Lady Marian

Chapter 14

Botched is the word they use to describe it, I believe. Sir Guy's ego on full display at the tournament. Robin's mad attempt to steal from the rich and give to the poor in broad daylight. Even my murder of Sir Eduard, for the surgeon cannot tell if it was my blade or Robin's arrow that killed him.

Regardless, I could be alone at last. The sheriff called it house arrest. I had been taken back to Arlingford, with Sarah, and placed under the guard of actual soldiers until Sir Guy could come and speak to me himself. Sir Eduard, it had come about, was my aunt's spy all along. They could not have an outlaw's lover roaming London. One must be sure of these things. And he was disposable.

I was not.

As Robin said, Sir Eduard was not a very good spy.

I was. In some backwards manner, I seemed to have proven my loyalty to Prince John.

Long live the king.

As for Robin, I was told that the combined forces of Nottingham and royal guards combed Sherwood Forest for him and the Merry Men, while Pan found himself back in his stall in the castle stable.

Sarah sat across from me at the small, circular table in front of my casements, alternating wringing her hands and wiping her face with her apron. Her incessant rocking was beginning to drive me mad.

"What are we to do? What are we to do?"

I raised an eyebrow. "We?"

Sarah left off rocking for one moment. "Yes, we, my lady. I have been party to clandestine meetings with outlaws. Do you think I do not know how you have snuck off on your horse to meet Lord Huntingdon? And now, my lady, this man they have sent is dead. Will they not think I have had something to do with it? I have sought nothing but to be an honest help to my lady. They will kill me!"

"They are not going to kill you." I traced the outline of a Scarlett poppy embroidered on the tablecloth.

"There are guards at this very door," Sarah croaked.

"They are here for me, not for you. Sir Guy will be here soon. He will make a show of questioning me because they suspect I am Robin's accomplice."

"They suspect rightly," Sarah retorted.

I ignored her remark. "I will tell him I feared for my life. I acted out of self-defence. I carried the blade for fear I might be accosted by Robin at any moment—had he not molested me once already at the banquet? When Sir Eduard grabbed me so, I was in fear of my life. I shall be acquitted. The only thing you need fear, Sarah, is if you will continue being my maid at Arlingford, or be usurped when I am carried off to London in a gilded carriage."

It was harsh, I knew, but it snapped Sarah out of her wallowing. She straightened her back and patted her eyes with her apron. "I have been your maid, my lady, since you was a wee thing. I will not give up my post to some pampered palace thing." She rose and set about unpacking my trunks.

A strong rap at the door immediately preceded a soldier opening it, making way for my father.

"The sheriff will see you now." With his dark chestnut robes and smirking face, Father appeared to be almost proud of me.

I rose, shaking out the folds of my yellow linen gown and squaring my shoulders. Father beckoned me to walk in front of him. His footsteps haunted me down the dimly lighted stairwell into the great hall—dwarfed in comparison to the great hall of Nottingham Castle—lit by a roaring fire and a single candle on the table. Sir Guy sat at its head. He gestured for me to take a seat at the corner. Father's footsteps receded into the antechamber.