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The lock finally turned. Robin slipped inside, and before she could say another word, I pulled her against me.

Her hood fell back, and I wrapped my arms around her as tightly as my injured side would allow.

The relief was immediate.

For two days, I'd felt the distance between us through our bond. Now she was standing in front of me, warm and breathing, with her arms around my waist.

I buried my face in her hair and held her for a moment.

She kissed me.

Then she pulled away and began examining my ribs, running her fingers over the bandages to check whether my stitches had survived the trip to the dungeon.

"They held," she said.

"They did. Are you hurt?"

"No. Did they beat you?"

"They didn't dare."

"Pity. I had a speech prepared."

She removed the second shackle and carefully lowered it onto the straw. "I told you a fortnight, Bisbane. You're four days overdue."

"I was slightly detained."

"I noticed."

Her voice caught, just enough for me to hear it. She busied herself straightening my collar.

"I felt you, Guy. Two nights ago. Whatever happened at that supper, I felt it all the way in Sherwood." I watched her face. "I haven't slept properly since. I wasn't going to sit in that forest wondering whether you were dying in here."

I cupped her cheek, my thumb resting just below the mating mark on her neck. "I'm all right."

"You'd better stay that way."

I kissed her forehead. "Then we'd better get out of this castle."

Robin led me through the servants' corridors, carrying a lamp with its shutter nearly closed.

She moved confidently, choosing each turn without hesitation.

"John and Merry have twelve of ours waiting in the orchard beyond the east wall," she whispered. "Alana's handling the kitchen passage with the carts. She'll keep the guards occupied until I give the signal. Tuck has the horses waiting near the Leen crossing."

"You know this castle better than some of my captains."

"I've spent three years learning how to stay out of it."

She turned down a narrow staircase I'd almost forgotten existed.

"Hugh Reyner's messenger told me which cell they put you in and when the guards changed. He also mentioned the kitchen postern, although I already knew about that."

So Hugh had told us both.

I followed her down the stairs toward the older section beneath the kitchens.

The passage was narrow, with damp stone walls and water collecting between the uneven floor slabs. It sloped toward the river, ending at a low door that flooded nearly every spring.