David and Rob took as much time as they could. We had seven boys hidden in chests, and they made quick work of secreting the ransom away to the water gate and Kate’s rowboats. It were a short trip down the river to where her ship were docked.

One by one, the chests disappeared, and the sky didn’t fall upon our heads.

Rob and David dropped a chest to the floor of the treasury, and Rob kissed me, sweat heavy on his brow. “We have one more chest,” he said. “Get them ready.”

There were only two left in the treasury.

I nodded. Allan returned with three boys. Two took the chests that sat there, and one waited anxious for Rob and David’s footsteps.

I held my breath.

Long moments passed before Rob and David appeared, hefting the chest down the stairs.

The boy took it, turning under the stairs as a set of metaled boots appeared at the height of the stairs.

I pulled the door shut. “Can someone lock this?” I called.

The knight ducked so he could see us, and came downstairs, replacing the lock and inserting the key. He stood by the door.

We nodded, and started up the stairs.

The night were thick and warm, one of the first that didn’t get cooler without the sun. Summer were close, hovering, waiting to make her mark on us. To push us through another year.

I stood at the top of the stairs, and Rob’s arm came round me. He were bright and shining with sweat. David glanced at us and turned his head, trotting down the stairs.

Rob kissed me, and I tasted salt on his lips. “I love you, Scar.”

“I love you too,” I told him. “Let’s get back before anyone misses us.”

He leaned forward and touched my lips to his. It were quick and brief. A kiss that were meant to be a beginning, a start, the first of a thousand.

We hadn’t made it to the bottom of the staircase when the gate began to open.

I looked at Rob, and David.

We hadn’t asked them to open the gate yet. It were too early.

We made for the carriage. I had knives in my dress, but Rob didn’t have his sword. David didn’t either.

The knights stopped us, blocking us off. David, Rob, and I stood close together. I didn’t see Allan.

Prince John stood outside the gate, mounted on his horse, with a legion of men holding torches around him, beside him, behind him.

He rode in slow, looking at us with a smug smile on his face, and my heart slammed against my chest.

“Lady Huntingdon,” he said. “Earl Huntingdon. Now, tell me this. Why would my mother come to London, escorted by two noblemen and a legion of knights, and then send her precious ransom off with her granddaughter? Hm?”

I didn’t open my mouth.

“It’s strange, isn’t it? Meanwhile, my nattering wife says she has friends, friends that will stop me. There aren’t many people foolish enough to cross me. Except you two. So it could all be a rather strange coincidence, or perhaps it isn’t.”

Rob took my half hand in his.

“Jacques,” Prince John called, snapping his fingers. The knight who had taken our accounting stepped forward. “What did they do while they were here?”

“They dropped off the silver, my lord,” he said.

“Did you watch them do it? Pick it up, put it down, you watched every chest?”

He paused. “Yes,” he said. But he hadn’t.

“And you went through each chest? Matched the amounts, verified their contents?”

He paused longer. I tugged Rob’s hand to sit on the small of my back over the hilt of my knife, and his eyes met mine for one brief look.

“Go check the silver,” Prince John snapped.

He went. We only had moments.

Prince John dismounted. The knights parted for him, and he came into the circle with us with a wide grin. “Anything you want to confess, Marian?”

“Don’t speak to her,” Rob snapped. “You want to accuse her of something, speak to me.”

“Confess,” he said, stepping close to me. “And I’ll make up a good lie about how you died.”

“I’ll confess,” I whispered.

He stepped a tiny bit closer. “A little louder, Marian.”

“You used to be afraid to get so close to me,” I told him, and he met my eyes. “That was a good instinct.”

I slammed my knee into his crotch, drawing my knife as Rob pulled the other knife from my back. Prince John grabbed my hand with the knife, but I pushed back on his hold, forcing the knights to break the circle as he fell back.

Quick, I grabbed Prince John while he were off balance. I kicked at his knees and stepped fast to the side, grabbing his hair and jerking his head back as I moved behind him.

Two knights came for me, and I pressed the knife to his throat. “Stop!” I yelled.

I saw Rob and David fighting, and they looked at me. A knight hit David across the face, and he fell, and a knight wrapped his arm around Rob’s throat.

Rob stabbed his knife into the knight’s arm, and the knight dropped him. Another knight held out his sword to Rob, while the other knights were backing up, looking at me.

“Move away from him. Now,” I told the knight.

“Kill him,” Prince John grunted.

“I will slit his throat,” I told the knight.

“No, she won’t!” Prince John said. “Kill him! Now!”

The knight were looking at me, not Prince John. “Do it and he dies,” I warned.

“You’re under orders,” John told him. The knight met his gaze. “Kill him! Tuez-le maintenant!”