BooksBarbecue
Back Nottingham
Chapters (76)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. Dedication
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. PART I
  6. ONE
  7. TWO
  8. THREE
  9. FOUR
  10. FIVE
  11. SIX
  12. SEVEN
  13. EIGHT
  14. NINE
  15. PART II
  16. TEN
  17. ELEVEN
  18. TWELVE
  19. THIRTEEN
  20. FOURTEEN
  21. FIFTEEN
  22. SIXTEEN
  23. SEVENTEEN
  24. EIGHTEEN
  25. NINETEEN
  26. PART III
  27. TWENTY
  28. TWENTY-ONE
  29. TWENTY-TWO
  30. TWENTY-THREE
  31. TWENTY-FOUR
  32. TWENTY-FIVE
  33. TWENTY-SIX
  34. INTERLUDE
  35. PART IV
  36. TWENTY-SEVEN
  37. TWENTY-EIGHT
  38. TWENTY-NINE
  39. THIRTY
  40. THIRTY-ONE
  41. THIRTY-TWO
  42. THIRTY-THREE
  43. THIRTY-FOUR
  44. INTERLUDE
  45. PART V
  46. THIRTY-FIVE
  47. THIRTY-SIX
  48. THIRTY-SEVEN
  49. THIRTY-EIGHT
  50. PART VI
  51. THIRTY-NINE
  52. FORTY
  53. FORTY-ONE
  54. FORTY-TWO
  55. FORTY-THREE
  56. FORTY-FOUR
  57. FORTY-FIVE
  58. INTERLUDE
  59. PART VII
  60. FORTY-SIX
  61. FORTY-SEVEN
  62. FORTY-EIGHT
  63. FORTY-NINE
  64. FIFTY
  65. FIFTY-ONE
  66. FIFTY-TWO
  67. PART VIII
  68. FIFTY-THREE
  69. FIFTY-FOUR
  70. FIFTY-FIVE
  71. FIFTY-SIX
  72. EPILOGUE
  73. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  74. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  75. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  76. Newsletter Sign-up

LITERALLY ANY OTHER PLACE would have been a preferable choice for a reunion. Marion had only been back to Locksley Castle once since the fire, only once since poor Walter died. This place was as devastating to her heart as the fire had been to its stone-and-timber walls. It hollowed her out. She had not been present for the fire, and had only inconsistent accounts to piece together the truth of what happened. Captain Gisbourne had described Lord Walter as a madman, throwing wine bottles and horseshoes, while Alan-a-Dale insisted that Walter meant no harm at all.

The hardest truth was that the truth didn’t matter.

The fire did not care what caused it, nor the events that followed. Walter’s people scattered or fought amongst themselves for the remains. Then nomads and raiders tried to pick it clean, until the Nottingham Guard chased them out again. In Nottingham, the castle wasn’t even called Locksley anymore, as there was no one to claim the land. In a mere three months it had become “Thieves Den,” a mythical place where the hermit lord had launched a rebellion and been stamped out of existence.

Marion had done everything she could to find sympathetic lords to take in those who had lost their home again, but still she failed most of them. Only a handful had been safely relocated. The others had either fled or, to her utter heartbreak, refused her help. As for her most loyal pack, they had chosen to stick together and carve out a living in the Sherwood Forest.

Three times she had petitioned Sheriff de Lacy for his assistance, but he could only do so much. Three times she had ignored her father’s summons from London—he thought he could lure her home with some fresh political scandal. Her grandfather, the Earl of Essex, had also written, but with different intentions. His advice was that she speak with a recently widowed lord in Clavering for help. Normally she found joy in rejecting his obvious attempts at arranging a marriage for her, but this time she was only disappointed. Her family’s reaction was a sobering reminder of how easy it was for those with power to turn a blind eye to the suffering of those without. She couldn’t be bothered with any of it now. Not while she was still juggling the ramifications of her failures in Nottinghamshire.

She shared the blame for Walter’s death, the guilt of orchestrating it all. To return to Locksley now was to look her victim in the face.