Page 87

"And the execution order?"

"Still stands. He also had a proclamation read in the market square while you were gone."

"Saying what?"

"That the Ghost of Sherwood had murdered the King's sheriff." Hugh stopped walking. "And that whoever brought her in would be doing it for your sake."

I stood in my own yard and admired it, in a way. Fitzwalter had turned me into a dead martyr inside two days, and the only thing that had spoiled it was my inconvenient habit of surviving.

"These questions about my loyalty," I said. "Did he ask them to my men or about them?"

"Both, sir. These last were about your loyalty."

I pulled off my gloves one finger at a time.

"Then he can ask me himself."

I didn't have to wait long. Within the hour, I was summoned to Fitzwalter's chambers on the second floor. He'd made himself comfortable, with a roaring fire in the hearth and a glass of untouched wine beside him.

"Bisbane." He remained seated as I entered. "You look dreadful."

"I have been stabbed, my lord. It is said to have that effect."

"Sit. Tell me about these eight men."

I gave him the same account of the eight men I'd given in the clearing, leaving nothing out. Fitzwalter listened carefully, occasionally nodding as though this was the first he'd heard of the ambush. The bastard even had the nerve to ask questions about men he'd paid to kill me.

"No livery at all?" he asked.

"None."

"Mercenaries, then. The forest is full of them."

"It is now."

"And you survived eight of them?"

"I killed six. The other two escaped, unfortunately." I paused, watching his expression. "Whoever hired them was smart enough to keep them out of uniform, but he should've spent more money on better swordsmen. Men worth their price would've finished the job."

His eyes came up, and for a moment there was nothing behind them at all.

"Did the outlaw help you?"

"Did she what?"

"You were ambushed in her forest, you vanished for ten days, and you came out alive. I am asking whether the Ghost of Sherwood had a hand in keeping you so."

"I was alone in a Crown cabin with a knife wound and a bad fever, and I saw nobody but a village woman who was paid to dress it." I held his gaze without any effort at all, because I have told worse lies to better men. "If the Ghost of Sherwood had found me on that ridge, my lord, I would not have come back. She has had three years of reasons."

"Mm." He turned his cup. "You have pursued this woman for three years, Bisbane."

"I have."

"And yet she remains free."

"She's resourceful."

"Or perhaps you have grown reluctant to catch her."