“We always knew it was risky, Robin. There were too many moveable parts for this plan to be foolproof.”
“And I’m a damned fool,” he growled.
I had to admit, a huge part of me agreed with him. We had a plan but none of us had trusted it because we were banking on the sheriff’s ego and stupidity. Turns out the man in control of Nottingham was not an idiot.
We wove through one of the smaller market squares, some of the people beginning to run to the keep because of the calls to do with the fire. If the keep really caught hold it placed the entire city at risk. When we reached the tanners’ yards they were clear of people.
My eyes searched for Guy’s white hair and the moment I saw him, propped against the low wall of a rendering pit, the knot of pain in my heart eased. My brother was next on my list and he stood with Marion. I ran to Guy and dropped to my knees, the others stood away from him and no one had dressed the wound in his shoulder. The bolt remained where it had struck and blood stained his clothes, falling freely down his arm and chest. His eyes were closed and his breathing laboured, but he lived.
I heard Robin arguing with the others but I tuned them out. “Guy?” I touched his pale cheek, splattered with blood but this wouldn’t be his, it would be his enemies’. His eyes fluttered open.
“Will?” A trembling hand reached for me and I caught up to bring it to my lips. “Are you hurt?” he asked.
I stroked his cheek. “No, why would I be hurt when I have you and Robin to defend me?”
Guy’s eyes filled with tears. “We failed.”
“A setback, nothing more,” I whispered.
“You have to run, leave me here. They will track you; leave me and I can delay them.”
I chuckled. “Of course, that’s the plan. Leave my heart in Nottingham while the rest of me goes with Robin – you are a foolish man, sweetheart.”
Tears rose in Guy’s eyes the moment the soft word of love left my lips and I heard Robin grunt, I’d never used such an endearment for him.
Guy shifted trying to drive his point home, trying to push aside our commitment to each other. “It’s the only way. You must leave me.”
“Nonsense.”
I glanced over my shoulder at Robin who watched us. He nodded once and faced his sister. “You are under John and Tuck’s care, Marion. I want you all to leave Nottingham. Split up as much as possible, filter out of the city through different gates. Ditch your weapons, blend with the crowds, and get rid of your clothing if you can.”
I realised Much and John had shed their armour and I began to do the same but Guy’s hand stopped me. “Not you,” he said.
Robin continued. “Head for the escarpment as planned but then scatter, if he knows Guy is working with us he and Will may have been followed. Go south towards Huntingdon and replenish then loop towards the sea. If necessary, if you are still hunted or fear you are, head for France.”
“They can go to my lands,” Guy said, his breathing and voice shallow.
Robin began to explain to Marion where Guy’s family estate existed in Brittany. Guy squeezed my fingers to bring my attention back to him. “Take the ring off my finger, Will. Give it to Marion so she has safe passage and my family know I have sent her. There is a purse of gold on my belt, give them half.”
“I can’t leave you,” Marion said. “I’ve only just found you.”
Robin cupped his sister’s face in his hands. “You have no choice, Marion. I will see you again but we have struck a hornets’ nest and I fear the consequences. I need to know you are safe and I think there’s something you’ve been keeping from us all that means you have to be out of the fight.”
I frowned in confusion even as Marion’s skin flushed. “How did you know?”
“I heard you being sick and Tuck’s care of you has been even more extreme than normal.”
I glanced at my brother.
“Shut your mouth, Will, you look like a fool,” Tuck said.
“You’re pregnant?” I asked.
“Well, I’m not,” he said. “But Marion is and yes, it’s mine before anyone asks.” He placed a hand on her belly and smiled into her eyes. “We are going to be a family.”
“Give them all the gold,” Guy said. “They’ll need it for safe passage.”
I took the ring off his finger, a family crest embedded in the red glass and handed it to Marion along with the money.
“You need a healer,” Eva said, “I’ll stay.”
“No, my sister will need you.” Robin moved to separate himself from them and to join me with Guy.
Marion looked at Guy for a long time. “You are choosing to stay with him?”
I watched Robin and his sister stare at each other for a long time and something shifted in Marion, her clear blue eyes closed down, and the door to her strong heart closed on her brother. “Fine,” she said with regal grace.
Robin’s eyes filled with sadness and pity but he turned away. “Stay safe.”
I looked at Tuck. “You’re going to stay with him?” he asked, half a question, half a statement.
I nodded. Since the day I had bought him from the monks we had not been separated for more than a night or two and now we might never see each other again. I rose and we embraced. I buried my nose in his soft hair and drew in a breath that never failed to settle my heart when it smelt of my brother. A scent of parchment, quiet places, soft wishes and dreams.
“I’ll miss you,” I whispered.
“And I you, brother.”
“Look after our family.”
“Come and find us,” he said.
The sound of men and hounds filtered through the city streets to disturb our farewell. “You should come with us, Robin,” John tried again.
Robin shook his head. “Guy will not make it if we do and I’ll not leave him for the sheriff to find. I owe him my life and it is a debt I am more than willing to pay.”
John nodded and offered his arm in brotherhood. They shook and began organising themselves even as they moved away. I watched Alan and the two women exit the yard through one archway, while John, Much, Tuck and Marion went another. Tuck looked back at me once, gave a nod of his head and left me alone.
34
A MOMENT OF PANIC swept through me, what if they were caught? The thought of Tuck’s head on a spear over the city gates made me whimper.
“They’ll make it, Will,” Guy said from the ground.
“How do we know?” I whispered. “And if you say, trust in God, I’ll kick you.” I returned to him and knelt by his side.
A small smile softened the pain in his face. “I wouldn’t dare. But I know something of Marion and I’ve seen her at work. She’ll get them out. That woman is more of a warrior than her brother.” He glanced at Robin who also knelt beside our broken companion.
“You might be right,” Robin said. “Come on, we need to get you up. Why did you have to throw yourself in front of that damned bolt?”
“It was you or me and I figured Will needed you more,” Guy said. He bit back a cry and grunted instead. “Besides, you’re hurt as well.”
“He is?” I asked, alarm turning my legs to jellied eels.
Robin huffed in irritation. “It’s nothing, Guy, don’t wind Will up I need him to help you.” He spoke to me, “Now, let’s get this damned fool off the ground.”
Guy almost screamed when Robin lifted him by his good arm and I watched in horror as a gout of blood seeped from his shoulder. We flung my cloak over his back to hide the worst of the blood and covered his stained white hair. The helplessness surging through me brought tears to my eyes. What fucking use was I, a minstrel, when faced with two bleeding knights to care for? What insanity had brought us to this place?
I picked up the discarded swords and trotted after Robin who dragged Guy through the streets of Nottingham. “We need to go somewhere safe,” Robin panted.
Guy found his footing and tried to remove some of his weight from Robin’s shoulders. “The Rising Sun, no one
knew I went there to see Will. Can we trust your family, Will?”
The thought of endangering Bess and Malcom swirled inside me with the need to feel safe. I really needed to feel safe. To stop and think.
“I don’t think we have a choice,” I said. “I don’t like it but it’s somewhere we can see to Guy’s shoulder.”
Robin slowed, then stopped. “Then that’s the plan. You go to the Rising Sun.” He removed Guy’s arm and leaned him against a wall in a narrow alley. “Will, I need you to do something for me.”
“Anything, you know that.” I stared at him, confusion now mixing with the fear coursing through every fibre of my being. I’d spent months having a blasé attitude to death but now he stood at my shoulder, ready to tighten the damned noose I could feel around my throat. I found it hard to breathe, harder to swallow and darkness threatened to render me even more useless.
“I need you to take care of Guy.” Robin’s eyes were not on me, they scanned our surroundings which were quiet for the moment, except for the rain. The rain that began to fall in earnest.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“He’s leaving us,” Guy whispered.
A small sound of pain oozed out of me. Robin’s eyes snapped to mine and he grasped my arms. “Will, don’t, don’t crumble. I have my reasons. At the very least I can lead them away.”
“You’re bleeding,” I said. The drift of red on his left side did not belong to Guy as I thought, but to Robin, he had been hurt.
Robin shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. I need you to take Guy and keep him alive and safe. I need you to listen to him and do as he says because he knows how to get you out of the city safely. I need you both to stay alive.” His fingers were tight on my arms, digging into the slim muscles and his blue eyes were sharp, alive, desperate but full of something I didn’t recognise easily – the joy of the hunt, maybe?
I realised with a sickening lump lodged behind the imagined noose in my throat, Robin lived for this, for the danger. “You are leaving us.”
“I have no choice, Will. I have to go to France and I can’t be slowed down by you or the others. I’ll go north, take as many of the sheriff’s men with me as possible but I have to leave now or I won’t make it. You get to the Rising Sun. Get help and run when you can.” His words rushed over themselves and his eyes were fever bright.
“I don’t understand, why do you need to go to France so badly? Why would you leave us?”
Guy pushed himself off the wall, leaving a red smear against the white wattle and daub surface. “You son of a bitch.”
Robin looked at Guy. “I’m sorry.”
“You fucking…” Guy broke off only to curse in a language I’d never heard.
Tears began to fall over my cheeks. “What’s happening?” The last time I’d felt this sense of panic I’d been at my father’s mercy as he’d dragged me to the ground before raping me.
“Guy, please, I need you to understand –”
When Guy looked at Robin I saw nothing but naked fury. “How could you do this to them? To Will? You fucking bastard. They trusted you.”
“But you didn’t.”
Guy managed a broken bark of laughter. “I will never trust you, Robert Loxley.”
Robin flinched. “Protect him.”
“You know I have sworn to do that and made myself an outlaw in the process. You really are determined to see me dead aren’t you? Destroyed and dead, I am a dead man walking. You…” he broke off and turned away from us, heaving in breaths so deep it must have been agony on his shoulder.
“Robin?” my voice sounded so small and lost.
He lifted one of his large hands and cupped my face. “I was never supposed to love again, Will. That wasn’t part of the deal.”
“You love me?”
Guy spun around and knocked Robin’s hand from my face. “No! No, you don’t get to hurt him like that. All he wants from you are those words and you don’t mean them, you will never mean them the way he needs to hear them. You have no compassion. Not for him, not for me. You gave it all to Ghaalib and that’s where it stayed, in the fucking desert. I see you, Robert Loxley, even if the others cannot.”
Robin sighed and stepped back before drawing himself up to his full height and breadth. “What I told the sheriff was true. I have spoken with the Pope. I have been to the French court and I work for Philip of France and his son, Louis.”
A strong arm around my waist stopped me from dropping to the ground and I leaned back into Guy. “What?” a barely there sound.
“When I left Palestine I needed… I needed peace in my soul. I needed some kind of understanding. Why had I been spared when Ghaalib had died? Why had I loved a man? What was right, the Christian way or Islam? What was my life worth? So, I found my steps turned towards Rome and when I reached the Holy City I gained audience with the Pope. I told him everything and Innocent listened to me, he actually listened. He told me my mission was not complete. He would not lift the excommunication on my soul until it is complete. I stand to lose my soul if I fail, Will. King John needed stopping, Philip needed help and the Church would forgive me, welcome me back, welcome me home if I could do Philip’s bidding and save England. Save all the souls lost in this world. My duty became the Pope’s words, he forgave my love of Ghaalib so long as I never loved another man it could all be forgiven…”
I swallowed the lump, a sour taste of betrayal in my mouth, all shit and piss. “So you decided to do it, you decided to give up everything and become a puppet for them? A spy? You don’t believe in God or His Salvation.”
“I had to do something with my life, I had to give my suffering meaning, and if not this then what? And I never said I didn’t believe in His Salvation. I simply don’t believe in religion, but the Pope... Innocent is the mouthpiece of God, I do know that. When I went to Philip with letters from Innocent, he welcomed me into the court, gave me that meaning and sent me to Nottingham. I was to scout for him, then go north to connect with the rising tide of rebellion there and when the time came, I could encourage the barons to move against the sheriff, then the king, and Louis would come from the south. We could close down England’s defences and place Prince Louis on the throne. You know he would be a better man than John. There would be peace in vast areas of Europe and we could see to the stabilisation of everything.”
“All well and good but what happened?” Guy asked.
“I met two young men who wanted to change the world,” Robin said looking at me. “With more courage than I’d ever seen in all my travels. I fell –”
“Don’t,” I shouted. “I don’t want to hear it. You don’t mean it. You used us. You needed to act. You needed to make the barons rise up…”
“I needed to defeat Marc and I thought using you, my sister, and the others, would lead to victory and there would be little bloodshed. Then I could get the barons south without destroying England’s heartlands in the process. I want peace, Will.”
“And what about me? What about us? You made me believe in you.” I swiped at the tears and snot on my face, too furious with him to stop them falling.
“I never wanted to lie to you and I didn’t mean to hurt you –”
“But you did!” I almost screamed in return. “Why did you fight me that first time? Why so angry about being discovered as Robert Loxley all those months ago?”
Robin studied me for a moment before answering. “Because I wanted to be Robin, for you, I wanted to hide my identity and Robert Loxley is not supposed to fall in love with a man but you…” He lifted his eyes to the heavens. “You the Pope himself could love. I am a weak man and the rage hit me before I could control it, then you were in the fire. Robert Loxley is not a good man.”
“He’s a fucking bastard,” I yelled from Guy’s embrace.
“I’m so sorry. Now you know everything and I have to leave. I have to return to France and help them plan for the future. I am a lord, Will, which is something you can never understand…”
That betrayal hurt more than any other he’d spouted over the last few minutes. I turned into Guy’s body and sobbed.
“Run, brother, before Will regains his senses and comes for you,” Guy murmured over my shoulder. “I’ll keep him safe.”
“Do you at least understand, Guy?”
I felt Guy’s head shake. “How can I, Robert? How can I understand betraying a man like Will? I can’t, I shall never leave him, I just hope he survives what you have done. You should be ashamed.”
I heard a grunt of pain behind me but I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t look at the body of my Robin and see Robert Loxley looking out of his beautiful eyes. Movement behind me made me twist my head enough to see the entrance of the alley and I watched the dark of Robert Loxley’s thick cloak and hooded head vanish around a corner.
The baying of dogs rushed into the silence we’d created around us and the chaos of a city faced with fire in the keep, intruded on our sad bubble.
“We need to move, Will,” Guy whispered against my hair. “I cannot stand much longer and you are not strong enough to carry me.”
I nodded. I shrugged under his good arm and acted as a crutch while we stumbled through the wet streets to the Rising Sun. I didn’t know a man could weigh so much as we fought against the mud and slurry of the back streets. We also had to dodge the fast moving guards on horses heading to the city gates. Dread filled me with fear for Tuck and Marion as I watched them race to the city gates. Could the others escape to the forest in time? I pushed the barrage of terror aside because we were being drowned by the rain increasing its tempo so much we could not see the end of the streets we navigated. At least the rain would help stop the fire and there was little wind. It would also cover the spoor left by our escape.
When I saw the bright sign over the doorway I almost collapsed in the street. Guy’s weight was now almost too much to take, his consciousness dipping and shifting.
For a moment I thought my eyes were lying to me but no, the small round figure of a woman I loved like a mother rushed towards us. “Will? Oh, my God, Will.”
Men of Sherwood (A Rogue's Tale Book 1) Page 29
