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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

Next to him was Rog’s family, his scrawny wife Sarra and their stickly little stick boy Hugh. Hugh had arms like sticks, and legs that looked like sticks. Hugh was only ten years old, but he looked up to Stutely. Probably because his father Rog had a beard that was only a few inches long. Rog was also jealous of all the words that Stutely knew. Some days Stutely would give little Hugh a new word to learn, and the boy would use it all day long until his parents got so jealous they’d tell him to stop using it.

“Anyhow,” Sarra said to little Hugh, “if you see anyone you don’t know, you just stay away from him. This fellow sounds rather dangerous if you ask me.”

“Who’s dangerous?” Stutely laughed. This person they were talking about, whoever he was, didn’t sound so dangerous to him. But, of course, Stutely was much braver than most. If there were some sort of dangerous man looking to steal their goats, Stutely would chase him back to whatever pathetic mother had borne him. Beside, this goat-thief they were talking about probably wasn’t even good at catching goats, because sneaking up on them was very difficult, and nobody had more practice at it than Stutely.

“No one,” Sarra answered. “There’s some band of pillagers out there is all, and they’re just looking to steal more and more from people like us, so we’d all best keep our eyes and ears open for a few days.”

“No they ’ouldn’t!” little Hugh answered. “They’re not taking anything from anyone, they’re giving it out! They ’ouldn’t takes from us. If Robin brought his men to Thorney, Robin ’ould give us gold, too!”

“Robin Hood?” Stutely coughed on a burnt piece of the meat he was trying to chew on. “Who’s that?”

“You haven’t heard about it yet?” Munday slapped Stutely in the arm hard, but obviously not hard enough to hurt. “It was just a few days ago in Godling. You know how it is there, too many people and not enough food. Until one morning they wake up to some strangers sitting on a wagon with barrels of food and a pot like this one here full to the brim with coin! Overflowing, they say! And they hand it out to everyone, and people would take so much they wouldn’t even want any more, that’s what they said.”

“That never happened,” old Wrinkles cackled, one of the older men. “That’s some fool story.”