At least they’d given them all a solid thumping in their last encounter. That made Robyn feel marginally better.
Another masked helper brought out a three-legged stool for Robyn to stand on. Nice touch. It looked like a milking stool, the kind Mother Eleanor used when she milked Bella.
Fear churned her stomach. This was far too real now. She hoped and prayed to past and future saints that her mother was somewhere away from a window, somewhere where she wouldn’t see any of this.
Robyn gulped, trying to think her way clear. Any plan at all now would be welcome, but her mind remained desperately blank. She wasn’t going to die, she didn’t want to.
She couldn’t!
“Any last words?” Maudlin said as she stroked Rook, resting on her forearm. The little crow’s eyes were shiny black beads amongst the glossy feathers.
For a moment, nothing came to mind. Hardly surprising given how fast her heart whacked against her ribs, her palms perspired and her brain virtually spun inside her head.
No words came.
She couldn’t think of a plan, and her body had shut down so she couldn’t even put up a last-ditch fight.
“Wait,” she suddenly thought of something. “The Earl of Derby has to be here.”
“Did I not tell you?” Maudlin said with a calculated smile. “He sent his apologies. Terribly busy hanging more traitors in Nottingham.”
Guilt and fear twisted her gut. More traitors? “Like who?”
“Nobody you need concern yourself with,” Maudlin said as she turned to address the crowd milling about them. “We have before us a traitor to the King! She will be hanged, not merely for her terrible deeds, but to serve as a warming to all that treason and theft of property will never be tolerated.”
“Oh sure, you can steal from us but we can’t take it back, we have to come here and beg for scraps from the table!”
The crowd murmured.
Maudlin yelled, “Quiet!”
The crowd shut up.
Robyn didn’t care. “At least I got a hot bath out of it!”
The crowd laughed.
Emboldened by their response, Robyn said, “What’s more, I think your hangman could use one, he stinks!”
The crowd roared with laughter. The hangwoman–Robyn was sure it was a woman–sniffed the armpits of her tunic. The crowd laughed even more.
“Shut up, the lot of you!” Maudlin cried out. The jackdaw flapped to keep her balance. “One more peep and I’ll hang the lot of you!”
“Then who’ll do all your work?” Robyn grew reckless. It had to be the insane fear of imminent death making her behave like this. “You hardly do any work at all! All you do is eat all the food and take hot baths!”
Not exactly true, but at this stage of the game it didn’t matter.
Sure enough, the crowd laughed again. People began throwing rotten turnips and mouldy bread, not at Robyn but Maudlin.
Rook took wing and flew to a rooftop.
Something burned with clarity in Robyn’s mind. “You need us. That’s your weakness!” She cried out. “You treat people like dirt. Less than dirt. But your true weakness is that you need people. You can’t threaten us or make us do anything any more bec–”
A noose slipped around her neck. The hangwoman pulled it tight.
Maudlin turned on Robyn, but she kept her voice loud enough for the crowd to hear. “You’re right, of course. I cannot hang everyone. But I can hang you!”
The hangwoman–strong woman that she was–lifted Robyn bodily onto the stool. The crowd fell to silence.
Heart rattling against her ribs, Robyn’s breath came in short bursts. The hangwoman tightened the rope above her, making Robyn stand on tip-toes to ease the pressure. How much would this hurt when they kicked the stool out from underneath?
Oh please let this be swift.
Tears spritzed from her eyes as she searched the crowd for Marion. What a fool she’d been to never tell him she loved him. Now it was too late.
“I have something important to say!” She wheezed out. That rope sure was tight. “I go now to meet the almighty with a pure heart and a clear conscience, which is more than I can say for Maudlin, who is responsible for your suffering!”
Suddenly arrows flew through the air. Something tugged behind Robyn and her hands sprang free from their binding. The noose, however, remained firmly around her neck. She reached up to loosen it just as everything went mad.
Someone kicked the stool away.
Robyn braced herself for the pain, only to find her body falling hard on the gallows platform. Agony stole through her as she landed, nose first, into the ground. Her hands grabbed at the rope, loosening it enough to rip it over her head. She was free.
Sticky warmth spread over her face. She touched her aching nose to find it was covered in blood. The sharp pain made her eyes water and her ears ring.
But she was alive!
Mayhem filled the world as people shouted and ran in all directions. Suddenly, Marion was there in front of her, lifting her back to her feet.
“You took your time,” she said through the pain.
“No points for improvising?” He grinned and made her heart flip.
Relief, and the sheer joy of being alive crashed over Robyn. “I love you, you know.”
Marion winked at her and threw the noose away so it couldn’t be re-used. “Feeling’s mutual. But if you don’t mind, can we save the kissing for later? What with all this–” He made a circling motion with his hand around his nose.
“Yeah.” Urgh, her face must be mashed with blood. “I totally planned this: this is exactly what was supposed to happen.”
“And an excellent plan it was too,” Marion said. “Now, at the risk of getting my head bitten off, what’s next?”
“Easy,” Robyn grinned as if the battle were already won. “We high tail it back to the Shire Wood and live in peace with nature.”
“I like it.” Marion stepped away suddenly, pulled an arrow from his quiver and fired it into the air–the arrow flew straight into the wing of Rook the jackdaw, bringing her down. The bird would be maimed and possibly never fly again. “I totally meant to do that.”
Maudlin screamed and ran for Rook, kneeling to scoop her up from the ground. Squawks and screams clanged through the air.
“Or,” Marion said, aiming an arrow at Maudlin, but not setting it loose, “We could defeat Maudlin, shove her in the dungeons and stay in Sheffield until winter is over.”
Defenceless, Maudlin cradled the injured Rook in one arm and raised the other, palm outward in defeat.
Things became very still and quiet as people realized what was going on. Maudlin, their liege lord, was . . . capitulating?
Robyn wiped the blood from her face. It hurt just to touch her nose. There was so much blood she’d need to give the tunic a good wash in the cold stream later.
“Surrender!” Marion said.
Maudlin said nothing.
A battle cry sounded from across the bailey. It was Ellen leading Roger and his rag-tag men into the arena.
With fresh weapons.
“Don’t take your eyes off Maudlin,” Robyn warned Marion as she leapt into the fray. Beside her was Joan and Georgia, they had a spare longstaff so she could join in.
“You make a terrible hangman,” Robyn said as she stood beside Georgia.
Twack, biff, thump, dodge, parry, thrust.
“How did you know it was me?”
Bash, bang, oof!
“Because you can’t tie a knot to save your life.”
“I tied the knot badly so I could save your life,” Georgia said, then I yanked it loose at just the right time.”
“Fair point.”
Whack, whump.
“You two, pay attention, we have a fight on our hands.” Joan said.
Thump, thwack, biff, grunt!
It felt good to get all the aggro out, especially taking on Roger who had caused them so much trouble right from the start. Perhaps h
er father was doing something similar, battling in the Crusades right now. With a few more biffs and bashes, Joan, Georgia and Robyn had Roger and his gang moaning on the ground, begging for mercy.
“This is all your fault, Doncaster,” Robyn said. “If you hadn’t been so brutal when you came to collect the taxes in the first place, we would have paid up and stayed where we were in Loxley. But you had to get greedy.”
“I have a family too,” he said, holding his forearm over his face to deflect any more blows.
“You’re lucky I don’t like hitting someone when they’re already down,” Robyn said. “Justify it all you want, but all of this,” she waved her arm at the chaos around them, “is on your head.”
Some of Roger’s henchfolk got to their feet and dropped whatever they were using for weapons.
“We surrender. Can we join you now?” One of them said.
Another pleaded. “You said we could, back in the Shire Wood.”
That she had. “OK then. Take Roger and whoever is still loyal to him to the dungeons.” Robyn looked about to see who exactly would remain loyal to a tax collector. Nobody, it seemed. “Good. I’m going after Ellen.”
Ellen was scarpering towards the burnt-out tower. Robyn gave pursuit. Maudlin was barrelling for them both and Marion was right behind with his arrow ready.
“Out of my way!” Maudlin charged past, pushing Robyn into a puddle.
Marion too ran past in tight pursuit. Robyn jumped back to her feet, wiped her face again–gently!–and gave chase after Marion, Maudlin and Ellen.
Quickly, Robyn stopped by a barrel of water and washed the blood from her face, then she took off after Marion.
Every muscle burned as she took to the steps two at a time after them.
Gasping for breath, lungs tight with pain, they reached the top floor–the burnt out top floor, which the people had not yet begun to rebuild.
Hold it, they had built something.
Ellen stood in some kind of basket, attached to a pulley system and plenty of ropes. Ropes that went . . . where exactly?
“Always have a back-up plan,” Maudlin said, stepping in to the basked with Ellen and setting them free.
Zip! The basket slid downwards with Ellen and Maudlin in it, over the moat and into the woods beyond.
Robyn grabbed Marion’s bow out of his hand and ripped an arrow from his quiver. She fired. The arrow sailed through the air and pierced Maudlin’s arm.
The woman screamed in pain.
Not a kill shot, merely a match for the raven.
Robyn loosed another arrow, but the arrow flew over their heads as they dropped out of sight.
Furious, Robyn grabbed the knife out of her hand and sawed at the rope.
“No! Stop!” Marion grabbed her hand away.
“But they’re getting away!” Robyn cried.
“I’ve got this. Cut the drawstring on the bow instead.”
Confusion slowed her for a second. Marion grabbed her knife and cut the string with a sharp “twang”. Then he slotted the bow over the rope and held on to the sides.
“Hold on to me!” He shouted.
Robyn locked her arms around Marion’s shoulders and hung on.
Shhhhhrrrrrrrr! They swished down the length of the rope, the icy north wind freezing their necks and ripping their howls of terror away.
On the opposite side, Ellen hacked at the end of the rope, attached to a tree.
They weren’t going to make it.
The river below promised an icy fall.
Ellen kept hacking.
Maudlin hobbled away to the north with her raven.
Nearly over the river. Nearly . . . nearly.
Riiiip! The last fibres of rope tore apart. Robyn and Marion dropped to the ground, landing heavily on the river bank. Half in, half out of the water, completely covered in pain. Winded from the fall, Robyn took a second to drag air into her lungs. Then she pulled her legs out of the water and crawled onto the grassy bank, helping Marion out at the same time.
He curled his legs up under him and looked like a freshly-landed fish, his mouth opening and closing so much.
Sure she must be turning blue, Robyn dragged a breath over the pain and got her body working again. “Breathe, Marion, Saints alive, breathe.”
He uncurled his legs and pulled a breath in. Then another. His wincing expression eventually softened. “What happened?”
Failure swamped Robyn. “They got away.” She looked towards the trees. “That way.”
“No, I mean, with the rope. Did it break?”
Huh? “Ellen cut it.”
“Oh, so our end held up?” He sat up and edged closer to her, checking her face and body for breaks.
“I’m fine, just sore. Didn’t you see Ellen cutting the rope?”
With a shake of his head he said, “Had my eyes closed the whole time.”
Robyn threw her arms around him and tried not to cry. “They got away.”
“We’ll get them next time, don’t worry.” Marion returned the hug.
They hugged for a while, then the hug turned into rubbing their backs and arms to keep warm.
A howl of frustration broke free. If they hadn’t cut the string on the arrow she could have used it to stop Ellen, if not both of them.
But then she remembered something amazing. “You hate heights.”
“Yep.”
“You hate heights but you got us both down here from all the way up there!”
A grin formed. “I guess I did.”
“Have I mentioned lately how much I love you?” Robyn kissed him, her cold lips meeting his, both thawing mighty fast under the onslaught of emotions roaring through her. Their feet may be freezing, their pants wet, her nose on fire from the pain, but the rest of their bodies were toasty hot.
“I didn’t believe what Maudlin said about you,” Robyn said.
“Never for a second did I think you said the things she said you did either.” Marion replied.
“Wait, what?” Robyn recounted the sentence and lost track. “What did she tell you about me?”
“She said you’d confessed everything and that you’d hang. Or I could take your place.”
Cold shivers stole into Robyn’s body. “That was your signature on the confession?”
“Yeah.”
“You were going to hang in my place?”
“I was hoping it wouldn’t come to that. And it didn’t, so, you know, it’s all good.”
“Oh my darling Marion,” Robyn covered him in fresh kisses. “I would never have let you do that.”
“I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but then Will, Joan and Georgia broke me out and all we had to do was take up our positions near the gibbet and wait for you to be brought out.”
Tears broke free. Robyn gulped in a lungful of air as she buried her head into Marion’s chest, gently, because her nose screamed in pain. “I’m going to have nightmares about this for years.”
“It’s all right,” he stroked her hair and rubbed her back. It felt so soothing and calming, she started to breathe more normally. “It didn’t come to that. You know that Joan, Georgia and Will are always going to be in your corner.”
Relief, fear, gratitude; it all mixed together in an incoherent bubble of tears and laughter.
Eventually Marion got to his feet and helped Robyn to hers. “I have a plan.”
“You do?”
“Yes. Let’s go some place warmer.”
“I like that plan. It’s a good one.”
***
By the time they’d walked around to the Sheffield gatehouse, the rest of the battle was pretty much over. They were at the mopping up stage. The peasants of Sheffield, seeing Maudlin and Ellen gone, were only to happy to break the gallows apart to use for fire wood.
Roger was below stairs in the dungeons. Shivering at the memory of those cold cells, Robyn felt it was an apt punishment. At least he wouldn’t be homeless for winter, and unlike their cottages back home, stone dunge
ons didn’t burn.
The man was getting off lightly.
“I have a plan too,” Robyn said. “Let’s get the fires going in the kitchens and cook up a feast for everyone.”
“I like that plan,” Marion said as they surveyed the remains of the melee around them. “But I didn’t know you could cook.”
“I can’t, but I’m sure someone here can.”
“Here’s the treasury,” Wilfred said as he and Madge came forth, their aprons filled with trinkets, coins, goblets and all sorts of goodies.
The crowd went crazy and cheered, then they mobbed Wilfred and Madge. At first Robyn thought they’d be trampled in the stampede, but the crowd wasn’t interested in the loot, they wanted to thank them for getting it all back.
In the crush, Wilfred and Madge’s treasures fell all over the ground.
“That could buy a lot of pies,” Robyn said.
“We’ll need it,” Marion said. “Thanks to Roger’s mess, every villager for miles around will descend on Sheffield, wanting shelter for the winter.”
“We should make Roger look after them, he’s the one who burned down their houses.”
Marion smiled as he shared the conspiracy with her. “I like the way you think.”
EPILOGUE
“I’m still cross Maudlin got away,” Robyn kicked the ground as she walked beside Shadow and Plus One into the Shire Wood. Snow fell in soft drifts around them, the icy wind bit the tips of her fingers off.
“She’ll be in all kinds of misery, don’t you worry,” Marion said, reaching for her hand to give it a comforting squeeze. “You’re frozen, why didn’t you say something?”
“Too busy being cross,” Robyn said with a shrug.
“Come here.” Marion wrapped both her hands in his, then breathed on them. Thick steam rose from his lips.
“Do you think they’ve gone to our old camp?” She asked.
“Anything’s possible, but they’d probably want to get as far from Sheffield as possible.” He said. “Maybe they’ve gone to Nottingham and thrown themselves at Derby’s mercy?”
Robyn and the Hoodettes Page 20
