The threat caught her off guard. “You don’t know anything,” she scoffed. “Maybe I’m only with them right now to make sure they treat you well. I could be in danger myself, too, for all you know.”

His lips pursed in disbelief. “You parlayed for them at Thieves Den.”

“I’ve parlayed for lots of people,” she answered sharply. “If you knew me better you’d know that. I once defended a tanner’s daughter who accidentally burned a dozen hides. Do you think that makes me the one who dropped the torch?”

Of all the battered muscles in Bassett’s body, the one that apparently worked best was used for raising a skeptical eyebrow. “Do you think I’m blind? I know you run with these thieves. I can see they do your bidding.”

Marion wished that was as true as it sounded. A great deal of trouble might have been spared so far if it were. But she matched his steely tone. “As I say, my involvement here is entirely benign. So I would suggest you reconsider what you think you know. Because I know that they didn’t need to take care of you. But they did. And at the moment they intend to return you to Nottingham once you’re healthy.”

The Guardsman’s shoulders shook in a quiet laughter, though his face remained stoic. “I see. In exchange for my life, you demand I vouch for your … benign involvement?”

“I’ve made no demands.” She met his eyes. “The manner of your gratitude is up to you.”

“Ah yes, very thankful. Look at all my good fortune.” He tried to splay his hands wide, but his restraints stopped him quickly. “That’s the difference between us and you, you know. Selfishness.”

Marion felt a pang of offense at being labeled the outsider. But she let him continue.

“You want me to make a deal to save my own skin. They call that a thieves bargain. It has that name for a reason—no decent person would ever take it. I’d be selling short my friends to help myself. The next time I see you in Nottingham—yes, I could keep my mouth shut … about what you do here in the forest. And I wonder who would be hurt by that? I wonder which of my friends might suffer the next time your group here play their games of terror? Whose life am I trading for my own?”

“I’d say you’re being a bit overdramatic. We’re not hurting anyone.”

He just held her stare and coughed with a targeted irony.

“They’re good people,” she insisted.

“Sometimes, might be. Everyone is good people when they’re good. But you’re a fool if you think that’s all they are. You’ll see. They’ll turn on you. They’ll turn on each other, and they certainly won’t let you set me free at the end of this.”