Page 107

"And your years at court haven't improved your honesty."

"Enough."

He extended one hand, palm upward. "I want the documents your father concealed."

"What documents?"

"The ones he removed from the chapel at Locksley before his arrest. The papers he entrusted to his mother on the night my soldiers arrived."

Robin went still beside me. I felt her thinking through what he'd just revealed.

"If you know so much about them," she asked, "why haven't you found them?"

Fitzwalter clenched his jaw.

Six years.

He'd spent six years searching the Locksley estate. His men had dug through the dairy cellar, torn up the chapel floor twice, and examined everything they could find. Yet he still didn't know where William's documents had gone.

Robin had managed to expose that with a single question.

"Surrender yourself and the papers," Fitzwalter said, "and I'll see that the sheriff keeps his life. He may even keep his office. He's been a useful servant, and I don't care to waste useful men."

"Robin, don't believe a word of it."

"Oh, I don't."

She kept her eyes on Fitzwalter. "You've already issued orders to have me captured alive. Unharmed, too. Delivered directly into your hands."

His expression changed.

"I've got the order in my pocket, my lord. You sealed it the day before you arrested three innocent villagers and put them on a road you knew I'd be watching."

She smiled. "You really ought to stop putting your crimes in writing."

Fitzwalter raised his hand and his soldiers began advancing. I stepped in front of Robin, putting myself between her and the nearest guard. I was unarmed, my side was stitched together, and there were eight men coming toward us.

The odds were terrible.

But I wasn't about to stand aside and let them take my mate.

Robin caught my wrist. "Guy."

I looked at her and found her calm.

I could feel it through our bond. She wasn't frightened, and judging by the small smile forming on her lips, she was rather pleased with herself.

She lifted two fingers to her mouth.

Three short whistles echoed through the passage. A moment later, someone answered from the darkness behind Fitzwalter. Then another whistle came from farther back.

Fitzwalter turned toward the sound.

I looked at Robin.

She grinned.

"You didn't think I'd come alone, did you?"