“I would give it to you,” Winchester said, “but not even I have the kind of coin you’re talking about. Not after covering for the people of mine that couldn’t pay. It took everything I had.”
“I’ll sell my property,” I said.
Much frowned. “Leaford? But then you’d be putting people out of jobs and robbing yourself of any income that comes in. Not to mention that I think the Lord and Lady Leaford would have a few concerns about that, which even if they aren’t actually your parents, I would think you’d consider. And set all of that aside, no one has the kind of money to buy something like that. No one.”
“She’s not Lady Leaford anymore,” Rob said sharp. “She’s Huntingdon. She has all the Huntingdon lands, Much.”
Much blinked, looking between us. “Oh.”
“Maybe Eleanor will help,” I said. “She’ll stop here on her tour.”
“Marian, she’ll have already put every spare cent she has to bring Richard home,” Winchester reminded me.
I sighed, leaning on the edge of a table. “It was much easier when we could just steal things,” I said.
“No one left to steal from,” Rob reminded. He raised his eyebrow in my direction, and I frowned.
“Sheriff!” a page yelled. I turned to see Will Clarke run into the room in the garb the castle servants wore.
“Yes, Will?” Rob asked.
“The prince is coming, Sheriff! He sent word that he’s returning Nottingham’s knights.”
“Get everyone into the castle,” Rob ordered. “Immediately. Will, start spreading the word. Winchester, take half your knights to the city gate and have the rest guard the castle. Tell Essex the same. Much, go out to the towns and warn them.”
Much and Will left, but Winchester hung back. “You’re the only one with the power to send him away, Marian,” he said.
“I know. And I will. He has no right to be here.”
“Whatever you do,” Rob warned me, “keeping you safe is the most important thing now. If anything happens to you, he can lay claim to the shire again.”
I raised my chin. “Then don’t let anything happen to me.”
“Don’t ask that from me, Scar, unless you mean it,” Rob told me, his eyes dark.
I drew a slow breath, looking at him. Wondering if my being a noblewoman would mean constantly putting him back in this place.
“No one will let her be harmed,” Winchester said, nodding at Rob.
Rob nodded once at me.
The city gate weren’t near as well fortified as the castle, but if Prince John were ever to transgress against us, we’d make it hard as we could. We shut and locked the city gates and Winchester and I sat mounted on horses, the knights around us. Rob were on the city wall behind me, an arrow in hand, true to his promise to keep me safe. I even wore a dress for the occasion, taken from my old things, which Rob had fetched out of the room for me.
I wanted to look every inch a formidable lady like his mother when I faced down Prince John.
Because of the rain there weren’t much dust to rise, and we just felt the trembling in the ground as Prince John rounded the bend with a legion of Nottinghamshire knights. I held my breath, and a breeze kicked up, flapping my cloak to the side.
Prince John signaled his men—my men—to halt, riding a few paces up. My stomach curled hard when I saw his companion—de Clare, the cruel bully who’d taken great joy in hurting me the winter before.
But it were spring now, and this were my castle and my shire and for the first time in my life, I had the right to defend those things. “Lady Huntingdon,” de Clare greeted me with an oily smile.
“My lord Prince,” I said, clear and loud over the quieting roar of horses’ hooves. “Welcome to Nottinghamshire.”
“Lady Huntingdon,” he said, glaring at me with a sick, pleased smile. “Winchester, Essex,” he said, nodding to each. “Marian, don’t you just have a stable of men about?”
“Earls,” I corrected, lifting my eyebrows. “And yes, I’ve found the nobility to be most supportive of my new role.”
“Oh, yes, I’m sure an unmarried woman with a significant amount of land would become very popular,” Prince John sneered.
“And a widow at that,” de Clare said, his eyes skipping over me. “No need to be concerned with maiden honor.”
There weren’t a sound.
Prince John chuckled. “Well. I’ve heard you had trouble here,” he said, all innocent. “I heard the town was sacked.”
I glanced round. The gates were shut and unharmed; you couldn’t see the burned town beyond. “No. You must have been misinformed.”
He sniffed. “I can still smell smoke.”
Smiling, I glanced at Rob. “We had a feast and a bonfire to celebrate my creation. It was quite the affair.”
His smile grew more tense, widening to show his teeth. “My mother thinks she’s very clever too, Marian, but she ended up in a tower for sixteen years for annoying my father with her willful mouth. You would do well to remember there are punishments for even the highest of the nobility.”
I drew in a breath to speak, but Winchester were faster. “Before you dare to speak of punishment to her, I suggest you look to your own actions and wonder what the king might have in store for you when he returns. Besides, you may be a prince, but with the loss of the Nottingham lands, your holdings are less than hers—and, I would remind you, mine.”
The prince lowered his gaze like a dog, glaring at Winchester and baring his teeth. “Those are bold words, Winchester.”
“Bold, perhaps,” Essex said. “But true.”
The prince sniffed. “Holdings come and go, but royal blood is inalienable.”
“Yes,” I said, raising my chin. “Royal blood is inalienable, isn’t it?”
“And where is the dashing sheriff?” Prince John asked, a smug grin coming over his face. “I’d heard he didn’t fare well in the troubles.”
My blood roared in my ears. No such thing had happened; it could only mean that Prince John had ordered it so.
He wanted Rob dead.
“Forgive my failure to greet you, your Highness,” Rob called from his spot on the wall. I didn’t turn to look, watching Prince John’s snarl instead.
He didn’t say anything for many moments. “Very well. Congratulations, Lady Huntingdon, on your incredibly swift rise from bastardy. If you can simply deliver the tax for your shire, I will be on my way.”
“No,” I said.
His horse pawed closer. “What was that?” he growled.
“No. You are not the overlord responsible for this shire, and considering our history, I will deliver our tax to the queen mother, or straight to London. The servants at the Huntingdon holdings have been alerted to the change and any personal items you may wish to recover, please write to me and I will handle it as I see fit.”
His chest rose. “May I remind you, nobles whose shires fail to pay are held responsible,” he said.
“We’ll be sure to remind Eleanor of that. For now, I believe you are needed elsewhere, my lord Prince. Anywhere but Nottinghamshire, in fact. You may retain de Clare, but I require these knights.”
Prince John’s lip curled. He looked at each of us in turn. “This has been a very memorable visit,” he said. “Rest assured I will treasure it for a long, long while.”
He spurred his horse, and de Clare hesitated a moment, then followed along behind him.
When we couldn’t see their horses anymore, Winchester’s men began banging their armored hands on their chests, clattering with noise in a knight’s version of a cheer.
The rest of the men didn’t quite know what to do, and I called for the gates to be opened so we could be let in. I sent Essex and Winchester on ahead, and saw Rob watching me as the knights filed in.
The knights stopped and dutifully dropped their heads to me.
“I lied before,” I told them. “There have been troubles here. Men came through, very well-organized and purposeful men, and burned much of the city. W
e are struggling to rebuild, and I need your help to protect these people and give them their homes back. I know some of you have been garrisoned here for a while, and some of you may be new. I look forward to your help and your service.”
I didn’t wait for their reaction. It were important, whether they respected me as their lady or not, but I knew that were a slow process, and a man wouldn’t wait for them to approve. They would do their jobs, and I would win them over as soon as I could.
I sent them to different tasks within the city, and Rob waited for them all to ride past me before coming up to my horse. I dropped off the horse’s back, taking a moment to arrange the skirts of the dress that caught up around my legs.
When I looked up, Rob were close to me. His bow were over his back, and his arms were crossed over his front. “You did well,” he told me.
“Thank you,” I said, looking at him. “You’re not happy about this, are you? That I’m Lady Huntingdon.”
He paused, but he shook his head slow. “I don’t know what to think, Scar. I just need more time.”
“I don’t understand,” I told him.
His shoulders lifted. “Those were meant to be my lands, Scar,” he said.
Slow and careful, I reached for his hand, threading his fingers through mine where they weren’t covered with bandages. He smiled at the strange sight.
“Your hands are a little ridiculous, love,” he told me.
“Rob, they can be your lands again,” I told him with a whisper.
“If we marry,” he said, his eyes meeting mine, heavy and dark. “I know,” he said, looking at our hands. “I just don’t know that I deserve them. That I will ever deserve that title.”
“Rob—”
“And more than that, I don’t know that you can marry me, Scar.” His hand pulled away from mine. “Prince John isn’t wrong about that—you can marry any unwed man in the kingdom. Your father won’t approve of you wedding a sheriff.”
“I don’t care about that!” I said, my heart starting to beat faster.
“Don’t you?” he asked, looking at me. “You spoke of alliances. Do you know what the best way to ally yourself with another powerful lord is? What the best way to protect Nottingham is?”
I stepped back, close to the horse, and the horse tossed his head. “You want me to marry someone else?” I asked, my voice a bare whisper; I didn’t think I were breathing.
“I want to keep you alive, Scarlet!” he yelled at me. “There’s no way in hell I want to see you marry another man. Again. I’ve been through that torture once, thank you. But you are a noblewoman now, and there is a different set of rules. Protection and safety aren’t things you can purchase at the tip of your knife.”
“No—they’re things I should purchase with my body?” I yelled. I couldn’t breathe, and there were tears blocking my eyes.
“You survived Gisbourne,” he said soft. “Surely he was the worst you could hope for.”
I shrank back farther, and the horse trotted away from me. I shut my eyes and Gisbourne were there again, pushing me against the wall, clawing at my skirts, pulling them up. Hurting me.
“Scarlet,” Rob said, touching my arm. I turned away, hitting the ashen remain of a wall, and he caught my shoulders. “Scar,” he said again.
I pulled away from him, and the tears shot out.
“Scarlet!” he said.
I shook my head, grabbing for the horse’s reins and starting to walk toward the castle.
“Scarlet!” he yelled.
I didn’t stop. And he didn’t follow me.
CHAPTER
We all ate dinner in the Great Hall, sharing whatever we could for food, but we were running low. I sat by Rob, our food spread on a linen on the floor. There weren’t near enough tables to seat all the people we needed to feed, and I never had a problem sitting on the ground.
Rob took my hand, and I looked at him, watching him, as he unwrapped the bandage on one, looking to see how the cuts were healing.
I wanted to pull away. If he were going to touch me, I didn’t want it to be to check a wound, some necessary thing. I wanted it to mean something more.
That didn’t mean I’d rather him not touch me at all, though.
“We should hunt tomorrow,” I told him, eating a bit of cheese. “We don’t have any meat left.”
He looked at me, the corner of his mouth rising. “Guess we don’t have to worry about a lord catching us poaching.”
“They’re royal forests, not shire forests. The only person who has the right to truly punish someone for poaching is the king.”
He flipped my hand over, stroking his thumb along the beating vein in my wrist, making the blood rush faster. “Then we’ll hunt happily. Everything seems easier in the forest, anyway,” he said, and his voice were rough.
“I don’t know if I can shoot anymore,” I told him soft.
“You haven’t been gone that long,” he told me, brushing my wrist again.
Wondering if two could play such a game, I took his hand and traced my fingertips over his palm, edging one finger, then the next, then the next. He sucked in a hard breath. “Not because of the time,” I admitted, unearthing my half hand from where I’d hidden it in my skirts.
He took this hand, unwrapping it and really looking at it for the first time. The scarred stumps were discolored, almost black, and tough and rough to the touch. Hard. Flipping it over, the palm were red and scraped up from the rope. He lifted my hand, kissing a bit of the uninjured pad at the base of my thumb. “Your hands have seen far too much pain. But if you want, I’ll teach you to shoot like I taught you the first time.”
I pulled away from him with a gasp. “The first time!” I yelped, outraged. “You never!”
He grinned. “You couldn’t shoot a horse’s ass when I found you,” he boasted. “I taught you everything you know.”
“You taught me some things,” I said, lowering my voice. He raised his eyebrows and leaned closer to me. I pushed him back with a grin. “And none of them have anything to do with weaponry.”
My eyes dropped to his mouth, and lingered there for a long breath.
He sighed and stood. “Scarlet, we should—I should—” He stopped, and he shook his head.
I stood as well. “Rob, I shouldn’t have walked off this afternoon.”
He looked at me, waiting for me to speak.
I lifted my shoulders. “I know you were trying to say something reasonable, but all I heard—” I stopped, looking down, and he stepped closer to me. “All I heard was that you don’t want to marry me anymore.”
He looked at me, meeting my eyes in that way that made me feel strange things sparking like kindling inside of me. He glanced away, looking round the hall. “Come,” he said, holding out his hand. “I’d rather not speak about this here, but there is much to say.”
My chest felt tight as I looked at his hand.
“And none of it has to do with me not wanting to marry you, Scar,” he told me, his voice a low, private rumble. “Come to my chambers, and we can discuss it all.”
I nodded, putting my hand in his.
He held my bandaged hand and brought me up through the castle. When I thought we’d continue up the stairs, he started tugging me down the hall. “You don’t stay in the lord’s chambers?” I asked. They were the nicest rooms, where Prince John stayed when he were here.
He shrugged. “No. I couldn’t much stand the thought of him, and besides . . . ,” he said, trailing off as he tugged me down the hall. As we grew closer to the room and he smiled broader, I felt the blood running out of my face. “I wanted to stay in the only room that reminded me of you. With your things in it, no less, so I could pretend like any day you’d appear again.”
He loosed my hand to open the door, and my heart were pounding at the thought of going into that room, like it could bring Gisbourne back to life, like he would be there, putting his hands on me again.
Rob turned back to me and frowned, taking my hand. “S
car, we don’t—”
I pulled away, so hard when he let me go I hit the wall and jerked with pain as my back hit rock. I shrank from him.
“Scarlet!” he said, frowning and confused.
I could bare breathe, and Rob came to me, standing before me, hesitant to touch me.
Like he thought it were him I didn’t want to be touched by, like he couldn’t see Gisbourne’s ghostly hands reaching out for me, grasping at me.
“Locksley!” Winchester shouted down the hall. “Have you—Marian! Come quick, Bess is asking for you.”
I pulled round Rob. “Bess?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
He grinned. “She’s having the baby.”
My eyes went wide. “What am I meant to do?” I demanded, panicked.
He chuckled. “I think she wants a friend there, Marian.”
With little idea what I were doing, I went. Maybe to run from telling Rob so many truths, and maybe because even if I weren’t sure I were yet, I wanted to be Bess’s friend. I wanted to protect that baby from the moment it were alive in the world.
I rushed back to the room I’d left her in. Much were outside, his arms crossed, looking fair tortured and grim. “God, Scarlet . . . ,” he started, shaking his head.
Jumping forward, I kissed his cheek. “I’ll take care of her,” I told him. It were a silly promise to make—I didn’t know the first thing about women and babies and care. But I promised it to him because he needed to hear something from his friend.
I heard her yell, and Much flinched. I opened the door and went in. Women were in there already, four of them, piling linens and getting water and doing it all without a word.
“Scarlet!” she wailed, and I froze, terrified.
She held her hand out to me from the bed where they’d moved her around, and said my name again. I lurched forward, crawling on the bed to sit beside her. She grabbed my wrist and I grabbed hers, bound together, strong and linked.
“It hurts,” she sobbed against me. “No one says it hurts this much.”
“No,” one of the women told her, patting her knee. “They all forget once they have the babe. It’s a quick mess of pain for a lifelong joy, my girl.” She smiled. “Besides, the pains will get much, much worse. We’re still early on.”