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 asshole.” Robin kicked him playfully in the ribs. “You’ve spent the last month in a castle surrounded by women, telling them stories about riding with the King, and I get stuck with the vagrant forest folk. Please tell me you’re joking.”
William couldn’t help but laugh. “Not at all.”
“How many?”
“How many girls, or how many times?”
“You asshole,” he repeated, and this time William spat out food.
“Just one, just one!” he coughed as he defended himself. When Robin relented, he finished with, “but easily three or four times a day—” and then Robin was snatching all the food that was left and throwing it in a sack.
“You don’t get my food anymore!”
With that, Robin and William went tripping backward and out of the room, slapping at each other and shouting insults, taking turns guarding and dashing back into the room to grab another bite of food and devour it loudly, or to pull from the wine before the other gave chase again.
When they had both resigned themselves to the floor, catching their breath, the large dining hall was a deep indigo, the full moon and clear sky pouring in through the empty gaps in the ceiling. Robin was on his back, still heaving.
“Did you bring horses? I never got ours back.”
“That would be the second time on this trip,” William calculated, “that you have lost the horses. But yes,” he added, before Robin could retort, “I brought one for you.”
“Good. We’ll leave in the morning, then.” Robin’s laugh lingered and died.
William hoped this wouldn’t be difficult. He had promised Richard he would settle this no matter the cost. And he’d made another promise, more recently. When he left Arable, when she gave him the apples, he promised he’d be back. He wouldn’t break that one again.
“I was serious, Robin. I won’t be going with you tomorrow. I have to deal with this.”
“You don’t have to deal with this. You want to deal with this. I know you do.” He propped himself on an elbow. Of course he was taking it all so lightly, he was eager to leave the company of those he had spent his time with. “But things have only gotten worse in the last month. Which is exactly what I predicted.”
“Did you predict they would assassinate the Sheriff?” William asked dryly. “You spent a month with them, you had no idea they were organizing something like that?”
Robin flinched. “No, they never talked about anything like that.” He looked William dead in the eyes, genuinely offended. “You know I wouldn’t have let that happen if I had known about it.”