Lady Thief: A Scarlet Novel (5 page)

“And you didn’t tell me.” His eyes met mine, and I looked away. “Of course you didn’t,” he said, and this were low and sad.

Much burst into the room. “Rob! Rob! Gisbourne’s back!”

We all just stared at him.

“Little late, Much,” John told him. “He wants to meet with Rob.”

“Well, all of us,” I said. “It ain’t like you’re going alone.”

“You’re not going,” John and Rob said at the same time.

“Of course she is,” Much said. “Even if you ignore the fact that whatever he wants from Rob will definitely have something to do with Scar, don’t be stupid and think she’d be at home knitting, lads. Better to know where she is.”

“Thank you,” I told Much. He grinned at me.

“Up high and well armed,” Rob said.

“Fine,” I said. “But don’t think I’ll sit idly by if he tries something.”

“We wouldn’t expect you to ever keep yourself out of needless danger, Scar. Don’t worry,” John said.

I glared at him.

“Am I the only one who thinks we just shouldn’t bother? Who gives a damn what he has to say? I’ll kill this or hurt that—doesn’t that pretty much cover it?” John asked.

“Why come back at all?” I said. “He’s been gone for months.”

They all looked at me.

“Oh, for Heaven’s sake, I don’t think he cares that we’re married.”

“No man doesn’t care that he’s married,” John grunted, looking at the stairs. “Much is right, whatever it is definitely has to do with Scar. Without a sheriff to hire him on as a thief taker, he doesn’t have any interest in Nottinghamshire.”

“Well, he can’t have Scar. No matter what,” Rob said, looking at me. “I think we have to find out what he wants. He
simply causes too much carnage for us to ignore him entirely.” I looked down and Rob came closer, catching my hand and running his fingers through mine. “Can you do this?”

I nodded, meeting his eyes. “I’m not afraid of him.”

Rob leaned closer and kissed my cheek.

“Let’s get going,” Rob said. “We need to get to the monastery and back by sunset.”

After such strange quiet in the past few months, it felt fair right to be walking through Sherwood, armed to the teeth the four of us. John and I went high on rooftops and Much were hidden behind a house while Robin stayed behind another house.

Gisbourne rode in alone on a dark gray horse, and I gave Much a nod. He started to move round the back to look for Gisbourne’s fellows. “Do I have an audience with the elusive Master Hood?”

“Yes,” Rob said, still hidden.

“And I imagine my darling wife is here as well. Missed me, Marian?”

John caught my eye and shook his head before I moved. I scowled evil at him.

“You can talk to me, Gisbourne,” Rob said.

He smiled. “You can call me Lord Leaford now, Hood,” Gisbourne said.

Angry heat rushed over me, and I raised myself over the
edge of the roof. “What have you done to my father, Gisbourne?” I yelled, even over John swearing at me.

Gisbourne looked up and touched his fingers to his forehead, mocking a bow to me. “Apparently it’s easier than I thought to draw you out, my dear.”

The sight of him made my scar itch. He looked well enough—a little thinner, but still tall, harsh, clothed entirely in black with spots of silver gleaming from his weapons, his fastenings, his sword belt. I had spent so long fighting this man, running from him, fearing him, and he were here, alone. He almost seemed unimpressive.

I couldn’t help peering round him to look for some sort of ambush. I caught sight of Much, and he shrugged and shook his head.

“I’m alone,” Gisbourne assured. “I called for Robin to speak to you, in fact.”

“Speak.”

“No pleasantries? Haven’t you missed me, wife? Everyone at court was quite devastated to have missed the wedding. I accepted their best wishes on your behalf, naturally.”

“Tell me what you did to my father, Gisbourne!”

“You needn’t worry about him,” Gisbourne said. “Lord Leaford is quite unharmed. I only meant that when I married you I assumed the land and title that were promised in our contract—something, you’ll be delighted to learn, that gave me the right to petition the prince for the position of sheriff.”

My heart went to lead in my chest. I hadn’t thought of that.

“Which he is coming to Nottinghamshire to give to me, within a few days. And when he arrives, you will be living under my roof like a proper, dutiful wife.”

“Like hell I will!” I roared.

He threw his head back and laughed. “I’ve missed this, sweeting. Witty banter. Well, I needn’t remind you of the cruelty I can inflict upon your people as sheriff. Clearly it’s even entered your mind what I could do to your parents, your home, and dependents as the rightful landholder. But I won’t force you with violence, my love. I will entice you.”

“I doubt that,” I snapped back.

Even through the dusk, his dark eyes glittered fierce. “We can play these games all I want, Marian, but we both know you don’t want to be married to me. You married me to save Robin’s life, and I will offer you a bargain—perhaps the Devil’s bargain, as it were.”

He took a breath, still smiling at me.

“I’ll annul our marriage as soon as the prince leaves if you live with me while he is here.”

Hope rushed fast like a flood into my chest. An annulment? I could live with Robin without the cloud of sin over us. I could
marry
Robin.

“You’d kill me,” I said. “There’s no trusting you. The second I was close enough you’d gut me like a deer.”

He shrugged. “My temper can get the better of me, of course, but I don’t intend to kill you. Besides, I recall you telling me you were rather difficult to kill, yes?”

“Why would you even want this, Gisbourne?” I asked. “It’s a fool offer.”

“You have my word that I won’t kill you, and that once the prince leaves you will have your annulment. Should you accept, you will dress, speak, act, and be fully disarmed the way a lady befitting your station should. These are my terms, and if you would accept them, you need only come to the castle and join me in my chambers.”

“Tell me why.”

“Why isn’t important,” he told me, smiling a little. “The only thing you need to consider is what you’re willing to do to marry your dear hero. Because trust me, love, you’ll never get an annulment from me otherwise. And if this doesn’t go the way I want and you are not under my roof, when I become sheriff I will have no guarantee for what blood my displeasure will purchase. I’m being—what’s the word—kind.” He smirked at me in the darkness. “You’re looking quite fetching these days. I can see your scar from here. Lovely.”

I turned from him, hiding behind the ridge of the roof. He laughed, and it were ghoulish and echoed round me in the dark.

“Feeling shy, love?” Gisbourne taunted.

“She gave you her answer,” Rob said. “You can go. Unless you would like for us to entice
you
.”

“Think about it, Marian,” he called. “All the red ribbons you could want. Though I imagine your hair is a little too short for them since our last encounter.”

Frowning, I pushed my hair off my face. It were wild, never staying tied back since Gisbourne had thought he could use it to hold me and I’d cut it off to be free of him.

I reckoned he left then. I didn’t hear nothing more, but I didn’t move from the roof none.

John called up to me but it were Robin that climbed the roof, taking my hand. “You’re not going anywhere near him, Scar. We’ll find another way.”

I nodded and sniffed, and he tugged my hand and we climbed down, side by side. He held fast to my hand the long way back to the monastery, and I loved it. I wanted him near me more than anything.

He showed me the vial the monk had given him as we took out the bedrolls and set them near the fire. “He said I’ll sleep sound,” he told me. “You don’t have to be afraid of me, Scar.”

I tucked close along his side as he drank it down. “I weren’t never afraid of you, Rob,” I said. It were a lie, I think. But it were truth in the notion that the fear weren’t never what I chose to hold to. I loved him more than I feared his dreams.

When we laid our bedrolls out, I nudged mine closer to Rob, and he nudged his closer to mine till they slid together and looked like one bed. When we laid down, his arm slid over my hips and snugged me close, his chin hooked over my shoulder and his breath rushed over my neck, like every bit of him were slipping around me and binding us together.
This were what two souls merging into one were meant to feel like.

I wanted to stay awake, to treasure this, to roll it over in my mind till I had picked up every little bit of it, like baling hay. But it were just moments before I fell asleep, safe in his heart.

I woke in some strange form of hell. The fire weren’t all out; it were glowing and red and making red glow around me. But Robin weren’t behind me, he were on top of me and screaming. His fist crashed down over my face and I yelled too, finding my legs and bucking him off me. I reached for the knife I kept by my pillow when I saw it flash in his hand.

“Scar!” yelled Much as Rob lunged for me.

I swung my leg down and kicked his out so he fell. The knife skittered and Much ran for it. I jumped on Rob, pinning his arms down. “Robin!” I shrieked. “Rob!”

He roared like a gutted animal. He twisted his leg up and kicked me hard in the belly. I fell off him and he followed, slamming his bear paw on my face again. I rolled him, punching him back and hitting him so hard in the face it made pain rush up my arm.

“Scar, get him outside!” Much yelled.

Rob rolled me again, but I were ready this time and tucked both my legs up to push him hard back. I leapt up, dizzy and swimming, and grabbed Much’s good hand and ran.

We ran for the door and the night and the snow, and Rob followed us, grabbing my hair as we opened the door.

I swallowed a scream but fought tooth and nail to get outside, letting him crush me into the snow.

The moment the snow hit us he sucked in a hard gasp and rolled off of me. “Scar?” Much called. “Scar?”

I pushed up off the snow, and it were stained with red where my face were. I were shaking hard and when I tried, my legs wouldn’t hold me none, and I fell to the stone in the cloisters.

Much stripped off his overshirt and stuffed it with snow, bringing it back to me and pressing it to my face. Rob were down the row, huffing and trying to breathe and I couldn’t help him. My bones were shaking so hard I thought they’d tear straight apart.

“Don’t let him see,” I mumbled to Much. “Please.”

Much were whiter than the snow, but he nodded.

Rob turned toward us. “Scar,” he said, like his mouth were half full of rocks.

Much stood over me, blocking me from him. “Just go inside, Rob,” he said quiet.

“Where’s John?”

“I don’t know,” Much answered. “Please, go inside.”

I heard Rob’s breath still huffing out hard. Then I heard his feet scuff over the stone and the door creak open.

Much turned back to me, but I were bent over my body, heartbroken and bleeding and letting rivers run from my eyes, cursing the day they tortured Rob and brought back whatever phantom he were fighting now. They had tortured him and now it were torturing me too.

Much went back in after a while. The monks filed past me for their prayers at sunup. Then John came along and found me, and his face went flat and he went into the warming room.

I heard raised voices and smacks and thuds. Heat and shame rushed up and I stood, wobbling on my legs, wavering toward the door that didn’t look so fearful in the daylight. My body hollered at me, my stomach turning and rolling. I went into the warming room to find John and Rob with their shirtfronts caught up in each other’s fists, bellowing in each other’s faces.

“Stop,” I said, and they both fair shocked me by obeying. Rob saw me and he went slack and more than a bit green.

John let him go, and Rob just hung there like God were a puppet master making a toy with his body. John could bare contain himself; he were huffing through his nose like a bull in pasture.

“You have to go,” Rob said. I knew he said it to me; he were looking right at me, but I couldn’t imagine he meant it for me.