Scarlet (10 page)

Authors: A.C. Gaughen

BOOK: Scarlet

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I got back to the cave and halted as I saw Much and John talking to each other. They stopped and turned to me. Much looked confused, and John stepped forward. “Wait . . . Scar?”

My mug got hot. “Stop gawping, John. Let me pass. ”

“I’ll tell you one thing, Scar— Miss Percy wouldn’t be after you in that getup. ”

I scowled at him.

“Where’d you get that dress? And when’d you start fi lling it out?” John asked, following me into the cave.

“Bugger off , ” I told him.

He didn’t; he kept coming closer. “You look good in a dress. ”

“Go, John. ”

He grinned at me and turned, going back out to the front of the cave. I didn’t like his eyes on me like that. I changed quick as I could, sliding the dress back into my hiding place and going out front to the lads. I sat on the ground and tucked my legs up.

“I could get used to you in a dress, ” John told me.

“Don’t. ”

“You looked nice, ” Much told me.

“Thanks, Much, ” I said, even though I didn’t really want him thinking I looked any which way. Better him than John, though.

“So where were you going in a dress? Meeting someone?”

John asked.

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“Leave off , John, ” I said, scowling.

“Can’t. Who were you meeting?”

I stared at him.

“Fine, maybe I’ll guess. Secret love? Lad from one of the villages?” He studied me, then shook his head. “Are you running something? Show ’em some chest and they’ll let you get away with anything, I’ll bet. ”

I snorted. “Please. If it were so easy, I’d gussy up every day. ”

“Trust me, I think you’re not putting enough faith in how you look in skirts. Now, who do you think Scar would actually want knowing she was a girl?” John asked Much. I looked away. “This is why we near get pinched; you lot pay too much attention to the wrong things. ”

“Like what?” Rob asked, coming down over the ridge above the mouth of the cave.

“Scar was in a dress, ” John reported.

“Looked pretty, too, ” Much added.

Rob didn’t look at me. “She’s right— there are more important things to discuss. ”

We all looked at him.

“Someone told Gisbourne we camp at Major Oak. ”

“Who?” John growled, stepping forward.

“Hey, ” I interrupted. “Settle back. If someone sung, then I reckon they had real good reason. ”

He shot me a look.

“She’s right, John. I’m worried that whoever it is, Gisbourne has some heavy leverage on him. Or her. ” He sighed. “It also 212-47765_ch01_1P.indd 92

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means that we can’t put that burden on the people. If no one knows where we are, how we work, Gisbourne can’t torture anyone to get to it. ”

“He can torture anyone, knowing or not, ” I said.

“Well, we can’t risk it either. We can’t help the people if we’re dead. ” He rubbed the narrow bit of his nose. “Much, you go into town today and talk. Take John with you. I’ll go with Scarlet. We need to fi nd out who told and if they’re all right. Meet up at nightfall at Tuck’s. ”

John held out a hand to help me up. I looked at it but stood on my own. He frowned.

“You two cover Worksop; we’ll go to Edwinstowe, ” Rob said. We all nodded. The lads set off , and Robin started walking in the opposite direction.

“You know who told, don’t you?” I asked him as we went. He nodded. “I knew John would react like that, but I wanted you to come with me. ”

“Why? Who is it?”

“Edward Marshal. ”

That weren’t good. Edward Marshal were the marshal for Edwinstowe, a position that came with some land and money and reported to the sheriff . Edward himself had always been an ambitious man, but folk made sure they didn’t tell him nothing. I also reckoned Lady Thoresby were in the habit of protecting us, for she talked fair often to Marshal and whenever he had some misinformation that I couldn’t account for, she’d been to see him fair recent. There weren’t too much she 212-47765_ch01_1P.indd 93

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could do as the wife of a weak lord, but I liked to think she tried best she could. Anyways, for someone to tell Marshal something meant less helpless motives. He wouldn’t torture no one, so that left a volunteer.

“What do you need me for?”

“He’s clever; I need you to cover me with those knives. ”

I looked at my hand, still a little swollen. My aim were just a lick off , but we’d be in close quarters. I nodded to Rob. He were silent for a long stretch, and I didn’t speak, crunching leaves as we walked.

“About John, ” he said at long last.

I blinked.

“I don’t want to know how you two are fooling about, but if it interferes with the band I’ll kick you out myself. ”

The breath stopped in my pipes. “What?”

“I won’t repeat myself. And I don’t want to talk about it more than that. ”

“But—”

“I’m not joking, Scar. I don’t want to know. ”

I snapped my yap closed. Fooling about? Did he think I were John’s bit of fun for the day? My belly twisted and I didn’t like the feeling. Worse, were that what John thought? It weren’t like we ever snuck kisses or nothing like that. I never even got an inkling that he might like to kiss me, and I certain didn’t want to kiss him. I didn’t think. He weren’t bad looking or nothing, but he were in my band. I fought with him; I watched him gut deer. Most days I wanted to smack him more than anything tender. 212-47765_ch01_1P.indd 94

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And he weren’t Rob. But then, maybe that weren’t such an awful thing. Rob’s sort I could never deserve. Rob didn’t speak the rest of the way, and thoughts of John and Rob kept wheeling over in my head.

I sat in the window, spinning a knife on my fi nger while we waited for Edward to enter his bedchamber. He wouldn’t have a guard or company of the male sort in there, so we waited for him to appear, knowing we could hold him back. We didn’t have to wait long. He came in and shut the door before turning with a start. “Robin Hood?” he asked.

“I heard you’ve been singing Gisbourne a song, Edward, ”

Rob said, his eyes black.

“Oh Christ and the saints, ” Edward swore. “Of course I told the thief taker. Why shouldn’t I? Quicker I’m rid of you lot, the better. ”

“There are a few reasons, ” Rob said, nodding toward my knives.

“What, a whip of a lad and a few pin sticks?”

I smiled at that, and Rob chuckled. “You don’t want to know what those pin sticks can do. ”

“Well, you ain’t going to kill me, and you ain’t going to hurt me, and I ain’t going to stop telling the thief taker or the sheriff what I hear. So what do we do now?”

“We don’t want you, Edward. You’re a fool if there ever was one. But you didn’t know where we live, so who told you?” Rob asked.

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“Informin’ on the in for mant, eh? That’s the game today?”

“Just tell us the name. You shouldn’t be shy to reveal your source. ”

“Can’t imagine what you want with him. You ain’t going to kill him neither. And if I don’t tell you, he’ll keep on keeping me on— isn’t that right?”

“Rob’s got more principles than me, ” I reminded. “Me, I know that you pay taxes like the rest of us, and I know where you keep your collection money. What would your sheriff do if you couldn’t pay?” I shrugged. “I like shiny things like that, but the sheriff likes softer bits. Like your wife, or your little son. ”

He looked more worried. “You wouldn’t never hurt my wife or son. ”

“Wife and son, no, no. I told you, I like shiny bits. ”

He grimaced. “Everyone says you lot are so honorable. ”

Rob shrugged. “Can’t hold a thief accountable. ”

“It was Godfrey Mason what told me. ”

Robin’s face went white like someone stole his blood, and I stood up.

“You’re lyin’, ” I said.

“ ’Fraid not. The sheriff is awful insistent that we should help this thief taker, and once the sheriff sends me up, Godfrey wants my seat. Thought to grace his way in. ”

I shook my head. “Sheriff ’s not sending you nowhere, Marshal, ” I told him.

“Is so. Promised me Constable of the Royal Horses in Nottingham. ”

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“That station’s fi lled, ” Rob told him.

“Things shake up round here fast, Hood. It’ll shake up and we’ll shake you right out. ”

Rob frowned. “Not likely. Will, let’s go. ”

Rob looked toward me and I saw Marshal go for his belt dagger. I pushed forward in front of Rob. “Settle back there, Marshal, ” I told him, putting two daggers on him. He sighed and moved backward, holding his hands away from his belt. Rob went out the window, and I backed my way over to it, tipping my hat to Marshal and hopping out the window.

His house had two levels, so we went across the lower roof and then jumped off the end of it, walking farther into town. Rob put his hood up. “I can’t believe it were Godfrey. ”

“Honestly. ”

“I doubt Ravenna knows. ”

“She’s his twin; how could she not know?”

His jaw worked. “God knows you can be right beside them day in and day out, and sometimes you don’t know those closest to you at all. ”

“Should we talk to him?”

Rob’s face were all kinds of sad, but he shook his head.

“No. Let’s get to Tuck’s. ”

“We need to make a stop fi rst, ” I told him. He just nodded, following behind me.

I went almost clear to the other side of Edwinstowe, knocking on the door of a small house. A tall man that almost had 212-47765_ch01_1P.indd 97

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to hunch over a bit greeted me and smiled. “Scarlet— and Robin Hood!” he realized, bursting into a big grin. Rob looked at me. “Scarlet?” he asked quietly. “Not Will?”

I shrugged at Rob and smiled back to the big lug. “Hullo, George, ” I greeted. I produced a small ewer of milk that I nicked from Marshal’s dairy. George took it and picked me up and hugged me like a bear, setting me down inside the house. He greeted Robin, but I went in and went over to Mary, who struggled to sit up. I put my arm on hers, stopping her, and kissed her cheek.

“You look right as rain, ” I told her.

She smiled. “Almost, ” she told me. “We’ve both been a little weak. ”

The bundle in her lap started squirming and began to keen, and I picked up their newborn son, curling him in my arms. He looked up at me and stopped fussing.

“Look what she brought, ” George said, pouring some milk into a cup. Mary drank and then held it out to me.

“Rob, ” I said. “Dip your fi ngers in the milk and give it to the baby. ” I looked up at him as he did what I said. He were focusing hard, but the sadness in his face were gone. I smiled.

“What’s his name?” Robin asked as the baby started to drink the little drips of milk.

Tears sprung into Mary’s eyes. “Scarlet didn’t tell you?”

He shook his head.

“We named him Robin. He’s given us hope, the same way you have. ”

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“Hope, ” Rob repeated, touching the baby’s cheek with his fi ngertip. “I’m sorry if it’s been in short supply lately. ”

Mary’s lip trembled, and tears darted down her cheeks.

“Oh Robin,

” she whispered. “We’d have nothing left if it weren’t for what you do for us. If giving him your name means our son will have just a bit of your courage and heart, I’d be the proudest mother there was. ”

To my surprise, Robin looked to me, his eyes bigger and bluer. “You knew? About the name?”

I shrugged. “Thought it might buck you up. ”

He smiled, a big, generous, hero smile. I held the baby up and Robin took him, holding him against his chest.

“Scarlet near saved his life, ” Mary told Robin, wiping her eyes.

“Did she?”

“A week and a bit ago. The birth was hard, and I was crying out, ” Mary said soft. George nodded. “Scarlet wanted to help, but I wouldn’t let her in; no one told me he was a girl, after all. Her. She, whatnot. And she climbed into the window instead. ”

“She told me right away the boy was twisted, and she went and got Lady Thoresby. I never even knew the lady was a midwife. ”

I were blushing hot, and I couldn’t even fuss with the baby. Honestly, I didn’t bring Rob here so he could hear them fawning me. He were holding on to the lad like he were gold bars, though, so I reckoned my plan worked.

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“She’s resourceful like that, ” Rob said with a chuckle. The baby squirmed and twisted against his neck, and he beamed. Something in my belly fl ipped over a little bit, seeing him hold the baby.

“I’ll try and get you some eggs tomorrow, Mary, ” I told her.

“We’re all right, Scarlet. You don’t need to dote. We just fi nished the harvest, and we’ll take it to market tomorrow. ”

Rob looked to George. “How much did the sheriff collect?”

He sighed. “Near half. We’re still better than most, though. ”

Rob nodded. “We’ll help as best we can. Can’t let my namesake go hungry. ”

Mary rubbed my arm. “We thank God for your help. We all do. ”

A bit of the shadow came back over Rob at that, and I knew he were thinking of Godfrey. He dipped his fi ngers in the milk again, though, continuing to feed the baby.

“You warm enough?” I asked Mary.

She nodded, and I tucked her feet into the blankets; I could feel how cold they were through her stockings.

“He’s a handsome lad, ” Rob said, holding the baby out to look at him.

“Takes after his father, ” I told George, and he puff ed his chest up.

Mary laughed. “He thinks far too well of himself after you come, Scarlet. ”

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