Scarlet (11 page)
Authors: A.C. Gaughen
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small bed. “I’ve only eyes for you, my love, but I’ll take pretty words when I can. ”
“I think he’s nodding off , ” Rob said, watching the baby’s mouth open and his eyes close.
“I’ll take him, ” Mary said, and Rob put the babe in her lap gentle, wrapping him up tight in the one fur they had.
“We won’t wake him, then, ” Rob said, nodding at me.
“But thank you, Mary, for letting me meet him. He’s a good lad. ” He patted her shoulder, and she covered his hand. George led us out, shaking Rob’s hand and hugging me again. When the door closed, Rob looked sharp to me. “You planned that?”
I lifted a shoulder. “After hearing ’bout Godfrey, seemed like a good time to remember why you’re doing all this. ”
His eyes looked into mine in a way that made my breath suck out of my pipes. “You’re every kind of surprise, you know that?”
I shook my head.
He put his hand to my cheek, just touching the fi ngertips to my skin before pulling away. “You are. ”
He looked away and started walking down the lane to Tuck’s, and it were a few paces before my breath came back. k
Inside Tuck’s, we didn’t go straight for the back room. Keeping his hood up, Rob pulled Tuck to the side.
“Who was it, then?” Tuck asked, his face sour. 212-47765_ch01_1P.indd 101
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“Godfrey Mason, ” Rob told him.
Tuck pulled back. “Godfrey? No. Wasn’t him, Rob. ”
“I wish it wasn’t, but it was. ”
“But he’s such a good lad. Always been right awed by you too. If he did— and I’m not saying so— he must have done it for Ravenna. Maybe they’re in trouble. ”
Robin shook his head. “No. Perhaps, but I don’t believe so. Until I fi nd out otherwise, I need to be sure no one passes him information about my lads. ”
Tuck nodded. “I’ll make sure of it. You and Scar head on back. I’ll get you some food. ”
“Thank you, Tuck. ”
We went into the back, and Rob sank onto the bench. “Do you think it was him, Scar?”
I slid in beside him, putting my hands on the table. “Yes. He’s a good kid, but he’s got a rotten father and a silly mother, and he’s got his sister depending on him— if she’s not married off soon. ”
He nodded, reaching forward and fl ipping my hand over.
“I think even in these times they want more money. ”
I tried hard to swallow, staring at his hand touching mine.
“Working for the sheriff would be good money. ”
“Most likely.
” Quick and sure, his thumb pushed over
each fi nger, dragging lightning over my hand. “We played together as children, you know. My father hired his father to build half the Locksley estate. I’d been gone for those few years for the Crusades, but I always thought we were friends. ”
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His fi ngers slid into mine, locking into a grip. I were staring at the hair on the knuckles of his big hand. “Everyone thinks high of them. Ain’t no one doesn’t like the twins. ”
“But to betray us?”
I hesitated. I knew I tended to see things diff erent, but this were still hard to say right. I squeezed his hand and pulled my eyes up to his face. “As far as betraying goes, he didn’t get us pinched. It weren’t a trap, but Gisbourne thinks he got victory. ”
Robin scowled. “That’s true. Why didn’t Gisbourne ambush us instead of burning the tree?”
“Maybe Godfrey will know. ”
Robin pulled my hand under the table and didn’t let go till the lads arrived.
k
Godfrey made a bit of a mistake that night. Tuck told people to keep their traps shut, of course, and he had to tell them why. John heard, and so did all the customers of Friar Tuck’s. Godfrey showed up well into the night, which meant most of the men were more than a drink down.
When Godfrey appeared, the place busted open, attacking Godfrey and launching into a drunken brawl. I understood that. It made big men feel better to hit someone when they were scared, and God knew everyone were scared these days. He took a few punches, but I managed to squirrel him out while the bar were heaving without anyone noticing him gone. I tugged him around the building to the back door. 212-47765_ch01_1P.indd 103
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“What in God’s name was that?” he demanded, spitting out some blood.
I crossed my arms. “You know. ”
His face went white. “They all know?”
I nodded. “You want to be marshal?”
He sighed. “Look, my parents want to marry Ravenna off to a Frenchman. A
Frenchman
. If I can start my own house hold, she can live with me. ”
“You near cracked Robin. ”
He hit the wall. “I fi gured. ”
“Maybe you should be talking to him, ” I told him.
“I’m listening, ” Rob said, coming from behind me. He must have followed us out.
Godfrey’s face went all kinds of mournful. “No one got hurt, did they? I told them that’s where you pass messages with the townspeople, not that you live there. ”
“We’re all right. ”
“I’m sorry, Rob. Gisbourne wanted the information or he said he’d throw me in the prison. ”
Rob nodded. “It’s all right. We just can’t tell the townspeople anything anymore. And that will include you, Godfrey, but I’m not singling you out. ”
“I know. And I suppose I’ll get a rough shake from the townspeople, then. ”
“Probably. But come on, we’ll see what we can do to fi x that. ”
Rob put his arm around Godfrey’s shoulders and brought him in through the back door. It weren’t a moment or two that John appeared, kicking a bucket so hard it split in two. 212-47765_ch01_1P.indd 104
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“Unhappy?” I asked him.
He spun around to look at me, and then kicked a bucket bit again. “He betrayed us and Rob’s welcoming him back. He’s a rat!”
“Thought I were a rat. ”
He wedged his hands onto his hips and looked at me. “Different sort. Your kind of rat isn’t so bad. ”
“He did what he thought he had to, John. ”
“Christ, I don’t get you, Scar. You spit with venom at the likes of the thief taker and the sheriff , but other than that, you can’t judge a living soul. ”
“I’m a thief. Ain’t got so much moral ground to stand on. ”
He gave me a little smile at that. “I suppose. I still think Robin’s a fool. ”
“We both know he’s no fool. ”
He looked at me, his eyes running over my face. He came closer, and I were against the wall, so my heart started to fl utter-beat in my chest. I didn’t much like feeling trapped. He palmed my hat, pushing it back.
“What are you doing?” I asked, pulling away.
“I need to see your eyes when I ask you this. ”
“Ask what?”
“Are you in love with Rob, Scar?”
I hesitated. Sometimes, like with the baby, or the strange way Rob touched my hand, I kind of thought I might be. But then he would yell at me or shut me up with a glare and an insult like he had that morning, saying I were fooling with John. John, who were in front of me, asking if I loved Rob, looking at my weird 212-47765_ch01_1P.indd 105
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eyes without looking away. “No, ” I told him. It were the truth, I think. Or as much of the truth as made a diff erence.
“Good. ”
He leaned forward, his eyes looking right into mine, and his mouth came so near I felt the skin of his top lip on mine. His eyes stared into me, and he just waited there, looking for something, or waiting for me to do something, but I didn’t know what. I looked down, not sure of myself. He chuckled, and his thumb ran over my lips. The touch made me jump, made everything stranger, and I pulled away from him.
“See you back later, Scar, ” he told me.
I didn’t look up until he left, and then I sat on the ground and hugged my arms about my knees. I didn’t know what to make of that at all.
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C H A P T E R
T
he morning were rough. It were our fi rst day on the road since the chest were taken, and it felt like rolling thunder in the distance. With just a fortnight to get enough goods and fence them again before tax day, we all knew how much more gold were needed now, but it felt like all our luck had pure run out. I kicked at a branch and stared at the empty road like travelers would appear if I wished it. I kept glancing at Rob and John, and the rough feel of John pushing his thumb over my mouth jumped into my head.
I stood. “Rob!” I called. He stepped out onto the road, looking up at me. “I’m going to Nottingham, see what I can steal there. This isn’t helping none. ”
He nodded. “Fine. Meet back at Tuck’s to night, all right?”
“Sure. ” I skittered across a tree branch, heading to Nottingham Castle and away from John and Rob. ’Course, going to 212-47765_ch01_1P.indd 107
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Nottingham weren’t getting away from Rob, in truth. It had been his home once, and walking there felt like he were walking ’longside me. I nabbed some silver and food from the keep and were leaving at dusk when I heard someone making an awful racket. I ducked down one of the alleyways of shacks that made up Nottingham’s town, and sure enough, right by the castle wall, I found a girl in a pretty red dress crying her eyes out. I came over to her and looked down the way, making sure there were no one to bother her. “Come on, ” I told her soft. “I’ll get you home. ”
She looked up at me, and my heart kind of stuck in my throat. It weren’t Joanna by any stretch, but she had yellow hair and blue eyes, and for a second it looked like her. My hand were already out and she took it. “Thank you, sir. ”
I helped her stand up, and she leaned on me. “What’s your name?”
“Alice. ”
“Where’s your home?”
She shook her head. “I live inside the castle. I’m one of the maids. ”
“Why you crying, then?”
She burst into tears again, and I didn’t know what to do.
“S-s-sh, ” were all she managed.
“Hush, ” I told her. I pulled out a roll from my pouch.
“Here, eat something. ”
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work, ” she said. “Me and the girls all know. It’s better if the sheriff takes a shine to you, you know? He’s kinder then. Gives you money and lets you skip some chores and feeds you more too. It’s not so bad. And he was so nice to me— I thought he really loved me. But I t-told him it’s his baby, ” she said, pressing her hand against her tummy. The breath whooshed out of me. “And he hit me!” she wailed, fi zzing up into tears again.
“Listen, ” I said, thinking quick. “I know someplace you can go. The keep won’t mind you having one on the way, and the work’s not too bad. You’ll be right as rain. ”
“Are you mad?” she cried, pushing away from me. “You think I can leave this place? I can’t, not ever. He’d send Gisbourne to kill me, he told me. ”
“Gisbourne’s a thief taker, not a hireling. The sheriff can’t order him about as he pleases. ”
She shook her head, turning back to the castle. “You’re a stupid boy. You don’t know anything of how the world is. ”
I shook my head too, watching her scamper back into the castle.
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I waited as long as I could to meet up with the lads, going up by Thoresby Lake and waiting till stars popped out overhead. Too many thoughts were rolling inside me, thoughts of Joanna and London and those last fi nal days that I never liked to think of much.
When I thought of Joanna, there were days I wanted to 212-47765_ch01_1P.indd 109
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remember. When we fi rst ran away to London, we still had money in our purses, and it felt like the world were opened up wide to us in a single breath, like we never had to listen to no one again and everything would be perfect. Like we had cheated fate.
’Course, fate were right around the corner, waiting. Fate never stopped following me— not now, when just as I thought I were free Gisbourne came blazing back into my life like a hell beast, and not then— in those terrible days in London when the money were gone and Joanna and I both turned our own kind of desperate.
That were why it were no use to think on Joanna. Everything ran back to London, to those last days. I were right tired, that were all. The sheriff ’s poor Alice weren’t no Joanna and I couldn’t fi x neither of them, and I had no business thinking of such things anyway. People who wanted my help needed it to night.
I saved one roll for myself, chewing on it slow. Maybe if I could just eat I wouldn’t get stuck on the past quite so much. The quiet night were falling, so I went to Tuck’s, but it were a slow sort of going.
I walked straight into a storm.
The boys were waiting for me outside Tuck’s, and Rob nodded me forward, walking off into the night toward the cave.
“The sheriff caught Godfrey and Ravenna, ” Rob told me.
“Caught?” I asked.
“Lady Thoresby told us they’re accused of trapping a rabbit. ”
“That’s not poaching!” I protested.
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