The Pardoner's Crime Read Free Page A

King’s deer.’
    The archer shrugged. ‘We are outside the King’s law, but we must still eat. The deer belong to the wood and we claim the woods, so it is ours, not the King’s.’ His mouth curled into a smile. ‘Although if he should care to pardon us we would let him sup with us and feast on our good fresh venison.’
    Richard was perspiring still and his calf throbbed. He ran a hand across his brow, striving to seem as casual as he could lest the outlaw perceived him to be afraid rather than in pain. In truth, he had little fear of death, or even very much of a taste for life since his Eleanor had died in childbirth. When his son died a day later he had for a time even hoped for death. That was why he had been perhaps less careful than he needed be at the battle of Boroughbridge.
    â€˜You have a wound, Sir Richard,’ the archer said. ‘I can tell the signs. It may be festering. You may sit down on that tree bough.’
    Richard did as he was bidden. ‘I thank you – whatever your name is.’
    â€˜My comrades call me Hood. I am Robert Hood of Wakefield.’ Once again he gave a wan laugh. ‘Or rather I was of Wakefield.’
    Richard nodded comprehendingly. ‘And I imagine you have guessed that we were also at Boroughbridge, but with the King’s forces under Sir Andrew Harclay.’
    The Hood nodded without betraying any emotion. ‘Mayhap you had more choice than we did.’
    Richard put a hand on Hubert’s wrist as he sensed an outburst from his man. ‘And what would you have of us, Robert Hood?’
    â€˜A toll for using the Outwood. A mark for each man and his horse. And you will also tell us where you are going.’
    Richard opened the pouch that hung from his belt and drew out money, which he lay on the bough beside him. ‘There is your toll, Master Hood. As for where we go, know you that we are on the King’s business and are going first to Wakefield then to Sandal Castle. It is my mission from the King to sit at the Manor Court and administer the law.’
    The Hood tossed his head back and laughed disparagingly. ‘Why, there is no law in Wakefield – and then again, too much! Yet it amounts to the same thing. There is no justice and little humanity.’ His eyes suddenly became serious. ‘Yet I and my men may soon see that it is otherwise.’
    â€˜It is not for those outside the law to take the law into their own hands,’ returned Richard. ‘What riles you that you rant so?’
    â€˜Apart from the merry state that you find us in,’ said the Hood, relaxing the tension on his bowstring and bringing it down so that it pointed harmlessly at the ground. ‘Since Earl Thomas of Lancaster was murdered, Wakefield has fallen into greedy hands. The bailiff is a lackey, the constables are a bunch of dullards and drunks and the new steward is a buffoon. There have been two hangings, a spate of floggings and too many people put in the public stocks for the merest of trifles. My woman’s kinswoman was raped and they have charged no one with the crime.’
    Richard nodded his head in concern. ‘At difficult times order is often lost. Brutality and ignorance often make easy bedfellows. I will change this.’
    â€˜I hope so, Sir Richard,’ replied the bowman. ‘Or I and my men will wreak a savage revenge if the man who took away Lillian’s maidenhood is found and goes unpunished.’
    â€˜I am a Sergeant-at-Law, Master Hood, but you should understand that I will dispense the law, with no help from anyone outside it.’ He rubbed his calf. ‘May we go now?’
    The Hood stared suspiciously at him for a moment. ‘Do not think that you can send anyone after us. We come and go in the woodland and forest as we please. Barnsdale Forest stretches all the way to Sherwood and an army could get lost in there. Yet I shall be keeping watch on what happens in