“He beat everyone, but I almost won,” I answered cheerfully.
“Younearly won?” Friar Tuck asked in astonishment. “Against Peter?” He looked between us. “I see.”
“Thank you for lending us the chess set,” mumbled Peter, already turning to leave.
“Just a moment, Laurel,” Friar Tuck called.
I wrinkled my nose briefly at Peter’s retreating back, then arranged my expression into one of polite curiosity and turned back. “Yes?”
Friar Tuck waited until Peter was out of earshot. “Don’t tease the boys, Laurel.”
“I didn’t. I didn’t do anything.”
Friar Tuck eyed me suspiciously, then sighed in a long-suffering way.
“I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” I insisted. “We just played a game of chess, he made a mistake, and I took advantage of it. You taught me to do that.Punish your opponent’s weaknesses,isn’t that what you’ve told us over and over? I’m only doing what you told me to do.”
Friar Tuck shook his head and rubbed his temples. “You and your father are so alike.”
I smiled innocently and Friar Tuck shot me a look that told me he did not believe my innocence for a second.
I’d thoughtour interaction after the chess game might dissuade Peter from talking to me, but it didn’t. After his brief embarrassment faded, he became the same old Peter I had always known—calm, dependable, and friendly.
Being around him made me feel almost like I was ten years old again, back when the worst thing in the world was losing a footrace or being told I had to sit through one of Friar Tuck’s lectures. I didn’t have any siblings, but Peter had always been close enough to count.
Though the tournament wasn’t exactly what I’d expected, it was still fun. The games and contests continued each day, and little by little, I felt more like myself again. My favorite game, Escape and Evade, was always one of the most popular events, and by the time it arrived, I was eager for something that required speed, stealth, and a healthy disregard for being tackled.
During Escape and Evade, the competitors were split into two teams. The first team was assigned to capture a designated person from the second team. The second team had to help that person escape from the set perimeter before time ran out. Players could tackle and hold members of the enemy team, but nothing was allowed that would cause serious injury. The assigned person only had to be tagged for their team to lose.
It was a thrilling contest and I excelled at it.
When teams were chosen, I was selected to be the escapee. I had remained undefeated for the last three years, and Little John’s team was eager to see me fail. The rest of my teamhuddled around while I used a stick to sketch a rough map of the playing area in the dirt.
“Okay, Teresa, you’re the lookout.” I tapped a spot on the map. “We’ll put you here, and you yell when you see anyone coming. Fredrick, you’re the runner. Chase down anyone headed our way. Peter, you and Dalton are the last line of defense. I’ll start here, beside the chapel garden, and slip past everyone once they come looking.”
“Easy as that, huh?” Dalton asked.
I grinned at him and shouldered my arrows. “Easy as that. Now let’s go.”
BARON
Iground my teeth in frustration as I strode away from the punishment yard. I’d just carried out the third whipping of the day and my arm ached from it. My stomach turned every time I thought of the men watching, their faces hard and satisfied, as though brutality was simply another form of discipline. How I envied all the other Merry Men. They’d been given easy jobs. Dangerous, perhaps, and complicated in their own ways, but none of them had to stand in the open where everyone could see and act the part of a brutal, bloodthirsty savage.
None of them had to become the very thing they hated.
Before she decided to run off to Sherwood Forest, I had hoped to see Laurel during Festival Week. I’d even thought that amid the festivities, we might have been able to reconcile. A foolish notion, perhaps, but I had hoped for it anyway. But she was avoiding me, and she was very good at it.
I told myself it was for the best. With my platoon here, she was more likely to be recognized if they saw us together. She was safer away from me but knowing that didn’t make the distance any easier.
After she took my horse, I’d forced the men to search the grounds and castle several times. It was fortunate that Robin Hood had made fools of my father and Prince John so many times before. No one seemed particularly shocked that Robin Hood might have slipped into the castle grounds and stolen the Sheriff of Nottingham’s horse. If anything, the men were embarrassed they hadn’t caught him and I wasn’t assigned any blame.
That suited our purposes well enough. It was beneficial for everyone to think Robin Hood had truly paid the castle a visit. Now, no one suspected he was really tracking down King Richard in Vienna. Even the supposed break-in didn’t seem to trouble Prince John for long. He practically skipped down the hallways lately, so thrilled was he at the potential success of his plan to take the throne.
And all the while, I was miserable. I was trusted by the enemy because I was so much like one of them. With Laurel and James both gone to Sherwood Forest, I had no one and Festival Week only highlighted that fact. All around me, everyone paired off and went to games, feasts, and events. Soldiers bragged about how many girls they’d danced with. Even the stable boy had apparently found someone willing to accompany him to the activities, and I was entirely alone.
I had worked hard to become feared and it seemed that I had succeeded a little too well.
After yet another day of ignoring happy couples and pretending not to see every clasped hand, every shy smile, and every stolen glance, I returned to my room and shut the door behind me. The silence inside was immediate and heavy. No Laurel was waiting at my desk with her feet propped on my reports. It was just a cold room with my desk overflowing with an endless stream of reports.
