Margery leveled her eyes on her husband. “It will make him look like a captain.”

“I am a captain, Mother, and it would serve me well to be the captain who captures this infamous Robin Hood.” The Young Bear spoke distinctly and did not fidget like his father, nor did he seem afraid to contradict his mother. “I don’t see how anyone would think poorly of me for doing so.”

Arable found a discreet position to wait. Whatever mild friendship she shared with Margery in private was nothing she would recognize in front of her family.

“You should be on the balcony with the Sheriff Wendenal,” Margery was saying, “so the people will identify you with that level of prestige.”

“The people don’t know who I am,” her son countered, reaching out for a glass of wine on the table beside him. He held it by its rim but did not sip, tilting it back and forth as he watched the liquid roll. “If I stand next to Wendenal, nobody will notice me. At least on the gallows they’ll see me wield authority, and they’ll call out and cheer when we put Robin Hood’s men in irons. At a moment such as that, I will have their love more than Wendenal ever will.”

Arable’s mind fluttered. For some reason, the earl was under the impression his son would be appointed the new sheriff by Prince John. But Arable knew better.

“You’re not allowed to be stubborn with me,” Margery took the glass from her son and set it down again, “as I was the one who taught you the talent.”

“By such reasoning I should not be able to disagree with you, either,” he returned, “as you constantly teach me how to be disagreeable.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. You’re just like your father, you like to move words around until they sound like wit, when you frankly have nothing worth saying.”

She should help them, Arable realized. Her fate was now entangled with theirs, after all. But the last few weeks had been full of William’s politics, and she fumbled to keep track of whose lies were whose. She needed a moment to clear her head, but they kept speaking.

“Consider the alternative, Mother,” the Bear was saying. “If I am not the one to arrest the outlaws at the funeral, it will be another. Who? Captain Gisbourne will be with his men, guarding the city entrances, so the honor will fall on some other contingent. The Yorkies, feasibly. How will that look when I take the Sheriff’s seat, if we needed York to capture this criminal for us? It makes Nottingham look weak, and it will make me look weak.”

“You assume too much.” Margery scowled, staring at her husband. “You put all your faith in John’s empty promises.”