“I was unaware I was late,” Guy replied, since he had arrived immediately upon being summoned. But this was an hour ago, before the punchline.

“And I was unaware that you had captured the Sherwood outlaws,” Wendenal continued his poor impersonation of de Lacy. “Or is it common practice for the Captain of the Guard to drink his nights away during a countywide manhunt? I’m just curious, really, being new here.”

The table chuckled for him, at his heavy-handed boring sort of humor.

“On the contrary, I commend Captain Gisbourne,” added the bear man, Waleran the Younger, “for his ingenuity. He swore he would search everywhere for this Robin Hood. He was only being diligent by looking for him at the bottom of a bottle.”

Wendenal spoke again before Guy could counter. “Had you been here when I asked for you, we would be pleasantly free of your company by now. Instead, you will have to wait until we have the opportunity to backtrack.”

“I do not have the time to waste, Sheriff,” Guy argued. “As you say, I am in the midst of a manhunt—”

“But you have time to drink all night with the master-at-arms? Perhaps if you sit and wait, you’ll be sober enough to participate by the time we need you.”

Then he pivoted and changed the subject. There was nothing for Guy to do but fume, a sport he had recently mastered. In the infuriating slog of time that passed, Guy curled his fingers and toes into fists, and an hour passed before Wendenal spelled out the plan for de Lacy’s funeral. “I want your men in the city on Sunday. Not in the castle. There are more than enough swords here already, and your men know the streets better than any of them.”

The punchline, delivered appropriately by a clown.

Guy put it all together and laughed like a madman, then eventually apologized like the fine little servant they wanted him to be. Wendenal repeated the command.

“Ah, see, that’s not funny at all,” Guy apologized. “Thank you for clarifying, I apparently thought you had said something hilarious. Sometimes I mishear my betters, do forgive me.”

He had heard the command crystal clear. His Nottingham Guard was commanded to spread out through the city while de Lacy’s funeral took place within the castle walls. When Locksley’s men attacked the funeral, Guy would be blamed for letting them slip through the city. In fact, Wendenal would blame it on the traitorous gerolds, and it would be the drunkard Guy of Gisbourne who put the criminals in a place to do such damage. There was the reason for de Lacy’s lie.

It would destroy his credibility. And damnation, but it would work.