I looked at my hand, still a little swollen. My aim were just a lick off, but we’d be in close quarters. I nodded to Rob.

He were silent for a long stretch, and I didn’t speak, crunching leaves as we walked.

“About John,” he said at long last.

I blinked.

“I don’t want to know how you two are fooling about, but if it interferes with the band I’ll kick you out myself.”

The breath stopped in my pipes. “What?”

“I won’t repeat myself. And I don’t want to talk about it more than that.”

“But—”

“I’m not joking, Scar. I don’t want to know.”

I snapped my yap closed. Fooling about? Did he think I were John’s bit of fun for the day? My belly twisted and I didn’t like the feeling. Worse, were that what John thought? It weren’t like we ever snuck kisses or nothing like that. I never even got an inkling that he might like to kiss me, and I certain didn’t want to kiss him. I didn’t think. He weren’t bad looking or nothing, but he were in my band. I fought with him; I watched him gut deer. Most days I wanted to smack him more than anything tender.

And he weren’t Rob. But then, maybe that weren’t such an awful thing. Rob’s sort I could never deserve.

Rob didn’t speak the rest of the way, and thoughts of John and Rob kept wheeling over in my head.

I sat in the window, spinning a knife on my finger while we waited for Edward to enter his bedchamber. He wouldn’t have a guard or company of the male sort in there, so we waited for him to appear, knowing we could hold him back.

We didn’t have to wait long. He came in and shut the door before turning with a start. “Robin Hood?” he asked.

“I heard you’ve been singing Gisbourne a song, Edward,” Rob said, his eyes black.

“Oh Christ and the saints,” Edward swore. “Of course I told the thief taker. Why shouldn’t I? Quicker I’m rid of you lot, the better.”

“There are a few reasons,” Rob said, nodding toward my knives.

“What, a whip of a lad and a few pin sticks?”

I smiled at that, and Rob chuckled. “You don’t want to know what those pin sticks can do.”

“Well, you ain’t going to kill me, and you ain’t going to hurt me, and I ain’t going to stop telling the thief taker or the sheriff what I hear. So what do we do now?”

“We don’t want you, Edward. You’re a fool if there ever was one. But you didn’t know where we live, so who told you?” Rob asked.

“Informin’ on the informant, eh? That’s the game today?”

“Just tell us the name. You shouldn’t be shy to reveal your source.”

“Can’t imagine what you want with him. You ain’t going to kill him neither. And if I don’t tell you, he’ll keep on keeping me on—isn’t that right?”

“Rob’s got more principles than me,” I reminded. “Me, I know that you pay taxes like the rest of us, and I know where you keep your collection money. What would your sheriff do if you couldn’t pay?” I shrugged. “I like shiny things like that, but the sheriff likes softer bits. Like your wife, or your little son.”

He looked more worried. “You wouldn’t never hurt my wife or son.”

“Wife and son, no, no. I told you, I like shiny bits.”

He grimaced. “Everyone says you lot are so honorable.”

Rob shrugged. “Can’t hold a thief accountable.”

“It was Godfrey Mason what told me.”

Robin’s face went white like someone stole his blood, and I stood up.

“You’re lyin’,” I said.

“’Fraid not. The sheriff is awful insistent that we should help this thief taker, and once the sheriff sends me up, Godfrey wants my seat. Thought to grace his way in.”

I shook my head. “Sheriff’s not sending you nowhere, Marshal,” I told him.

“Is so. Promised me Constable of the Royal Horses in Nottingham.”

“That station’s filled,” Rob told him.

“Things shake up round here fast, Hood. It’ll shake up and we’ll shake you right out.”

Rob frowned. “Not likely. Will, let’s go.”

Rob looked toward me and I saw Marshal go for his belt dagger. I pushed forward in front of Rob. “Settle back there, Marshal,” I told him, putting two daggers on him.

He sighed and moved backward, holding his hands away from his belt. Rob went out the window, and I backed my way over to it, tipping my hat to Marshal and hopping out the window.

His house had two levels, so we went across the lower roof and then jumped off the end of it, walking farther into town.

Rob put his hood up. “I can’t believe it was Godfrey.”

“Honestly.”

“I doubt Ravenna knows.”

“She’s his twin; how could she not know?”

His jaw worked. “God knows you can be right beside them day in and day out, and sometimes you don’t know those closest to you at all.”

“Should we talk to him?”

Rob’s face were all kinds of sad, but he shook his head. “No. Let’s get to Tuck’s.”

“We need to make a stop first,” I told him.

He just nodded, following behind me.

I went almost clear to the other side of Edwinstowe, knocking on the door of a small house. A tall man that almost had to hunch over a bit greeted me and smiled. “Scarlet—and Robin Hood!” he realized, bursting into a big grin.