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“And my name is Much, not Son. You said you were stout. I like that better.” Much shrugged. “Anyway. I take it he’s the reason I was caged.”
My lips pursed. A . . . bad boy? That’s a specific thing to call him. An alarming choice of words.
I wanted to learn more about this quick-talking, unafraid youngling. I assumed he wasn’t telling us everything. He had every right to keep his secrets. His life couldn’t have been easy, even before getting wrapped up in whatever Baron Mansfield had planned for him.
“Do you have any idea where they were taking you?” I asked from behind Tuck, Alan, and Will.
Much pushed through the three men, eyes widening. He was tall as me, yet I felt even I could snap him in half. “You have a lady in your gang?” he asked, awestruck.
Will ended his argument with Alan and grabbed Much by the collar, tossing him back behind the line of my men. Like hell he was going to let anyone else get too close to me after what had just transpired here.
Much didn’t seem offended at being pushed around by Will. He didn’t even notice, it seemed, since he continued staring at me like I was some sort of mythical creature.
“We do,” Tuck said, putting a hand on the lad’s shoulder. “She’s our leader, in fact.”
Much gawked. “Well now I’m definitely joining.”
All eyes swiveled to his dirty face.
“Wait. What?” I blurted.
“I’m sure you have need for a man of my talents,” Much said, crossing his arms brazenly, nodding. “Much the Miller’s Son has talent in excess. I’m more than just an expert pastry-thief, for instance.”
I smiled at him, shaking my head.
Will, unsurprisingly, killed the moment as he stepped up beside me. “We don’t take strays.”
Anger coiled in my belly like a viper ready to strike. “What was I when I first showed up?”
“A prisoner,” Will said.
“Same as him.”
Will grunted, scanning the road to see that the Merry Men were watching us, and then grabbed my arm to pull me aside.
I let him drag me along a few feet before shouldering his hand off me. “I don’t want you touching me right now, dammit.”
“Fine,” Will said, “be angry at me. You were leverage when you came to us, and you know it. You weren’t some miller’s servant boy worth nothing.”
“He’s not worth nothing! He’s worth as much as any one of us. That’s what I’ve been trying to show the band—that we need to revise how we think of people.”
Will shook his head. “This isn’t about the miller’s son, then, is it?” His voice came out harsh. “We tried it your way, Robin. It failed.”
He wants to get into this now? Fine. “Because you stabbed a man.”
“For striking you!” he yelled, throwing his arms up. When a few Merry Men glanced our way, his voice went to a hiss and he stepped into my space, lips inches from mine. “No one is allowed to harm you, girl. Little John decreed that. I’m abiding it.”
“Little John isn’t with us anymore.”
Will’s face sank. He looked away. “I still follow that rule. I can’t not follow it. I would have killed every man on this road if it meant protecting you.”
As much as his words warmed my cold heart, they still infuriated me, as if he thought I couldn’t protect myself. I wasn’t a damsel in distress. I needed him to know that. “Is that why you did it, then? For me?”
“Of course.” He looked confused. Struck.
“Are you sure it wasn’t because you can’t contain your inner rage?”
Now he looked a smidge embarrassed.
