Robyn Hood: Fight For Freedom (8 page)

“Sorry,” I said, looking down at the fallen Merry Men.

“Robyn?” a familiar voice asked.

My eyes shot up and I spotted Much and Will Stutely halfway across the camp.

My face scrunched up and I tore
towards them. “Much! Will!” I wailed, throwing myself at them.

Much caught me and had to be steadied by Will Stutely to keep from falling over.

“Robyn, you’re back!” Will Stutely crowed, joyful as ever.

“What’s wrong?” Much asked, running a soothing hand up and down my back.

At that moment Little John and Will Scarlet entered our camp, still towing their stolen horses behind them.

I tightened the hold my fists had on Much’s shirt, which did not go unnoticed by my original Merry Man as he stared across the camp.

“You didn’t,” he called to Scarlet and Little John, his voice dripping with disgust.

The duo of Robyn Lovers swapped guilty glances.

“By Mary the beloved mother, what on earth
possessed
you to tell her?” Much growled.

“You
knew
?” I squeaked into Much’s shirt.

“You two are proper fools!” Will Stutely chimed in.

“Well at least it brought her back,” Will Scarlet pointed out.

Much scowled and slowly spun around, twirling me with him. “Come on Robyn. You must want something to eat.”

I knew an opening for a total retreat when I saw one. “Actually,” I quietly ventured. “I probably need to sleep,” I said, pulling away from Much, baiting my male nursemaid.

“It’s barely noon,” Will Stutely blinked.

“It is,” I agreed. “But I stayed up the whole night with Marian while we mapped out the plan to rescue Little John and Scarlet.”

The camp was utterly silent for several moments.

“What?” Much asked, his voice iron hard.

“Pardon
?” I innocently blinked. (There were times when I could use Much and Will Stutely’s mother hen characteristics to my advantage.)

Will Stutely gently took my arm and carted me off to my hut while Much spun on his heels to glare at
Will Scarlet and Little John. “Come along Robyn. It’s probably best if you go to bed,” Will said in a sing song voice, smiling at the excited Merry Men who were clambering around, grinning at me.

“Okay,” I agreed
, pausing when I got to my hut. “It’s good to be home,” I said before opening the door. My room was still neat and tidy. I flopped on my bed and fell asleep within a minute.

I slept the whole day through and didn’t wake up until
just before dawn the following morning. When I stumbled out of my hut, in something of a daze, Marian was sitting on a log, rubbing morning dew off a piece of grass.

“Finally, here are you are. Really, I expected you to be unfit to sleep with your mind racing about those daring declarations Little John and Will Scarlet made,” she said, standing up before brushing off her full skirts.

I groaned. “Don’t remind me,” I pleaded as I staggered pass her. “I already feel as though I were run down by the Sherriff’s men. I don’t need reality to set in any sooner than possible. What are you doing here? You never rise this early. Not to mention your parents surely must be keeping you under lock and key after yesterday’s adventure.”

“As you mentioned, I never get up this early. My parents didn’t bother to post guards underneath my window at this hour. It would be positively ridiculous. No, the only thing that could drag me out of my warm, comfortable
, feather bed, Robyn dear, is you,” Marian answered, following me to one of the campfires.

“Me? What about me?” I groggily asked as I plopped down and added a few logs to the fire after peering into a pot of
oatmeal one of my men was preparing. 

A scant number of Merry Men were already up, tending to the fires and getting breakfast ready. The rest of the brood wouldn’t turn out unt
il the sun’s rays started to peek above the horizon.

“Last night I received a message from Much,
claiming that Scarlet and Little John have bewitched you and you were so frightened, just like a helpless woodland creature,” Marian said, rolling her eyes as I took a wooden spoon from a passing Merry Man and thumped it into the pot of oatmeal. “Naturally I judged the letter to be written in a hysterical matter, which is easy to nudge Much into, but if my guess is right Little John and Will Scarlet have finally told you they’re in love with you,” Marian said as she settled down at next to me. I nearly lost the spoon in the oatmeal at her blunt report.

“Um, well, erm,” I sputtered.

“So they did,” Marian concluded.

I leaned the spoon against the lip of the pot and turned to my best friend.
“What am I going to do Marian?”

“It all depends on you Roby
n. Do you love either of them?” she prodded.

I stood and started pacing, my eyebrows furrowing. “Of course I love
both
of them. They’re my right hand men Marian. I trust them just as much as I just Much, and Will Stutely, and
you
!”

“Could you love either one of them as something more?” Marian calmly inquired, ignoring my pacing.

It struck me as being rather odd that
Marian
, out of all people, was investigating my feelings of love.

“I don’t know, maybe. I mean, they’re both so—but
, not right now!” I declared, suddenly halting. One of the very quiet Merry Men who was trying to get breakfast ready nearly rammed into me. He froze and did a very decent impression of a rock before slowly edging off, clearly not wanting to be included in this type of discussion.

I didn’t blame him.

“Robyn. Maid Marian,” he muttered before hurrying off to another fire.

“What do you mean by not now?” Marian asked, ignoring the interruption.

I settled back on my heels and scrunched my nose. “Now is hardly the time to be falling in love, even if I did fancy either one of them. I’m leading dozens of men in the art of robbery. I’ve made countless men into cunning outlaws. I’m trying to keep them from getting caught by the idiot Sheriff, not to mention the actual brains behind his operation, George, and, to top it all off, Prince John! Best yet, I have to somehow gather enough money to set King Richard free. No, this is
not
the time to be thinking of love.”

“So it’s just a temporary? One day you might consider them?” Marian asked.

I shuddered, dreading the day I would have to face my men like that again. It was embarrassing, and it made my entire world heave. To think that
they
would like someone like me—I cut the thought off. “Yes,” I replied. “The day Robin Hood and his Merry Men are no longer necessary I will think about their… confessions.”

Marian nodded once before standing and calling out. “Did you hear that, boys?”

“Loud and clear,” Little John said, stepping out from behind a hut.

“It is an agreeable
solution,” Will Scarlet said, materializing next to my fire. “Little John and I were being impatient. We should have never brought it up in the first place… but it was the only way to explain everything.”

“All that matters is that Robyn said no,” Much announced, following Little John to my fire.

“For now,” Little John amended.

M
uch ignored him. “Let’s forget all of this foolishness. The contest, Little John and Scarlet’s asinine arrest, their confessions, everything.”

“For now,” Little John
repeated.

“You were
listening in
? This was a set up!” I realized, leaping to my feet. “Marian you betrayed me!” I shouted.

Marian
shrugged. “They would never believe anything I said unless they heard it fall from your lips. Would you have rather told them face to face than tell me and have them
happen
to overhear?”

I winced as I thought about that possibility. “No,” I sighed.

“So let’s celebrate, Robyn is back, everyone is safe, and it’s breakfast time,” Will Stutely said, appearing with a pack of Merry Men.

I smiled
, mildly moved but, above all, relieved to be leaving the topic of love behind me. “Of course. I am Robin Hood and you are my band of Merry Men. Let us be Merry!” I shouted.

All of the Merry Men had turned out of their beds by this point, and most of them shouted and raised their arms in agreement.

After several seconds of shouting the Merry Men split up to do the morning chores. I was about to investigate the whereabouts of my longbow and quiver, but Marian grabbed me by the elbow.

“Walk with me,” she bid. “It’s dawn, I need to be getting home soon.”

I complied, and together we trailed over to the pen that held the Pony, Crafty, the new horses stolen from Nottingham, and a still saddled Nearly Dead.

“What’s on your mind?” I asked as Marian ducked in the pen to snag her horse.

Marian turned around to consider me for a moment before speaking. “I’m coming to live with you and the Merry Men.”

I was statue still for a moment before reacting. “What? Are you insane?! Y
ou can’t Marian. Sherwood is hardly the place for a Lady. I don’t care how robust you are, you are a being of nobility and power. You
can’t
stay here Marian.”

“I’m coming,” Marian stubbornly refuted. “I can’t stand living in that castle any longer with the odious Sir Guy of Gisborn
e constantly nipping at my heels like an accursed lap dog! Not to mention my father and mother, pandering to the Sheriff and Prince John, I cannot stand it any longer Robyn. I
must
leave. I can survive in the woods just as well as your other Merry Men!”

“It’s not a matter of surviving Marian,” I said in a pleading voice as Marian swung onto Nearly Dead’s back. “We need you out there. You are our main source of information an
d supplies! The only way we hear credible information about the Prince or King Richard is through you! We need you right where you are.”

Marian looked unconvinced.

“Just wait,” I pleaded as I swung the wooden fence open. “I’ll come to you tomorrow. Somehow. I’ll break in. We can talk.”

“Fine,” Marian frostily agreed. “But you better show up
, Robyn. Otherwise I’m riding back here with as much supplies as I can carry, and I won’t return home until King Richard is back on the throne,” Marian vowed before heeling Nearly Dead. The grey mare took off, tearing out of the camp. I shut the fence behind Marian’s speedy exit before I rubbed my eyes with my hands.

“Did something happen?” Will Scarlet asked.

“Did something happen to Marian?” Little John asked.

I jumped, startled by their suddenly appearance. “Umm,” I uttered. They continued to stare at me with open, reasonable expectations.

Apparently they would be following Much’s orders and would pretend like nothing happened. I felt relieved, but at the same time I was having a hard time looking at them the same way.

“Robyn, are you even listening?” Will Scarlet teased, one of his eyebrows quirking up.

“Yes,” I said, sheepishly itching the back of my head. “Yes, something happened with Marian. She’s decided to make things even more complicated than they already are,” I said before nervously laughing and striding off.

I would have to get over their silly confessions. I
needed
to.

Chapter 5

Alan-A-Dale

True to my word, the following day I found myself wanderin
g through Sherwood, wearing one of the dresses I had snagged and improved upon during my stay at Nottingham castle.

I did not take Crafty or the Pony. My plan was
to waltz up to Marian’s castle— dressed as a passable female—and sneak my way to Marian’s quarters.

I had a terrible time convincing Much and Will Stutely to let me go meet her. In the end they only consented as long as I left Little John and Will Scarlet behind. (I suspected that duo was going to get the lecture of a lifetime in my absence.)
Honestly, I was a little glad to be alone. Things were still a little awkward between the three of us.