Robin: Lady of Legend (The Classic Adventures of the Girl Who Became Robin Hood) Read Free Page A

than the promise of good treatment? You lied when you said I was not a horse; I am nothing to you but a filly you can sell, never mind the character of the buyer—”
    “Enough!” Lord Locksley’s face was purple with rage. In spite of herself, Robin took a step back. “Enough. I see now how remiss I have been, letting you run around for years like a wild boar, and permitting you to take up the bowman’s art. Darah warned me that such negligence would have repercussions. You seem to think you are a man, with a man’s right to choose his fate and to speak his mind. You are not a man, not even a boy. You are nothing but a girl, and it is high time you faced that fact. If it takes a husband breaking you to him to teach you your place in the world, so be it.”
    Stunned, Robin made one last plea for clemency. “Please, Father . . .”
    His words thundered through the room. “The contract has been signed! In one month’s time, you will marry the Sheriff of Nottingham.”
    Tears of bitterness welled in Robin’s eyes, scalding her like fire. With the last vestige of pride she possessed, she turned on her heels and strode away before her father could see them fall.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Robin refused to come out of her room the next day, or the day after that. On the third day, they sent Marian to talk with her.
    Robin had been lying on her bed, wondering morosely if there was any chance Phillip Darniel would die of consumption before their wedding night, when Marian’s soft knock broke through the gloom of her self-pity. She looked up to see her sister hovering just outside the doorway, her hands clasped in front of her and her eyes fixed on the stone floor, as though afraid Robin would send her away if she met her gaze. Marian’s meekness irritated her sister, but then Marian had never been one to rebel against the expectations of others—that had been Robin’s purview.
    Father is right , she thought without bitterness, breaking off her scrutiny and flopping over onto her back. Marian is the beauty of the family. With long brown hair, solemn blue eyes, and a petite yet womanly figure, Marian at fourteen was already more lovely than Robin could ever hope to be. In contrast, Robin’s hair was flaxen and thin, her frame lean and tall; even the hue of her eyes was different. No one seeing them together for the first time would suspect the two girls of being sisters.
    “Darah sent me,” Marian began hesitantly, taking a tentative step into the room. “She thought you would rather see me than her.”
    Well, Darah is on the mark there.
    Taking Robin’s silence as permission to continue, Marian went on: “She wanted me to tell you how lucky you are, marrying the Sheriff. She says she never thought anyone would want you at all. She says—”
    “Are you going to keep repeating what Darah said?” Robin demanded testily. “Because if you are, you can get out. Now.”
    Marian swallowed hard and fell silent.
    “Maybe . . . maybe he will not be so bad,” she ventured at last. “He is rather handsome, even if he is old.”
    “Are looks all that matter to you?” Robin asked in disgust. “I have heard enough stories from people I trust to know that in spite of his beauty, the Sheriff is a beast, not a man: stories of friends arrested without reason, of cracked ribs and cracked pates for nothing more than a misconstrued glance. He cares not if people are too poor to pay his taxes—in fact, he rejoices when they cannot pay, because then he can evict them from their land and seize it for himself. How do you think he got to be so rich?”
    “Oh, Robin,” Marian burst out. “I am sorry! I feel just awful for you.”
    “If you are trying to cheer me up, you are doing a miserable job,” Robin muttered, but she sat up to face her sister at last.
    Marian did indeed look wretched, her pretty face twisted in sympathy for her sister.
    “It will be all right,” Robin said, indicating with a pat that Marian could sit down