Rob and I worked with the rest of the people of Nottinghamshire until well after dark. Within a few hours we weren’t finding any more bodies, which were a relief.
Rob opened the castle to anyone without a home to return to, and we brought as many blankets and pallets as could be found and stuffed to the Great Hall, feeding everyone what we could. It were strange listening to Rob give orders. He’d grown comfortable as the sheriff. He were born to it.
And I didn’t tell him that those orders were now mine to give. I liked listening to him do it, confident in himself and his role.
I were sitting with Bess and some girl she knew, playing with the other woman’s daughter, a sure-footed tot named Molly. The girl stomped around us with glee, reveling in her newfound ability to walk, and Bess tensed, hissing breath out over her teeth.
“Bess?” I asked, lurching forward.
The pain passed, and she laughed. “Just a rather hard kick,” she said. “I swear, he’s stronger than his father.”
“He?” I asked.
Her shoulders lifted. “I don’t really know. Some days all I wish for is a little boy, with John’s eyes and shoulders, and every day he grows, it will be a little less like John died,” she said, her voice hushing on the last word. “Then other days, that sounds like torture. And I hope for a girl.”
Her friend squeezed her hand.
“Much wants a girl,” she said, sniffing. “He’ll be thrilled, either way, but he wants a girl. Some days—I know he looks at you lot, and wonders how he can be a good enough man if he’s not like John, or Robin Hood. And that’s not fair,” she said, wiping a sudden tear from her eye. “It’s not. He’s a wonderful man all on his own.”
I nodded. “He is.”
She nodded hard. “Good. You tell him that, will you? He loves you.”
“I will,” I promised. “Come—you should rest, and I won’t let you sleep on the floor in your state.”
She nodded again, wiping away more tears, and her friend and I both conspired to pull her up gentle. I went and found an empty room—though a boy came in and I kicked him out, so maybe the chamber hadn’t been very empty—and even with my awkward hands, I untied her dress and served as her maid to change her for bed.
“Thank you,” she said when I were done.
I nodded, my mouth opening. I frowned, not sure how to say the words. “I’m sorry, Bess,” I managed. “I’m so sorry. I got him killed.”
Her shoulders jumped a little. “On my worst days, Scarlet, I blamed you. And Robin, and Much. Everyone there. But it’s not your fault. Prince John killed him. That’s all.” Some pain came to her again, and I eased her onto the bed. “I’m just lucky he didn’t take Much this time around. It was him that burned the city, wasn’t it?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said. “I doubt we’ll be able to prove that, but I know it was.”
“That’s what I thought. So now . . . now I just pray he won’t have the chance to hurt my baby, Scar.”
Unsure, I touched my fingertips to her belly, and she pressed them there. I felt something move, and I shut my eyes. “No one will hurt that baby, Bess. I promise.”
Tears leaked out the side of her eyes. “Is that a promise you can keep?” she whispered.
I nodded. “Yes.” I tried to smile. “If nothing else, John will haunt me all my days if I don’t.”
She gave a tiny half laugh and nodded. “Will you tell Much where I am?” she asked.
“I will,” I said.
She relaxed onto the pillow, as much as she could in such a state, and I left her, closing my eyes. God, I prayed that were a promise I could keep.
I found Much and told him, and he quit the hall in a breath, telling me Rob had gone down to the treasury. Smiling after him, I went down there. It weren’t much—just a heavily locked room deep in the rock the castle had been built on. But the door were in splinters on the ground and the room were empty, not including Rob, sitting in a chair. The other chair and the table were broken too.
He had a coin in his hand, and he were staring at it, looking just as broken as the table.
“Rob?” I called.
He looked up. He drew a deep breath and held up the coin. “All that’s left,” he said. “All the county’s money. All the tax for the ransom. This is it.” He flipped it and caught it. “You asked me what’s happened here since you left, and it has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Being the sheriff, imposing a tax that breaks my people even though I want my king home more than most—these months have been brutal. I’ve never felt so responsible, so aware of the sacrifice I’m asking them to make. And while I was trying to keep everyone alive, they came and stole our money. The people will be dead anyway, and I’m just a fool.”
“You’re not a fool, Rob.”