Robin Hood (32 page)

In moments, flames were crackling within and dark smoke began to pour from the window.

The sheriff's first thought was to rush inside and try to put out the fire. But Belvedere was watching him, and the sheriff thought better of it. If all went as planned, he would have plenty of gold to build himself a new one. Or he would take Peper Harrow as his own.

A
LONE IN THE
barn, Marion began to wonder if she had been singled out in recognition of her status as a landowner and the wife of a knight, or if she was being held in preparation for special ill treatment. Belvedere's comment about her not belonging in line with the others seemed to suggest the former. But everything about his manner and that of his henchman made her fear the latter.

She had been alone in her dusty prison for perhaps a quarter of an hour, when she heard someone unlocking the door. She moved quickly to the far wall,
and stood with her back pressed against it. Sunlight filtered in between the boards of the walls, slanting through the barn unevenly, in broad, hazy planes. She pulled her knife free, hid it in her sleeve, and placed her hands behind her against the wall.

The door opened, and Belvedere walked in. He paused, looking her up and down and smiling in a way that made her skin crawl. After a moment, he closed the door and secured it from within. He crossed to her, regarded her once more, and then removed his belt and sword.

Marion watched him, certain now that he intended to rape her. He stepped so close to her that his chest was nearly pressed against her breasts. Looking down at the laces of her bodice, he grinned and began to untie them.

Marion turned her head to the side, as if shamed. But she allowed the blade to slip down from her sleeve into the palm of her hand. Still, she didn't move, and Belvedere pressed even closer, his breath hot on her face and neck.

She brought her arms out from behind her and as he moved to kiss her, she plunged her dagger into his back. He gasped, his mouth opening, his eyes going wide. He grabbed for her throat, but Marion leaned back against the wall and kicked at him with all her strength.

He fell hard onto his back, driving her blade deeper into his heart. His body convulsed and then was still. His eyes stared sightlessly at the ceiling.

N
OTTINGHAM WAS BEING
destroyed before Tuck's very eyes. Houses burned, the streets were littered with the dead; those who still lived were in flight, desperate to get away from the king's men. Tuck
had done what he could to fight off the invaders, but he was but one man against so many. Still he didn't give up.

First he crept back to his church, where French soldiers still drank his mead. He carefully picked up one of his bee skeps, carried it back to the church entrance, and before the men could stop him, threw the hive inside. He slammed the door shut and secured it.

He heard shouts from within, then yelps of pain. Grinning with satisfaction, he turned away from the chapel and started back toward village center.

Seeing one of the French ruffians climb onto a thatch roof with a burning brand, Tuck followed him up, moving as stealthily as his bulk allowed.

Before the man could light the house on fire, Tuck swung his stave, catapulting the man off the roof. The Frenchman landed hard on the ground and lay still.

Tuck smiled grimly and looked around for more of the enemy to attack. Instead, he saw something from his vantage point on the house that nearly stopped his heart. The soldiers were herding villagers into the tithe barn near the church, shoving some inside, literally throwing others. At the same time, others in the tax force were splashing something onto the sides of the building. Tuck would have bet all the gold in the realm that it wasn't water or even his beloved mead. It was naphtha, or something worse. They were going to burn those poor souls alive.

R
OBIN AND THE
barons rode hard, thundering toward Nottingham. Robin could see smoke rising from the town and he prayed that Marion was safe. Fitzrobert and Baldwin rode alongside him; Will,
Allan, and Little John were just behind. As they neared the village, Robin turned to the barons.

“Take the southern flank!” he said. “Circle them, and then to the west!”

Other men of their rank might have chafed at being ordered about so by a common soldier, but Fitzrobert and Baldwin understood what was at stake and were as eager to find and defeat Godfrey as Robin. They both nodded to him and led their men to the south. Robin and his friends went to the north.

W
ITH THE OLD
man dead, Godfrey led his men back down the lane toward Nottingham. He would help Adhemar and Belvedere finish their work here, and then they would go on to the next village. But as they rode through the manor gate, Godfrey spotted a contingent of men emerging from the forest that bordered the Loxley fields.

He reined his horse to a halt and stared hard at the men. They were well armed, and there had to be more than a hundred of them—nearly a match for his own force. At the center of the company rode a man he recognized, from the wood in France, and from the dock in London.

As he watched them, the riders spotted him and his soldiers. A great cry went up from the approaching company, and the lead rider pointed directly at him, his finger like an arrow aimed at Godfrey's heart. An instant later, the full company was thundering their way.

Instinctively, Godfrey raised a hand to his scar. Then, with a shout to his men, he spurred his mount to a gallop and made for the road leading away from
Nottingham. He could hear that the riders were gaining on them. Moments later, arrows began to rain down on his men. One of his riders fell, and then another, and a third.

Just a few minutes before he had been ready to count Nottingham as another victory in his march across England. Now, suddenly, he was riding for his life.

E
VEN WITH
so many soldiers trapped in the church and beset by bees, Friar Tuck could see that the situation in the village was deteriorating quickly. Cries of outrage and despair, screams of panic and pain— they came from every direction. Children bawled in the lanes, clinging to their mothers and fathers, or desperate to find them. Livestock ran wild through the streets, only to be slaughtered at random by the soldiers. The sounds of shattering glass and rending wood filled the air. Houses were being ransacked; people were losing what little earthly property they had. An old man trying to get off the lanes was ridden down by a soldier—nay, a thug—on a horse.

Tuck had seen quite enough. He still carried his stave, and now he hefted it like a club and waded into the middle of the chaos, swinging it at the ruffians with all the might the Good Lord had given him. He knocked one man unconscious and unhorsed another. He might have been a man of the cloth, but he wasn't above fighting for the lambs he had been sent here to shepherd. He lifted his stave again and started toward two more tax soldiers who were harassing some poor woman. The men backed away at the sight of him. Tuck grinned fiercely and advanced on them, laying them out with two might swipes of his weapon.

He heard horsemen approaching, and turned to face them, prepared for the worst. Instead, he beheld what could only be termed a miracle. Robin Longstride was pounding toward him on his white charger, slashing at the enemy with his sword. And he was followed by Will Scarlet, Allan A'Dayle, and Little John. Perhaps the tide was turning.

B
ELVEDERE HAD JAMMED
the door to the barn shut and despite struggling for some time to free herself, Marion couldn't lift the bar.

Just as she was about to give up, however, she heard a scrabbling sound on the roof of the barn. A moment later, someone punched a hole in the thatch. Marion hurried over to look through, and to her great surprise saw a familiar, youthful face gazing down at her: Loop.

Seeing Belvedere's sword near her on the floor of the barn, Loop pointed to it, telling Marion to pass it up to him. She did, and he used the sword to cut through the roof and make the hole big enough for her to pass through.

Meanwhile, Marion managed to find a barrel on which to stand so that she could reach the opening. With Loop's help, she was soon on the roof, lying flat with Loop and several of his boys, watching the French soldiers. She saw Friar Tuck, who was helping villagers get away and knocking soldiers to the ground with his stave.

But Tuck was only one man, and the soldiers and ruffians continued to attack the villagers, wounding and killing indiscriminately.

Moments later a small group of riders—also men of the king's force—burst into the road, riding at full
speed, arrows raining down on them from unseen pursuers.

The lead rider was bald, as Belvedere had been, but his face was clean-shaven. His eyes were deep-set and dark, and even though he was clearly in flight, there was no fear in them, only calculation. He wore a black cloak, clasped at the neck with an ornate silver chain, and beneath it a full shining coat of chain mail and a black tabard bearing a brightly colored insignia.

He reined in his mount and started barking orders to the men, telling them to hold their positions and prepare to face the enemy. Marion motioned for the boys to follow her. “Quickly!” she said, and led them off the roof.

T
HAT HAD BEEN
close. Too close. Godfrey wanted his revenge, but he wasn't willing to die for it.

So, even as he led his men toward the edge of town, where Adhemar's legionnaires would make their stand, he was already plotting his escape.

He could hear people shouting from within the nearby tithe barn. They pleaded for help and pounded on the walls with their fists. The exterior of the building had been soaked with naphtha. The wood shone with it; Godfrey could smell it from forty feet away. Let the poor fools inside shout and pound all they liked. By the time Loxley reached them they would be nothing but smoke and ash.

He rode toward one of Adhemar's captains, and shouted to him, “Defend the position!”

The legionnaire looked surprised. A moment later, though, he seemed to realize that he and his fellow soldiers were about to be attacked. The man barked
orders in French, and Adhemar's warriors began to marshal themselves into formation.

As they did, Godfrey took a small group of soldiers and quietly slipped away toward the far end of town. The last he saw, the legionnaires had taken a torch to the barn.

When Godfrey and his guard turned a corner and could no longer be seen by the men they had left behind, they spurred their horses on once more and galloped out of the village. Adhemar's force might be lost, but Godfrey had larger concerns.

M
ARION AND THE
other villagers were still being harried by the tax force, and a large cluster of soldiers waited for them near the tithe barn, which was now starting to burn. She could hear people crying out from within, and she saw dark smoke rising into the sky.

She was desperate to reach them, but trapped between two contingents of armed men.

But then, at last, she saw the company of riders that had been chasing the bald man and his soldiers. And miraculously, Robin and his friends rode at the fore.

A moment later, they swept over the French soldiers, like a wave crashing down upon a sandy beach. Robin fought as a man possessed, dancing his horse like a festival performer, his sword rising and falling until it was stained crimson. All the while he appeared to be searching for something. He turned this way and that, looking frantic.

It took Marion a moment to realize that he was looking for her.

An instant later, he saw her. Their eyes met and a smile crossed his face ever so briefly. Then he was
fighting again. Marion still held Belvedere's sword, and she waded into the battle as well. A moment later, Tuck was beside her, wielding his stave with more strength and skill than she would have expected from a friar. The forest boys were with her as well, and together they fought their way to the tithe barn.

Smoke from the building had begun to fill the lanes of the town, and Marion could hear screams coming from within. Flames licked at the walls and the thatch roof had started to burn. It wouldn't be long until the barn was fully engulfed and the people within lost.

Marion and Tuck tried to pull the barn doors open, only to discover that wooden planks had been nailed across them. Using her sword, she began to pry the planks free, all the while fearing that they would be too late. The flames were spreading, the cries within growing more panicked and desperate by the moment. Tuck helped her yank off the planks she had loosened, and they were able to remove the last of them.