AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Because I wanted to see my little sister. Is that so wrong?”
I spun at the voice, my heart leaping to my throat.
Robert stood with his hands on his hips, outside the flap of a tent in the center of camp. His face looked disheveled and grimy, like he’d just escaped Nottingham himself.
He probably had.
Tears burned my eyes instantly, even though I thought I had cried them dry. Seeing my brother’s face brought something out of me. He didn’t wield a weapon, and his dirty tunic was spotted with blood. Gone was the softness of the boy and young man I remembered, replaced by a hardness that made me sad.
His eyes, most of all, looked different than I recalled in my memory, when I used to speak to him like he was actually there. There was a hint of something I couldn’t put my finger on, like either rage or sadness. A mix of the two, perhaps.
Robert had always been a starry-eyed youth. He was pragmatic and obviously a keen fighter, or else he wouldn’t have joined King Richard and the royal army. He was kind and understanding, having taught me how to wield a bow even when it went against the wishes of our mother and father. Still, he had been a stern tutor—a serious taskmaster, because he knew the perils that awaited me if I continued the path of violence with bow, arrow, and sword.
“Robert . . .” I murmured.
Beside me, Little John stiffened. He looked from me to my brother, brow furrowing. “Sister?” he called out. “I thought your brother was . . .”
“Dead.” Robert nodded once and approached us. To Briggs he said, “You did well in Nottingham, brother. Go get yourself some food—Bess made something special for you guys. I’ll take it from here.”
Briggs saluted Robert. “Right, brother. Will do.” He and the other three turned and left for one of the nearby fire pits.
“Aye, Little John,” Robert said, taking the measure of my lover with a quick up-and-down glance. “I led people to believe that was the case for a time. My, but you are as massive as they say you are, eh?”
Anger swirled with frustration inside me at Robert’s lax tone. “Led people to believe” was one way to put it. I didn’t like this new haughty smirk of Robert’s, because it reminded me of . . . well, a face I recognized but a man I didn’t know. Not the caring sibling I knew as a younger girl.
“Robin,” John said, turning to me. He kept our bodies close, and I felt heat emanating off him in waves. “What is he talking about?”
“When you were taken at the archery tournament,” I explained, “men came after me. Oliver of Mickley? That was Robert. My brother. Returned from the dead.”
“You make it sound so dramatic, sister.”
My anger pulsed to new heights. I was this close to exploding on him, but I tried to keep my emotions in check because we were in a stranger’s camp.
Did he not understand that what he’d done was dramatic? And hurtful. And cruel. And . . .
I threw my arms out to gesture at the camp. “The Oak Boys—”
“Aye, I forgot to mention,” Briggs interjected from behind us, around a mouthful of food. “Your sister doesn’t much like the name you’ve given us.”
Robert frowned, scratching his cheek. “It’s a work in progress.”
“And it’s . . . yours?”
“Nay, not mine, Robin. We’re a commonwealth. A group of likeminded individuals. I’ve simply been chosen to lead the tactical operations.”
“You’re a community,” I breathed, with more than a little jealousy and yearning in my tone.
“Aye.” He smiled, and for a split second I recognized the young man I’d known. “Exactly.”
“What is your purpose?” Little John asked. “If you aren’t bandits—if you’re a ‘commonwealth,’ as you claim. Why did you band together with these people?”
“Same reason as the Merry Men, I wager. To give ourselves a chance against a tyrannical government. We’re stronger together. We live in relative peace out here . . . but make exceptions for special circumstances.”
“Like the executions today.”
“Aye, Little John. Two of the five men in that lineup were Oak Boys.”
I flared my nostrils. “Yet you allowed the citizens of Nottingham to believe the Merry Men were on that stage. You let us take the blame for outlawry in Nottinghamshire.”
