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
That challenge lingered in the air a bit, leading Gisbourne to turn reluctantly back to Arable. “I wouldn’t want you to do anything with which you feel uncomfortable, but I need to know which recruits you overheard.”
Arable ignored his patronizing tone. “I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t comfortable with it.”
This was, apparently, an impressive thing to say. “Very well,” the captain continued. “If they meet again tonight, try to get a good look at them. Focus on just one if there’s not enough time. Then you can describe him to me in the morning.”
“Describe him to you?” Arable was incredulous. It would be a dirty young man with pale skin and long brown hair. The Nottingham Guard was full of them, and not much else.
“Do you expect him to have an obvious scar of some sort?” de Lacy mused with a wicked smile, leaning back in his chair.
Gisbourne rolled his eyes. “Alright, describe him to me if you can. If not, then … here!” He quickly drank the last drop from a dented pewter tankard at the desk, and placed it in Arable’s hands. “I’ll recognize this cup. Tomorrow night at the dining hall, be sure to catch my eye. Serve this cup to the man you recognize, and then think no more of it.” He gave her a meaningful smile and returned to his seat, throwing his leg over its back like a saddle.
De Lacy flashed his eyebrows playfully at her. “What a delightful bit of morning. Intrigue before breakfast!”
“It’s not delightful, it’s dangerous,” the captain scowled. “Tell me I’m wrong. I’ll wager anything it’s one of your new recruits.”
“You’re so eager to assign me the blame for this. I trust you’re equally prepared to give me full credit for each day we do not have an incident? Or is causality only important when it plays to your favor?”
Gisbourne shrugged it away. “I warned you if we pulled men from the gaols, they would turn on us.”
“And I warned you,” de Lacy’s voice tightened, “to be discreet.” He threw a piercing look at Arable, but did not ask her to leave. She wondered if the captain expected her to miraculously close her ears in his presence, or if he simply forgot that girls were smarter than rocks. “You were also meant to be diligent in your selection. There are plenty of men in gaol for tax evasion, yet you seem to have recruited the ones comfortable with plotting secret beatings. I fail to see how this deficit in reasoning falls on my shoulders. Unless,” he wrapped his fingers delicately around each other, “you’re purposefully trying to undermine my policy?”
Gisbourne seemed honestly taken aback. “We may disagree on a very many things, but I would never intentionally put my own men in danger. That hobby remains solely yours.”