“Okay, Sam,” Baron said calmly. “It sounds like there haven’t been soldiers in the area in the last few days. Is that true?”
“Weeeeeeell,” contemplated Sam, drawing out the vowel for what felt like an eternity, “as I fink on it, it seems like I could probly say that is a right accurate statement that is. I was tellin’ me wife Tildy—she’s a bit deaf, ya know, so I has to speak up smartish around ‘er—but I were telling ‘er that we hadn’t had no trouble in these parts as of late, except o’ course vem ‘ooligans that be snitching turnips.”
“A simple yes or no would do,” I said in clipped tones.
“Be nice,” Baron whispered.
“He’s making it difficult,” I hissed back.
Sam looked at me curiously. “You reminds me of someone, you does,” he said, then eyed the red strands of hair that had come loose and hung into my face, as well as my green tunic and brown leggings. He snapped his fingers. “I’s got it, I has! Ye look right like Robin ‘ood, ye does. O’ course, ye looks like you would be a good twenty or so years younger ‘n’ him, iffin I recollect right. I has a mind like a steel trap, I does, mind like a steel trap!”
I was clenching my jaw so hard I began to wonder if my teeth would crack and fall out, but still Sam kept talking. “Now, I’s meanin’ no disrespect, good miss, when I says you is lookin’ like him, because ye don’t look like a man by no accounts.”
He talked on and on andon. I inhaled and slowly let out my breath again. Baron, sensing my impatience, nudged me gently.
Sam continued his lengthy monologue, “Why, I was jus’ tellin’ me wife just the other day, her name’s Tildy, just so you knows, and she’s a healer and midwife, that is ‘er profession! But, I was jus’ tellin’ me wife?—”
I clapped my hand over his mouth. “Stop. Talking. Right. Now.” I told him slowly through clenched teeth, eyes glittering dangerously.
Baron spoke calmly from behind me, “Which way to Prince John’s castle, my good Sam?”
Sam tried to extricate himself from my grip to respond, but I held his face even tighter and told him to just point. I thought my ears might fall off, if he so much as spoke another syllable.
Sam raised his finger and pointed down the road to the west.
“Thank you,” Baron said politely.
I let go of his face and turned to go.
“Is you Robin ‘ood’s daughter, miss?” Sam asked. I closed my eyes momentarily, praying for patience. “An’ you tell ‘im, if ever Robin ‘ood needs ‘elp, he can count on Sam and Tildy!” Hepeered closer at me. “Ye do look right like him, you do. Is you Robin Hood’s dau?—"
I cracked. “Yes! Yes, I am, and if you tell anyone I was here, because people will come asking, I swear on the life of my father that I’ll return and cut your tongue out and feed it to the jackals!” To emphasize the point, I whipped one of my knives out of my belt and flipped it up impressively in the air, caught it again, then re-sheathed. I flashed an icy smile to the farmer.
Baron and I had nearly reached the road when a final shout rang out behind us. “You is not very ladylike, miss, if ye don’t minds my saying so! That big bear o’ a bodyguard has got ‘is work cut out for him keeping ye in check, he ‘as!”
Baron chortled. “So, I’m your big bear of a bodyguard, am I?”
I shook my head wearily. “Honestly. I’m not surprised his wife is going deaf. I would too, if I were married to him.”
CHAPTER 30
Shadows were beginning to lengthen in the open field between the forest and the castle when Baron and I arrived. We were both armed to the teeth, prepared for our minor assault on the castle. We also each had a long coil of rope looped around our shoulders. Baron and I secreted ourselves in the branches of a tree, studying the layout of the castle and devising our tactics for that evening.
The castle seemed to be going about its day-to-day business. The servants were using the small door with a narrow footbridge as opposed to the mighty drawbridge, which was having some routine re-tarring done to protect it from the moat’s moisture. Bored guards patrolled back and forth, walking along the wide strip of ground between the moat and castle wall, while more guards along the wall walked inside the castle, heads and shoulders just visible as they bobbed along, occasionally disappearing out of sight behind a guard tower then reappearing on the other side.
There was no indication at all that they were anticipating an enemy attack. Maids tossed the contents of chamber pots into the moat below, and servants entered and exited, carryingsupplies or hurrying after important-looking persons robed in rich, purple velvet.
Flickering torches were set at intervals along the castle wall’s perimeter. Baron and I patiently observed the movements of the guards for hours, getting a feel for their timing as they went about their regular rounds, gauging how long each shift was. Once the torches were burning low and the guards were beginning to yawn on the last hour of their shift, we made our move.
We matched our movements to the rhythm of the trees swaying about in the breeze, blending into the patterns of the foliage leading up to the wall, gliding from one patch of dense shadows to the next. The weather had worn many places on the wall smooth over the years; climbing would be difficult. The outer wall had to be nearly twenty feet high. I nodded to Baron, telling him wordlessly to prepare for our breach.
The narrow servants’ footbridge was still laid across the southern border of the moat, and once the patrolling guard’s back was turned and there was no sentry watching from above, we ran lightly across, crouching in the shadows on the opposite side.
Baron stood in a recess by the base of the wall, hidden from the guard’s sight by a conveniently placed buttress, hands held clasped and ready. I silently ran toward him, placed one foot into his hands, then propelled myself upward as Baron combined my leap with his immense strength, launching me high into the air. I flew through the night sky with exhilarating speed and latched on to the edge of the stone battlement, clinging to the side like a large insect. I swung my leg over and fell down softly to the path running the length of the wall. I stayed bent double, watching for any sign that I had been spotted. Nothing happened.
I wanted to wait several more minutes to be sure I was well hidden from view, but Baron was still exposed and in the opendown below, so I needed to act quickly. And he would have a harder time hiding than I would. I pulled the coil of rope from my shoulder and knotted it quickly around the nearest merlon, then tossed the rope down to Baron. He scaled the wall using the rope for support and dropped to the wall walk beside me. For such a large man, he moved with more stealth than almost any of the Merry Men.
We hurried to the guard tower at the end of the wall walk. It was empty, which made me nervous. I could only hope that the speed of our journey here had made it so the sheriff had been unable to alert anyone to the possibility of a jailbreak. Baron had assured me that he didn’t use carrier pigeons, but I still worried that, somehow, our escape was known to the inhabitants of the castle we were now infiltrating.
