“He would,” Robin countered, his voice strained. “We’ve done it before. In Sicily, King Richard ordered us to catch a gang of bandits, so we burned them out of a forest. It took a month. War tactics. And William sees this as a war now.”

“He’s not like that.” She struggled to wrap her mind around it.

“Like what?” His voice was soaked in disappointment. “Driven? Dedicated? Single-minded?”

She couldn’t say no.

“I think perhaps you’ve only known him at his best, Arable.”

A dull warning rumbled through her. If he could cast her aside as easily as he had, if he could break every promise and authorize something like this, what else might he do to protect his secrets?

Would he come after her?

“Then we have to stop him,” Will Scarlet coughed, massaging his ribs. “Not tomorrow. Tonight.”

Despite everything, those words terrified her. If they meant to stop him the same way they stopped de Lacy …

“We’re in no shape to do anything,” the bald friar scolded, crouching over a dead body. Nearby, the remaining Bernesdale men were scavenging from fallen Guardsmen. Arable absently wondered if she knew any of them, wondered if she’d care.

She noticed John Little catch Robin Hood’s eye. Are you alright? he mouthed.

No, Robin shook his head.

“We have to do something,” said a man nursing a swollen arm. It was no suggestion but a simple fact, and Arable found herself nodding. Whatever William had done to get himself here, he had now gone too far. He had done nothing to protect her, despite his every promise.

He was her past. For the second time. It was time to look forward.

“We only have one option.” Robin seemed cornered. “We’ll have to trust Prince John. He can get us into the castle.”

“What?” Arable interrupted, alarmed by the name. “What sort of deal do you have with Prince John?”

“He’s offered to help us,” Robin explained.

“Sort of,” Little muttered.

“Alright, he offered to meet with us,” Robin elaborated. “Arthur and I are meeting with him in secret tomorrow morning. He’s arranged to sneak us into the castle.”

“He thinks it’s to talk business,” added the man she assumed was Arthur. “But once we’re done, Rob an’ I get the others in, too.”

Arable scoffed before anyone could argue. “I don’t know what he’s promised you, but you can forget about it. Do you honestly think he doesn’t realize the coincidence, that you want to meet on the very day of de Lacy’s funeral? He’s using you, for his own purposes. This is the man who tried to appoint Gisbourne to Sheriff, who supports William now. He’s not on your side.”

“I said as much,” Little sniffed. “That man’s only side is his own.”