He were looking at the arrowhead already, and strode toward it. “If I pull it out do I become King of All the Britons?” he teased.

I shook my head as he balled up a bit of his cloak and wrapped it round the arrowhead. “No, Rob, the trees!”

He looked frightened for a moment. “Did they threaten you back? I’ve heard things about the Green Man.” Then he grinned at me, teasing again.

“Dammit, Rob, the forest. The trees, the deer, the peat—there’s no one with enough money to buy a manor, but firewood? Wood for building? Meat to feed their families, peat to make a fire?”

The arrowhead gave and Rob held it in his hand, staring at it. He twisted round, taking it in the same way I had. Adding tree upon tree upon tree. He took a deep breath, his eyes wide.

“Good Lord, Scarlet.”

“It will take us a few days, a week at the most, with all the knights and the men from the villages,” I said.

“A day or two more to sell it,” he said.

“We’ll have the full amount before Eleanor even arrives. Prince John won’t be able to touch us,” I told him.

He didn’t say any more. He just caught me up and kissed me.

He leaned me against a tree, kissing me, and my mind spun out, thinking of being alone with him, of marrying him, of touching him in a way I were so curious about.

I pulled away from his kiss. Before any of that, there were something I had to tell him.

He looked at me strange, but I ducked out of his arms, walking away from the clearing.

“Scarlet?” he called. I heard him move behind me, his steps slow and even, following where I led. He could have caught me easy, but he didn’t—he let me lead.

Deep into the forest, it seemed he grew impatient, and I heard his steps coming closer to mine. Never looking back, I started running. This were what I wanted, to run away not from the good things, but the bad ones, to always be able to feel a tiny speck of free and unfettered and still keep the things I loved.

Still keep him.

“Scarlet!” he yelled, confused, but he ran after me.

He were faster and he ran up beside me, his face worried and frowning, but I just kept running, and he ran beside me.

It had been too long since I’d run in the woods. My feet knew their way over the wood floor—thank God I hadn’t lost that, for it were fair hard to learn back—but the rest of my body’d forgotten. My lungs hurt and my legs burned.

I ran faster. I were never afraid of pain.

Sweating hard, I knew we were close and I ached for my destination. Stumbling a bit to do it, I tore the tunic off over my head. Rob were staring at me.

I started to untie the shirt, and Rob tripped on a log, flattening on the ground with a loud curse.

Laughing, I slowed for a moment but continued on. He could catch up.

I kicked off my boots, and Rob were struggling to regain his lost ground and drop his clothing at the same time.

My men’s pants fell off me, and I jumped onto the big rock that jutted out into Thoresby Lake. The loose, long men’s shirt just bare covered the important bits of me.

Tearing with my teeth at the bandages on my hands, I cast them off and dived into the water as Rob made the rock.

The lake were still cold as winter, the near-ice of it stealing my breath and slamming through every inch of my skin. I hung under the water for as long as I could, willing the cold to strip away all the awful things that had happened since I’d been here last, all the pains and new marks on my body, till I couldn’t feel them.

I felt Rob’s entry into the water, and came up for air as he did.

He whipped his hair out of his eyes, leaving it to splay across his forehead like a hedgehog’s spines. I swam to him, smoothing his hair back.

He kissed me. “Why did you bring me here, Scar?”

“Because I love this place,” I told him. “Do you remember when you brought me here? When you told me I should marry John?”

He frowned. “Not my finest moment.”

I grinned. “No.” I touched his cheek, then pulled back to use my hands to tread water. “But you brought me here when I was hurt and confused. Like you knew how much I loved it.”

He nodded and caught one of my hands, looking at the healing cuts and swollen burns. The cold water felt awful good for them. “Are you hurt and confused now, Scar?”

I ignored that, taking a deep breath and kicking harder against the shivers. “There’s something that I need to tell you,” I whispered to him. “Something I won’t ever tell another man. Not ever. So if you decide you don’t want to marry me after this, I’m not marrying Essex. I’m not marrying anyone, do you understand?”

He looked confused and a bit frightened, but he nodded. “What is it, Scar?”

“That night before Gisbourne were found dead,” I told him, and he looked at me, eyes bluer than the water we were in. “He changed his mind.”

Rob frowned. “What do you mean?”

“He decided he didn’t want the annulment anymore,” I said fast, in a rush. “He decided he would make me stay his wife, because he could use me to gain influence from Richard.”

Rob’s arms were well underneath the water, and though I could feel his legs kicking, pushing water round, he looked still. “Make you.”

“And I were hurt,” I said, raising my hand like it were an excuse. “And he pushed me up against the wall—” I stopped, shaking for reasons that weren’t cold and feeling like I were going to cry.