Scarlet

His eyebrows pushed together. “What?”

Honestly. Why all the questions? He’s not deaf.

“Why?” He leaned forward. “Why would you leave after, what, two years of us being a band? Two and a bit. Now, when things are worse than ever? Why just change your mind?”

“I’m not from here, John.” Lie. “It’s not like these are my people.” Lie. “I don’t owe them anything and I’m getting fair bored of you and Rob always acting like you’re my fathers,” I said with a sneer that I couldn’t hold back. That were a lie and a truth. Kind of.

He shook his head. “First off, it’s daft to say I’m your father. We’re both eighteen. It’s not even possible.”

“Then quit actin’ it.”

“You know, I always thought you just liked us to think that you’re a rat. But you really are a yellow-bellied coward of the first order. How can you save Freddy and then think you have nothing to do with this? ‘Will Scarlet can do anything,’” he mocked. “’Cept be a good person. I used to wonder how a girl like you could be a thief, but I guess it figures perfectly.”

He spat on the wagon bed by my feet, and to my horror I flinched a little. He didn’t notice, though. He were too busy scooting to the back of the wagon and jumping off.

I pulled my knees up away from the spit and stayed on the wagon as it jostled deep into the forest. So I lied to him and poked him a little. Still, that kind of hurt. I weren’t a rat. Not by my own making, at least. Besides, the only thing that made me blurt that out in the first place were Gisbourne. He were the one person in the world I should be keeping far away from, and I couldn’t ever tell the boys why.

Last I’d seen Gisbourne’s foul mug, I had been thirteen, bare days before my birthday, but I ain’t forgot a bit of his face. Now Gisbourne were in Nottingham, and he were coming for Robin and the lads. And me.

If there were ever a good time to leave everything and run as far and fast as I could, it were now.

I jumped from the wagon when I were close as I could be to our spot in the forest and made it back to the camp before John. I ignored Rob, climbing up the Major Oak. It were a broad, tall old tree, but I were the only one who could climb to the top, and I had built a little hammock up there. It were rare for birds to make perch that high. Instead of looking at great green forest and brown earth, all I could see were trouble-gray sky and spiny treetops, a whole world of Sherwood no one else could know. Rob’s band couldn’t follow me up there, and it were the only place I felt like I could sleep.

Chapter Three

I woke to the sound of Rob banging a pot in my direction. I leaned over the edge of my bed.

“Luncheon, Scar,” he called.

Sighing, I rolled back into the hammock. John would have talked to him by now. And John were probably down there as well.

My hat were half off my head, so I twisted my hair back and pulled the hat down low over my eyes. I began hopping through the branches—I liked that part. The branches were a little rough underhand, and I gripped one, then the next, dropping through the tree and wending a path through the branches. I fancied going where lugs like John couldn’t.

With a final jump, my feet hit the ground and I crouched over them. Robin were standing right in front of me. “We need to talk, Scar.”

Much were over by the fire, stirring a pot, and John were sitting in the crook of one of the lower branches, but he didn’t look over to me.

I crossed my arms. “Talk.”

“Walk,” Rob said, pointing to the trail. I scowled.

We began walking away from the others, and I kept a fair distance from Rob. I always have. He’s just . . . he’s the type you get attached to pretty easy, and I don’t want that. I always figured staying away from him is best. He weren’t a lug like John by any stretch, but he had broad shoulders that took up most of the path, and I shrunk into some shrubbery to keep away.

“Gisbourne is the thief taker?”

I nodded.

“How bad is that for me?”

“Bad.”

“And how bad is that for you?”

“Worse.” It popped out of my mouth before I could stop it. Rob had that effect on me.

He fell silent for a while, and the dry leaves were pretty loud underfoot. I counted out paces in my head.

“Will you ever tell me how you got that scar?” he asked.

I covered it with my hand. Why did he think of that? “Not if I can help it,” I told him. “But it’s old. From a whole different life.”

He raised an eyebrow and I swallowed, knowing that were the first time I’d let on that I weren’t exactly born into thievery, or London for that matter. There were another existence before this one. I liked this one better.

He stopped, and I leaned against a tree, fixing my hands behind me so they were pinned there. I tried not to look back. He were handsome, God knows that. All soft wet-wheat hair, eyes that were gray blue like the English Channel, and a jaw that were strong enough to take a few punches. “Are you thinking of leaving because of Gisbourne?” he asked, his voice soft. He came close to me. His hand rested on the tree by my head, and he were close enough that his body were warmer than the rest of the forest.

I nodded. My pipes felt thick, like I couldn’t swallow proper.

“When you’re ready, Scarlet, you can trust me. I’m not going to force it out of you. And as far as leaving goes, you know I won’t keep you here, especially if you’re in danger. But if you stay, I’ll keep you safe as best I can.”

Our eyes met. I didn’t like to do that real often because I have funny eyes, and people both tend to remember them and tend not to be too comfortable with them. Especially during the day. See, when Rob says stuff like that, it sounds like he’s just worried about me. But I watched him swallow and I weren’t so sure. I’ve been with Rob a long time, and he’s lost people like I’ve lost people. He’s alone like I’m alone. And I may be stupid, but I think me leaving would hurt him too.

“I’m not going. Just thought about it,” I told him. “’Sides, we keep each other safe.” I said it for Robin, but I weren’t so sure. I weren’t sure if anything could keep me much safe from Gisbourne.

He sucked in a breath, holding my eyes, and his face came a little closer to mine. He were looking at my scar when he said, “Yeah, we do.” He let the breath go, rocking his body back and away. “Don’t go to the prison alone anymore, all right?”