Robyn and the Hoodettes (22 page)

“
Here I am,” she said bringing a cloth sack with her. A
cloth sack that moved and wriggled. “Hope you all like shellfish.”
Confused faces abounded as Ellen put the sack on the ground to
reveal her catch. “Snappy little biters they are, but if you grab
them by the back here, see, they can’t get you.”

“
W
hat
are they?” Marion said.

They had a strange, greenish gray colour about
them
, and
they wore a suit of armour.

“
Freshwater crayfish!” Ellen beamed as if she’d produced a
bag of gold. “All the meat is in the tail, and the claws, but you
cook the heads as well to make soup and it’s so lush.”

Mother
Eleanor leaned forward to take a closer look, then leapt
back as one of them snapped its enormous claw at her. “They look
like something out of a nightmare!”

Ellen looked around. “Well? Who’s going to help
me?”

Stunned silence.

Ellen put her hands on her hips. “If I have to do it all
myself, I’ll eat it all too.”

“
Those monsters came out of the river?” Eleanor
asked.

“
Yep.”

“
Proves my point. Rivers and humans shouldn’t mix. Robyn, let
this be a lesson to you. Not only will they try and freeze you to
death, but they’re full of demons that will flay you
alive.”

“
Mother Eleanor, thank you for volunteering.” Ellen said,
roping her in to helping with food preparation. “Now, you hold the
blade steady like this and bring it down hard here, in one go. That
chops the tail off in one hit. The tail’s the bit we’re going to
eat.”

N
obody interrupted as Ellen gave her cookery demonstration.
The pointy heads with their bobble-eyes went into the pot, the
claws and tails put aside for now.

Once the water in the pot began to bubble, the shells changed
colour from their mottled grey to bright red.

“
What witchcraft is this?” Eleanor asked.

“
They
look like devil spawn but they taste like heaven,” Ellen
said.

Soon the aromas filling the little round house set everyone’s
tummies to gurgling.

What with the bad night’s sleep, the fight with Joan and
subsequent near death from freezing, Robyn could have eaten one of
those monsters, snappy claws and all. Hot soupy smells of roasted
nuts and butter teased her senses. All from one little armoured
creature that looked like it had crawled from the bowels of
hell.

Ellen
strained the soup through the bag to get the shell and grit
out, then it was time to add the chunks of tail and claw
meat.

“
Make sure you take the vein out,” Ellen said. “I won’t lie to
you, this is the worst part. The vein is the . . . um . . . food
tube.”

“
Urgh,” everyone said as they sliced at the tail meat with
their thumbnails and flicked out the dark vein of grit. It was
fiddly and frustrating and took forever. Every meal takes forever
when you’re starving.

Stomach folding in on itself with hunger, the moment it was
ready, Robyn had her bowl out.

It was so delicious she couldn’t speak.

“
It’s good, isn’t it?” Ellen said.

“
Good is an insult,” Madge said as she slurped at hers. “This
is a dream in a bowl.”

“
Is there any more?” Georgia asked as she emptied her
serve.

“
Sorry, that’s all there is. But if I set the sack again, we
can catch more tomorrow. Plenty more where they came
from.”

Everyone agreed they would catch more of these
devil-creatures, as often as they could.

“
You did well to pick this spot,” Robyn murmured to
Marion.

“
Thanks.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Everyone saw his kiss and a chorus of “woo” filled the
air.

Hot blushes of embarrassment roared up Robyn’s neck and
spread over her face. It was suddenly too warm in here.

“
Your clothes will be dry soon, love,” Eleanor said. “Then you
can give Marion his tunic back.”

E
arlier, she’d nearly died of cold. Now she might die of
red-hot embarrassment as every gaze fell upon her. Marion had seen
her as good as naked and now everyone knew she was wearing his
clothes.

But it had been an emergency, hadn’t it? It wasn’t as if she’d
had a choice about taking her drenched clothes off.

Far too many eyes were looking at her, leaping to conclusions.
Or maybe they simply knew where this was all leading and she was
the one protesting too much?

Whatever the case, Marion deserved her thanks. She’d been half
frozen to death and he’d known exactly what to do. Who cared if
everyone was watching? Madge and Wilfred didn’t care who saw their
affection.

“
Thank you,” Robyn gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. It
didn’t feel like enough so she pulled back and added, “For
everything.”

His voice low, Marion said, “I was so worried.”

Ellen said in a too-loud voice, “Best take these scraps
out. We’ll use the shells and heads as bait for the next
lot.”

Some shuffling nearby and movement in the side of her
vision told Robyn they’d get some privacy.

Some much-needed privacy.

Ears flapping for the sound of everyone leaving them alone,
she heard Georgia say, “The soup was amazing.”

To which Ellen then said, “I won’t lie to you, it’s even
better with a dollop of cream in it.”

At which point Robyn cursed.

“
What?” Marion was all confusion.

“
That Ellen. She’s got them all eating out the palm of her
hand.”

Marion shrugged. “Yesterday you were complaining that she was
one more mouth to feed. Now she’s proved how useful she is you
don’t like her again?”

Robyn folded her arms across her chest. “Come on, ‘cream’?
That’s no accident. She knows mother wants to get Bella
back.”

Silence for a short while, then Marion tilted her face back to
him. “Why are we talking when we could be kissing?”

Wait, what? Kissing?

Marion leaned in and planted a kiss straight onto her mouth.
Robyn’s eyebrows shot up so high they nearly flew off her face. The
pressure of his lips on hers was simply divine. Firm but yielding,
warm and wonderful and a little bit thrilling.

Make that a lot thrilling.

“
I was so worried about you,” he said as he pulled
back.

Her tightly held arms unfurled themselves. Strange new
feelings took hold. She knew she needed to examine them a little
more. Perhaps a lot more. “What was that?”

“
One of these.” He kissed her again. The second kiss was just
as bold as the first, their lips fitting together, the whispery
whiskers of his top lip skating over her skin.

So shocked by this rapid change in developments, Robyn let
Marion take charge. But only for a moment, only until she worked
out the right kind of response. Which was to kiss him back just as
firmly as he had kissed her. Except soon after starting what should
have been an exploration . . . it felt more like
capitulation.

In panic, she pulled back, her breath coming in short
bursts of shock. Marion looked so . . . so different all of a
sudden. An unchecked smile spread over his face. Half expecting to
hear something self-congratulatory like, “That shut you up,” the
shocks kept coming when Marion grinned and said, “That was
awesome!”

Mesmerized, Robyn touched her fingers to her lips,
wondering if this were really happening. The dark centres of
Marion’s eyes grew large, even though it wasn’t anytime near
dusk.

This kissing thing. Was it always so . . . magnificent?
Curiosity got the better of her and she leaned in for another shot
at it. Instinct guided her hand to anchor itself on his shoulder as
their lips came together. She felt his strong muscles bunch under
her hand, through his thin undershirt. How good would it feel to
touch his bare skin? On its own volition her palm moved northwards
to caress his neck and hold him to her. When her fingertips came
across a pulse point, she found his heart beating almost as fast as
her own.

In response, his arms closed around her waist, locking their
bodies together, their chests pressing closer with each shaky
intake of breath.

Something flipped in her tummy. Something tentative and unsure
of itself. Something that would take a serious amount of kissing to
fully investigate. Robyn applied herself to the investigation. She
was nothing if not thorough.

Mother Eleanor’s voice rang through the air. “I’ll just go and
check to see if Robyn’s clothes are dry.”

Reluctantly, Robyn pulled away just as her mother walked
in. The woman was humming far too loudly, pretending she had no
idea what had been going on in here. “Wasn’t that meal delicious
Robyn?” Eleanor asked.

“
Yes it was.”

Robyn and Marion’s foreheads were still touching.

“
It might be nice to have it with a little cream. Oh good, this
is nearly dry. Perhaps only a few more minutes and it will be done.
I have Joan fetching more wood for the fire.”

The whole time she spoke, Eleanor didn’t make eye contact.
Then she left the round house and called out to Joan to collect
more wood.

Robyn couldn’t shut off the nagging voice of warning in her
head. “I don’t trust Ellen. Even if we managed to get cream, next
time it will be something that needs a little butter. After that it
will be milk. Before you know it we’ll be heading straight into
Sheffield to liberate the cow.”

A heavy sigh from Marion. “Straight into a trap,
yeah?”

“
Yeah.”

Her rubbed her back
. “You’re so smart, that’s why–” he suddenly
coughed, spluttered and pulled back, covering his face. “–Damn
smoky fire.” More spluttering.

The fire belched smoke, so they shuffled away from the fire.
The break in the kissing brought reality intruding back.

“
Joan’s right, you know,” Robyn said.

“
About?”

“
About the fact we need to be ready, at all times. Roger could
be back any time. People could be travelling the Kings Road north
and south and see us. Other outlaws could raid our
camp.”

“
As long as getting ready doesn’t involve freezing to death,”
he stroked her face. “I was so worried about you.”

“
Thank you for unfreezing me,” She kissed him again and gave
him the best hug she could manage in her exhausted
state.

Marion held Robyn’s hand to steady her as they ventured
out. The rain had slowed to swirling drizzle. Joan and Georgia were
teaching Wilfred and Madge how to fight with long staffs. This
time, they were doing it on muddy ground instead of balancing on a
tree trunk over a freezing river.

Near
that same river were Ellen and Eleanor, weaving thin
branches into a basket shape. “Oh, hello Robyn. You’re mother’s an
excellent weaver. We’re making crayfish pots for the next
catch.”

Their fingers deftly wove the soft twigs around and around,
creating a wide-bottomed basket.

“
Won’t they get out?” Robyn asked.

Ellen grinned. “If we left them like this, they surely
would. But look, this is the shape we’re going to make them into,”
she said, pointing to some scratches in the mud. Ellen had drawn a
bowl with high sides that tapered inwards at the neck, much like a
flagon for storing wine. “Some farmers I used to know showed me how
to do this. Because of their armour, crayfish can only bend
forward, you see, they can’t bend their shells back the other way.
So they can crawl or swim in, but they can’t crawl out again. All
we do is set the trap and come back later to see how many we
have.”

The whole time Marion said nothing, but Robyn had a fair idea
of what he was thinking. Ellen was making herself useful. Very
useful. And she was being so friendly about it. How could they
think badly of her when she was being so nice to them?

And cooking the most delicious food they’d ever
had.

Trouble was, the longer Ellen stayed with them, the more she’d
become an integral part of the group. The more everyone would rely
on her skills. The harder it would be to know whether they could
really trust her or not.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Ignoring the fact they had become outlaws and that Roger–if
not Lady Maudlin–would come hunting for them any day now, Robyn
looked around their camp and felt a strange sense of comfort with
her new life.

Possibly even acceptance.

Since they’d set up camp, Marion had hacked a hole through the
top of the round house roof, to act as a chimney and suck the smoke
away. He knew what he was doing with fire, that lad.

More than a few times Robyn caught herself watching him work,
watching the way his muscles flexed and his skin glowed with
perspiration. The way the light drizzle of rain coated his skin to
gleaming.