Gisbourne just stood there like a lump. His jaw were awful tight, like every muscle had been twanged like a bowstring. “No. My lord prince.”

“No?” Prince John snarled.

Gisbourne pulled the knife from his belt and handed it to Prince John. “No. I’m not killing her.”

Prince John looked at the knife handle like it were poison. “You know why I cannot spill her blood,” he sneered.

“I will not dishonor my name, your Highness. And I will not take
that
curse upon me, even to spare you from it.”

Prince John’s chest began to rise and fall faster and faster. “You disloyal scum,” he growled. “I do not fear God,” he said, snatching the knife and turning to me.

“Like
hell
,” I snapped. “Come at me with that and I’ll break your pretty face, your Highness.”

“Gisbourne, hold her at least, would you?”

The door opened rough and fast, and Eleanor strode in with fair surprising speed for such a woman. I thought I saw the pretty girl that were half dressed in the hall behind her, but I couldn’t be sure. “John.”

Prince John looked to his mother, his lip curling. He didn’t lower the knife. “Mother.”

“Put the knife down.”

“Mother—”

“If I wanted a discussion, I would have asked you a question. Put the knife
down
.”

“I will punish her for what she’s done!” he roared.

Eleanor folded her hands calmly in front of her. “You will not kill her. If I have prevented you and your brothers from killing each other for the past twenty years, I will prevent you from doing this. Royal blood is sacrosanct, John. I will not allow you to kill the girl in cold blood.”

The knife lowered marginally. “You never seemed to mind murder and bloodshed when my dear brothers raised war against Father.”

She lifted her chin. “Oh, I suppose hurting her will win you a kingdom?” she asked.

His sneer folded slowly into a frown. “She must be punished. Severely.”

“Go to the window,” Eleanor said, still standing calm in
the center of the room, like all the energy and life in the place were coming from her alone.

Prince John rolled his eyes like a willful child but he went. “What am I meant to be looking at, Mother?”

“Tell me what you see.”

“I see a criminal in the stocks.”

Robin
.

“And?” she questioned.

He huffed out a sigh. “And a considerable amount of people around him. Servants. Lesser nobles.”

“And what are they doing?”

“I’m not a child!” he snapped at his mother, whipping his head round. “Don’t make the mistake of treating me as such.”

“You are a child,” Eleanor said, stepping forward, her voice like steel and fire. “You are a pouting bully and in danger of being held in my esteem as the stupidest of my sons. Isabel gave you such a grand opportunity tonight. A
coup d’etat
. An idea, by the way, that your wife stole from her.” Her long, elegant hand thrust out like a bowstaff to point at me. “Feed the people and they will love you. Helplessly and eternally. And what do you do, my stupid, stupid son? You squander the opportunity and make them hate you.”

“How dare you speak to me—”

“Silence.” She paused a moment, but he stayed quiet. “Who else do you see out there?” she asked. “Who of the highest ranking nobles beneath you—a man just beneath the shades of royalty—do you see standing beside him?”

He looked out again, resting his hands on the window ledge. His chest began to rise and fall again, and he turned from the window with a wail fit for the tantrum of a five-year-old. He grabbed the nearest table and threw it toward me, and Gisbourne grabbed my arm, pulling me out of the way. It hit the stone fireplace and shattered, and soon cloths and coins and cups followed behind, a storm of small things smashed to bits.

Gisbourne pressed me to the wall, his big body over mine as the prince raged. He didn’t look at me, his head over my shoulder, his chest breathing against mine. Soon the screams turned to words, and Prince John swore profusely, mentioning Winchester’s name several times.

Gisbourne jerked and grunted, and I knew something hit him in the back. I didn’t dare look at him. I couldn’t much confess to know anything of what was going on, but I knew he defied the prince for my life, and I didn’t want to know why. I didn’t much have space in my heart to care for another tortured man.

For a few breaths, things stopped flying cross the room and the cursing ceased. “Are you quite finished?” Eleanor asked.

Gisbourne eased up on me, and no sooner did he step away than the prince pointed to me and yelled, “You stupid bitch! You did this!”

“You will fix this,” Eleanor said. “John.
John
. You will fix this.”

“I will kill
all of them
,” he snarled.

Eleanor slapped him. “John. You will go out there and say
that your orders have been wildly misinterpreted. You will say you have come to thank Robin Hood for championing the people and protecting them from the gross misconduct of those serving you. You will say he is cleared of any wrongdoings tonight or any night past; you will invite him to participate in the tournament as the people’s representative.”

I couldn’t much help myself; I gasped.

Prince John scowled. “Why would I ever do that?”

“Why would he do that, Marian?” Eleanor asked, fixing me with her stare, sharper than my knives.

“I-I don’t know, my lady.”

“Then why did you so sharply inhale?”

I looked to Gisbourne, but his face held nothing for me. “Because Rob would stand for the people, fair and true. None of these other men care a whit about the people, but Rob—he does. It would change everything.” I looked fast from the prince to Eleanor.

“Precisely. You must give the people what they want, John,” Eleanor said. “If you ever hope to be your brother’s heir.”

Prince John looked out over the crowd again, his shoulders rolling with muscle and anger. “Fine,” he grunted. “But I still get to punish her.”

Eleanor let out a breath. “You cannot kill her.”

“I won’t kill her.” He glared at me. “She fancies herself a thief. I will punish her as one.”

His eyes drifted to my hands.

I jerked back, but Gisbourne caught me, and a scream
tripped and caught in my throat. He dragged me forward and I fought him hard as horror dawned sick and dark in my stomach. Gisbourne caught up some rope from the bed that had been a victim of the prince’s wrath and lashed my good arm to the chair before forcing me into it. I kicked and kicked, but he tied me to the chair, gripping my good wrist and not looking at me.