Chapters (76)
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- PROLOGUE
- PART I
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- PART II
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- PART III
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- INTERLUDE
- PART IV
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- INTERLUDE
- PART V
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- PART VI
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- INTERLUDE
- PART VII
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- PART VIII
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- EPILOGUE
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Newsletter Sign-up
“You know those stables. There was naught but one entrance and one window up high. Someone lit up the end of a fresh spruce, and it gave up a thick heavy white smoke. They pushed it in through the front door with their toes, see, like this.” John imitated the guards, his hands over his face to protect from flying horseshoes. “And then ran back again as little pups. The smoke poured out the window as we watched, and we thought he’d give up. He should’ve given up. This wasn’t worth it. We yelled for him to leave.”
John paused, so Elena leveled her eyes on Locksley. “The smoke turned black.” It was a sight and a feeling Elena would never forget. It was like the whole world had just flipped over to let them fall into the sky.
Tuck continued. “Once the fire caught, there was nothing anyone could do. Lord knows we tried. And not just us. The guards, the captain too. Every man and woman was rushing off for water, or hacking away at the stones to make another exit for him. There was no use. The doors were a wall of fire, the stones were too thick, and the black smoke … it ate everything. It was morning, but the sky was pitch as night. It was an accident, Robin.”
“The man who put that fire in the stables didn’t do it by accident,” Locksley growled.
“No, he didn’t. But we let him, and that’s our burden, too. It should have just been smoke. Alan swears there was nothing close enough that could have caught fire so, unlessin’ the devil himself had a hand in it. Which he may have. The fire rode the air, it rode in the smoke, and we were too worried about the stables to notice when it spread. It spread so fast. It spread so fast.”
“It wasn’t the devil,” Elena broke in, hating the friar’s easy excuses. “It was men. The choices they make, the things they do. And the things they don’t.” Those words were for Locksley, and she let him know it. Lord Walter had been part of this family, but his son was as welcome here as the fire.
“Accident or not, they did not come here to kill your father.” Tuck measured his words with care. “But that’s not the story that spread. People simply heard that the Sheriff was burning down houses, even of noblemen like your father, of those who didn’t pay their taxes. No arrest, no punishment, just the torch.”
“That’s why we can’t find another home, Robin,” John added gravely.
Tuck folded his hands. “We tried. No lord will take any refugees, for fear we can’t pay our way. And we’re certainly not the only ones out there, either.”