Robyn and the Hoodettes (17 page)

Joan and her mother smiled to each other, then said, “Let’s
smash!”

***

The splintered remains of the Sheffield gates were long
behind them. Robyn wasn’t even sure what road they were on, only
that they were heading away from Maudlin.

“
We’re lucky Roger and his men weren’t at the gate. We got off
lightly.” Marion said.

Oh sod! Robyn had forgotten all about him. The man who’d
caused all their troubles in the first place. She called out to
Wilfred and Madge, “Stop the wagon. We have to turn
around.”

“
We are not going back to Sheffield!” Marion said.

“
That’s right. We’re not,” Robyn said. “We’re going to
Nottingham.”

His
eyebrows shot up. “But that’s days away!”

Robyn nodded
. “We have plenty of food to last us. I didn’t give it all
away. But we need to get to the Sheriff of Nottingham and tell him
what’s going on. Roger and his men are stealing in his name,
trashing his reputation.”

“
So we go all the way to Nottingham to tell the Sheriff what?
That the people collecting his taxes are doing far too good a job
of it?”

“
Don’t argue with me!” Robyn was getting monumentally fed up
with the way Marion kept blocking her like this. Her ideas were
like a path through the forest and his interruptions felled trees
across it.

“
I will argue with you because you’re not making sensible
plans.”

“
Plans don’t work!” That red mist was back. “Plans only work
when everyone goes along with it. And, hello, did you see what
happened when I turned up to liberate everyone? They didn’t go
along with it!”

“
Stop fighting, you two,” Mother Eleanor butted in.

Both breathing hard, Marion dropped his voice low. “So now
you’re saying we front up to Nottingham with no plan at all and
expect him, an Earl, to go along with what we say?”

“
I don’t know!” Robyn screamed at him.

“
Then stop shouting at me because I’m only trying to
help!”

Furious with herself and the world in general, Robyn made a
guttural cry and flung her arms about. “Then everyone can stop
looking to me for the answers because I don’t have any.”

Palms up in a ‘will you calm down you’re scaring the horses?’
motion, Marion said, “We’re looking to you because someone has to
be in charge.”

“
Fine! From now on, Joan is in charge.”

Shocked that she’d been drawn into the conversation, Joan
said, “Why me?”

“
Because . . . you’re the tallest!” Robyn leapt off the
wagon and stormed off into the shrubbery at the side of the road.
There she flopped down in a bed of fallen leaves. Arms around her
knees, she rocked softly back and forth. It made comforting
scrunching noises beneath her. Not enough to drown out the sound of
approaching feet.

Marion sat down beside her. “Everything is going to be all
right,” he said as he put his arm around her shoulder.

She shrugged him off. “How can it be? It’s been one horrible
thing after another.”

The cool winds swirled the fallen leaves around their feet.
Figuratively she loosened one of the constrictive bands around her
heart. “I’m scared, Marion. I’m really scared.”

He pulled her in for a warm hug. “If you weren’t scared,
you’d be doing it wrong. We’re all here for you. We’re all in this
together.”

The hug contained security and the promise of belonging.
Another band slipped from her heart. “I used to dream of going on
an adventure.”

Marion nodded.

“
But I don’t want to have an adventure any more. Adventures
suck.”

He hugged her again. “It only seems like that now. Because
we’re in the sucky phase and Roger and Maudlin want to hang us from
a gibbet. But things will get better, I’m sure of it.”

“
Really?”

“
Yeah.” He got back to his feet and held his hand out to help
her up.

“
How can you be so sure?”

“
Easy,” he said as they stepped back to the road, “Things can
hardly get any worse, can they?”

Back with her group, people rallied round with hugs and
reassurances for Robyn. Mother Eleanor gave her the squishiest
cuddle and said, “It will be all right, come on, let’s get moving
again.”

Joan and Georgia declined a seat and walked a few paces
behind, chatting away, catching up on lost time. Their long strides
made it easy enough for them to keep up.

Shadow, the showpony-turned-workhorse, kept right on
marching with her horsey friend Plus One, pulling the wagon behind
them.

Robyn felt sorry for the horses doing the heavy lifting.
“I’m going to walk up the front,” she said to nobody in
particular.

“
Tie your frock dear,” Mother Eleanor said.

“
Yes mother.” She jumped over the side of the wagon, her
tunic becoming caught in the wheel with a loud
chhhk
! ripping noise.

“
I told you to tie your frock,” Eleanor said, quirking one side
of her mouth.

Too tired to argue, Robyn tied the ripped edges of her
clothes together and jogged over to Shadow. The horse wouldn’t make
comments or make her feel guilty. No. The horse was her friend and
they understood each other.

On they walked, down the middle of the dirt road filled with
small puddles from recent rain and general damp.

Behind her, Wilfred sneezed.

A scattering of “bless yous” rang out.

And again.

More “bless yous”–

Robyn counted five, four, three two–

And again.

Poor Wilfred. He’d been incredibly helpful, yet all he’d
earned in return was a face full of rash. Madge doted on him, which
was some compensation.

“
We left Bella behind!” Eleanor cried out.

Robyn’s shoulders slumped. “You can’t be serious?”

“
I am! She’s more valuable than gold, that cow. What kind of a
parent am I to forget my own child?”

With a silent ‘how dare you’,
Robyn pursed her lips.

“
You know what I mean!” Eleanor shifted sacks of food about
on the wagon. “Where’s the rope? Please tell me we brought some
rope? Come on don’t just–oh!”

Mother leaped back in shock. Everyone stopped to see what
cause the surprise. A sheepskin flapped to the side, revealing
Ellen a’Dale underneath.

“
Hiya,” she said.

“
What the devil are you doing here?” Robyn shouted.

“
You’ve got a nerve,” Eleanor said.

“
I’m really sorry.” Ellen put her palms up in surrender. “It
was the only way I could think of to get away from Maudlin. She
made me turn you in. I didn’t have a choice, honestly. And I
understand that you never want to see me again, so if you want to
throw me over I’ll be on my way.”

“
You what?” Marion stared daggers at her.

Yikes, Robyn was relieved Marion had never looked at her
like that, the kind of look that said he wanted to whack her with a
hammer.

“
I won’t lie to you, I did the wrong thing and I’m sorry,”
Ellen started. “I used your wagon to sneak out of Sheffield under
Maudlin’s nose, but I had to get away.”

Marion’s voice sounded low and deadly. “You’ve been working
for Maudlin the whole time, you still are. You think we’ll say,
‘that’s fine, off you go?’ ”

“
I was hoping you’d forgive me and let me stay with
you.”

That brought guffaws of laughter from everyone. Even Wilfred
looked like he was joining in. Or maybe his eyes were watering from
being so close to the horse?

“
I can’t trust you as far as I can spit,” Robyn said. “Get out
of our wagon, you’re on your own.”

“
Hang on a minute–” Marion interrupted.

“–
Not plans ag–”

“–
Raise your hands if you trust Ellen.”

The cool wind blew through the bare trees either side of
The King’s Road. Leaves fluttered and formed drifts. Not a single
person raised their hand.

They could be waiting until the other side of winter and still
nobody would raise their hand.

“
It’s not that I completely
distrust
you,” Mother Eleanor said, trying to find
some kind of compromise. “It’s merely that you haven’t given us a
reason to put our trust in you. Do you see where I’m coming
from?”

“
I’ll be on my way then. Nice knowing you.” Ellen climbed out
of the wagon and walked at a steady pace away from them.

“
Should we go after her?” Eleanor asked.

Marion spoke Robyn’s thoughts. “No thanks.”

Robyn couldn’t help thinking Ellen had left them far too
easily. If the tables had been reversed, if she were the one being
kicked out, she would have hung on to the wagon until they prized
it out of her dead hands. Ellen hadn’t even taken the sheepskin
she’d been hiding under.

In this weather?

She had to be heading back to Maudlin.

As they urged Shadow onwards and they walked further away,
Robyn couldn’t help thinking Ellen would betray them again. They
turned the corner and Robyn eased Shadow to a stop. Drizzly rain
began to swirl around them, adding a sparkly sheen to their tunics
and hoods.

Marion looked at Robyn. “Do you think–?”

“–
T
hat
was too easy? You bet.” She said, “Joan, Georgia, turn the wagon
sideways so the wind isn’t blowing the horse hair into Will’s
face.”

“
Nice one,” Wilfred said.

Pulling their hoods close around their faces to keep out the
cold, Robyn and Marion walked quietly back down the road towards
the last place they’d seen Ellen. The wind flurried around them,
making it difficult to remain downwind the whole time. The thing
about the wind, it not only carried smells, it carried (or blocked,
depending on your direction) sound. Robyn’s father had taught her
this when they’d been hunting rabbits and ducks. Fish too.
Apparently fish had an incredible sense of smell, so the only way
to catch them was to cast lines upriver.

Being so close to winter, there were few leafy trees to
hide behind. Only the random pine scattered deep in the forest. The
leaves were crunchy and thick on the ground, so they couldn’t step
on those without making a racket.

Soon they saw
hoof marks made by Shadow, and scuffs in the dirt
where Ellen had landed and then walked off. The light was growing
dim. They’d have to find her soon because if they wandered off into
the Shire Wood, they’d become utterly lost.

And yet, they couldn’t find Ellen.

“
She can’t have just vanished.” Marion said, turning full
circle, scanning hard for signs of her.

“
I can’t tell if these are fresh boot marks or not,” Robyn
said, looking at an impression on the ground. Not exactly an
impression, more a removal of the top layer of dirt. The drizzle
made everything sticky, so as they walked, their boots lifted a
layer of road up with them.

They kept looking for signs, until finally: “That way,”
Robyn pointed into a space between trees where a muddy half-boot
print
smushed
into the grass.

Marion dragged the side of his boot onto the road, to mark a
line they’d be able to find on their way back. He made an arrow
point on the end, in the direction of the rest of the wagon and
their gang. “Let’s go.”

They took careful strides, Robyn scanning the ground and
plants for signs of someone walking through. She kept sniffing the
damp air on the off chance the girl’s scent would carry. But her
own snuffly nose wasn’t up to the job. Shadow had a beautiful nose.
She should have brought the horse.

In the end it wasn’t her nose that lead them to Ellen, it was
her ears. The lilting tune carried in the wind, growing louder as
they closed in to find the traitor sitting in a clearing, preparing
a meal of cured meats and oaten biscuits.

“
Don’t mind if we do,” Marion stepped forward and reached for a
slice of meat.

Ellen surprised them both by not looking the least bit
surprised. “I knew you’d follow me. That’s why I’ve made enough for
three.”

Shocked, Robyn missed her next step. “Pardon?”

“
I had to sneak a ride with you, otherwise I’d have no way to
get this stash back to Maudlin.”

“
Hang on a minute, this is ours,” Marion started looking
through the hoard. “Well, some of it’s ours. I recognize these
tankards.”

“
All tankards look the same,” Ellen protested.

Marion held one of them aloft in the dying light and pointed
out a hallmark on the underside. “These two ‘ems’ are mine. It
means ‘Marion Made’.”

“
Well then . . . you made them for Maudlin.” Ellen made to
snatch it back.

“
And that’s why they say, ‘Welcome home father,’ on them? I
suppose she had them made for when her dear papa came home from the
war?”