The very thought made her stomach pitch and flutter in an unpleasant manner. She thought she might vomit at the thought of being John’s plaything.
And that was what had given her an idea that had prompted her to wait in the bailey in order to catch Alys’s attention.
“What do you, going about dressed like. .?” Alys’s voice trailed off as she caught sight of Marian’s disguise. “That was you? The winner?”
“Aye.” Marian could not smother a smile of pride. Will might not care that she’d won, and Robin seemed to be full of the sulks over it, but at the least Alys’s expression was one of beaming admiration. She’d rather celebrate with Alys than the prince.
“You bested Robin Hood in the contest?”
“Aye!” Marian replied, aware that her pride was showing overmuch. She softened her grin to a mere smile and tried to remind herself of humility.
“I cannot believe he was very pleased with that at all,” Alys added, linking her arm through Marian’s. She’d obviously taken seriously her friend’s request to speak, for she began to direct them once again to the herbary. “And now he is captured and sits in the prince’s gaol. ’Tis a ripe meal to serve up to a fool such as he. He should have stayed in the wood.”
Marian bit her tongue to keep from telling Alys the truth, but then she looked at the woman and saw that she was looking back at her. . with a meaningful expression on her face. Did Alys know that the man who’d been captured was not Robin Hood? Did she know, or merely suspect? And since the woman bore no love for the outlaw, would she cry the truth to John? Or Will?
She would worry about that later. For now, she was in need of Alys’s assistance. The door to the herbary opened easily and the two women slipped in. The small building was empty, and as Alys stoked the fire and lifted a switch to light candles from it, Marian moved to close the shutters of the single window. Though it was raining, and everyone hurried to the warmth inside, one could not be too careful of eavesdroppers.
Just as she reached the window, she caught sight of Will striding quickly and purposefully across the bailey. Mud flew from his boots, and his dark hair was plastered to his jaw and temples. The shadow of the day’s growth of a beard darkened his face, giving him a more threatening appearance than usual. He was coming from the stables, no doubt on his way to check on the false Robin Hood in the dungeons.
“Nottingham,” Alys breathed, having moved to peer over Marian’s shoulder when she paused at the window. “He is a fine sight, if a fearsome one.”
Unable to disagree, Marian quickly closed the wooden shutters before Will noticed them gawking at him.
Why was she gawking at the man? She despised what he’d done to his people-his rigidity with the law and cruelty to them. Regardless of what had passed between her and Will, whatever was really going on between him and Robin, she could not put his sins out of her mind. He was no better than John. Aside of that, he’d clearly not found her charade amusing today, and he must be quite furious that Robin Hood had escaped his trap yet again.
Yet again.
Marian frowned. Robin had escaped Will yet again. It seemed as though the outlaw had naught but good fortune, and the sheriff naught but bad. Yet, Will was the last man she’d call a fool, and Robin could ofttimes be one himself. After all, why would the outlaw continue to sneak into the keep? Or speak to the sheriff in the forest? She wondered again whether he’d been merely taunting him from the tree-tops, or whether they had been talking. But if they had been talking, why hadn’t Will made a move to capture him? Was there some other reason?
She turned from the window and saw that Alys was looking toward the small pallet in the back of the herbary. When she realized Marian had noticed, Alys raised her gaze, her cheeks lightly flushed.
“Do you recall when I told you that I’d made a sleeping draught for a man?”
“Aye, of course.” Marian nodded.
“ ’ Twas Nottingham.” Alys hesitated, then continued. “I came upon him in the chapel, well in the early hours of the morrow.”
“Nottingham?” Marian would have been no more surprised if she’d said she found John therein. “In the chapel?”
“Aye. I know that he is no favorite of yours, or of anyone’s, but. . I must talk plainly to you.”
“You already know you can trust me, Alys. You say you found him in the chapel, in the early morn?”
“ ’ Twas more of night than morn,” Alys said. “I woke early and thought to visit the chapel for prayer. . yet I found him there on his knees. He was none too pleased to see me, and he looked like death.”
Marian sat on a stool and waited for her friend to continue. Her stomach had begun to twist and flutter, and she wasn’t certain why.
“I have seen him thus-dark, angry, in pain-on two other occasions, and I was certain he had some illness. But he insisted he did not. However, I could see his weariness and I pressed him to allow me to make him a sleeping draught. I swear, I feared he would shatter into ugly pieces if he did not have a care.”
“He took the draught?” Marian could not imagine Will acquiescing to anything he did not wish to do-especially to urgings from this delicate sprite of a woman.
“Aye. . I brought him here, and he agreed to rest.” She looked past Marian into the smaller room, where the bed sat. “I kissed him.”
Marian’s mouth went dry and her stomach fell like a stone. She could not reply.
Alys turned to look at her, and Marian saw the remorse in her eyes.
“He did not hurt you,” Marian exclaimed in disbelief.
“Nay! Of course he did not,” Alys replied. “He would not. Marian, I know he is hard and mean, but I do not think ill of him. I have cared for many people, I have this skill with the medicinals. . and I am used to understanding people. I knew he would not hurt me. I wanted merely to. . relieve him. To ease whatever it is that has wormed inside him and causes him to be so angry and dark.”
“You. .” Marian found she could not speak.
Alys and Will?
“He did not touch me.” Alys had begun to pace the small space, curling and uncurling her fingers. “And I left.”
Absurdly relieved, Marian said, “You were very kind to him.”
“I do not think many are.”
Marian looked at her, wondering, faltering for a moment. “He is the sheriff; he must keep order in the county,” Alys said. “He has no choice but to uphold the law.”
“Aye, but he does not have to burn the village,” Marian replied flatly. “And he could look the other way or find some manner of leniency when a woman is terrorized by her betrothed.”
“And he could allow the outlaw Robin Hood to run free and rob from the nobles?” Alys said, her voice bitter. “Nay, Nottingham must capture that bandit. Oh, aye. . he already has. Has he not?” The arch tone in her voice told Marian that Alys was indeed aware that Robin Hood was not the prisoner who’d been presented to the prince. She wondered briefly on the fact that Alys seemed to be the only other person besides herself-and Will-who’d noticed.
“But if he caught Robin, he would hang! And Robin Hood. . he has tried to do only good,” Marian argued.
Alys looked at her. “But he is a thief.” Her voice held only rebuke.
“But a good-hearted one, Alys. Not for his personal gain. He shares with the poor-the villeins who lose their homes because of Nottingham. If not for him, they would starve. And if Robin had not intervened, that woman would have been hung.”
“I did hear of that.” Alys appeared to sober. “But what is Nottingham to do? He must uphold the law. He is consigned to do so. Even if he sees the strain on his people.”
“And thus is the importance of Robin Hood’s actions. He can act where Nottingham cannot.”
Freezing, the two women looked at each other. Marian saw the comprehension flare in Alys’s eyes at the same time she realized what she’d said. And what it could mean.