Lady Marian

Chapter 25

"Marian." My aunt choked back the words as she raised her chin. "So, you have come to this? A mighty fall indeed."

"It is in this that I may do good," I answered.

"Is it good to steal what may save my son? Your cousin? The King of England?"

"Are you trying to save your son or raise an army?"

My aunt shook her head, her fading blonde hair working its way out of her white silk wimple. "You do not understand, Marian. They are one and the same. I cannot trust the sheriff, that he will not take all this for himself."

I motioned for Robin to continue down the corridor. He in turn called to Little John and Will to follow him. My aunt, the queen mother, watched them scuttle down the corridor, making little move to stop them.

"I am not going to be a pawn in the game you and my father play."

"Do you not see, Marian, Robin is using you as his pawn now, making you join him in his dirty work?" A familiar icy tone had crept back into my aunt's voice.

"I make my own decisions. The poor will die this winter if we do not take them a little money to stave off their masters." I lowered my sword a very little.

Aunt Eleanor ignored my statement. "I heard a crash. I knew in my heart that you were here, with that Robin Hood. I should have stopped you when I saw the guards beaten on the floor."

"You will not stop us now, Aunt. If it is rescuing my cousin that you are truly after, and not conspiring to put John on the throne, then go to the treasury now. See that we have not taken it all. This little must go to save the poor through the winter. Do you not understand? My cousin will survive Austria, yes he will—he is a strong man, this you know—but without this the poor will not survive Gisbourne."

I gazed past my aunt. Little John and Will stood at an impasse on the tower steps. Robin stood behind them, watching our exchange with an ever-growing frown.

"I should have stopped you then. I should have had my guards cut them all down on the road that day." Aunt Eleanor took a step back from me. I watched more than heard her open her mouth and let out a shrill scream, "Robin Hood is here! Help! Robin Hood and the Merry Men and the Maid Marian!"

I lunged at my aunt, clapping my hand over her mouth as I knocked her against the wall. "You are mad, Aunt. When King Richard returns, you should be tried for treason."

Aunt Eleanor smirked. "You put too much stock in the future, Marian."

"I used to look up to you as a woman stronger than my mother could ever be." I pushed my misericord against the gold flecked lace clinging to her ivory throat.

She grinned. "And you think I should be tried for treason? By the grace of God, I am still a queen. I do what I have to do to save England."

I did not tarry any longer to reply. With the sound of guards charging up the stairwell, I bolted down the corridor after Robin. Little John and Will were already fumbling down the stairs in as much haste as they could muster with the moneyboxes in their arms. An iron bolted door below us opened, ushering in three guards. Robin let an arrow fly. Down went the first. I ducked my head as Robin fired once more from the steps above me, felling the second. Before he could nock the third arrow, the last man had turned and ran back the way he came. Little John and Will leapt over the fallen guards, strongboxes and all, following him.

Robin called after then in a half-whisper, "Slow down and send the guards our way if you must." He grabbed my wrist and led me careening down the remainder of the tower stairs.