“She can stand if she wishes,” the prince said, looking at me. “It makes little difference.”
I stared at him. It weren’t so simple as saying it were his evil heart what made him ugly—Gisbourne had the same such heart and I still knew he looked well. The prince were different, like gazing into the eyes of a snake; there were a beauty there, but the only thing it had ever been used for were terrible things, and it made the prettiness terrible too.
“Do you have any idea the ways you have vexed me?” he asked, turning away from me to the window. He opened it, and I could see him watching something. “You and your lover.”
“What have you done with Robin?” I asked, my voice rushing higher than I wanted. I stepped forward but Gisbourne grabbed me back and pushed me into the chair. I cast about; there were a knife by a tray of cheese on a small table too far from me. There were heavy cups in my reach. Gisbourne’s knife were tucked into his belt now, not far from me.
“He’s simply in the stocks. If he doesn’t freeze to death by morning, I’ll deal with him then.” Something caught his eye outside and he sniffed, then looked back at me. “But you. You are a problem.”
He ran his eyes over me, then looked at my face. I didn’t move none.
“Do you have any idea what’s going on here?” he asked, spreading his arms. “Do you?”
“You’re feeding my people rotten food. That’s all I need to know.”
He looked fair worried. “No, my dear. No. We are on the brink of civil unrest; with Richard away and England splintering at the helm, they need someone strong to lead them. Someone beloved. Someone to unite everyone. Someone to bring them back to the faith of the Crown.”
“Faith of the Crown? You make yourself a false idol,” I spat.
“No. They will make me into an idol, Marian. They will worship me.” He sighed. “But only if you stop telling people that I’m doing very bad things. It’s my turn to be the hero, not yours.” He waved a hand, not even looking at me as he said, “Gisbourne. Kill her.”
I leapt from the chair, grabbing a cup and sliding sideways, making myself less to aim at. “Oh you can try, love,” I growled at him.
Gisbourne just stood there like a lump. His jaw were awful tight, like every muscle had been twanged like a bowstring. “No. My lord prince.”
“No?” Prince John snarled.
Gisbourne pulled the knife from his belt and handed it to Prince John. “No. I’m not killing her.”
Prince John looked at the knife handle like it were poison. “You know why I cannot spill her blood,” he sneered.
“I will not dishonor my name, your Highness. And I will not take that curse upon me, even to spare you from it.”
Prince John’s chest began to rise and fall faster and faster. “You disloyal scum,” he growled. “I do not fear God,” he said, snatching the knife and turning to me.
“Like hell,” I snapped. “Come at me with that and I’ll break your pretty face, your Highness.”
“Gisbourne, hold her at least, would you?”
The door opened rough and fast, and Eleanor strode in with fair surprising speed for such a woman. I thought I saw the pretty girl that were half dressed in the hall behind her, but I couldn’t be sure. “John.”
Prince John looked to his mother, his lip curling. He didn’t lower the knife. “Mother.”
“Put the knife down.”
“Mother—”
“If I wanted a discussion, I would have asked you a question. Put the knife down.”
“I will punish her for what she’s done!” he roared.
Eleanor folded her hands calmly in front of her. “You will not kill her. If I have prevented you and your brothers from killing each other for the past twenty years, I will prevent you from doing this. Royal blood is sacrosanct, John. I will not allow you to kill the girl in cold blood.”
The knife lowered marginally. “You never seemed to mind murder and bloodshed when my dear brothers raised war against Father.”
She lifted her chin. “Oh, I suppose hurting her will win you a kingdom?” she asked.
His sneer folded slowly into a frown. “She must be punished. Severely.”
“Go to the window,” Eleanor said, still standing calm in the center of the room, like all the energy and life in the place were coming from her alone.
Prince John rolled his eyes like a willful child but he went. “What am I meant to be looking at, Mother?”
“Tell me what you see.”
“I see a criminal in the stocks.”
Robin.
“And?” she questioned.
He huffed out a sigh. “And a considerable amount of people around him. Servants. Lesser nobles.”
“And what are they doing?”