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Sherwood Forest: The Absent King
Sherwood Forest: The Absent King
Sherwood Forest: The Absent King
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Sherwood Forest: The Absent King

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News of King Richard arrives from overseas, causing everyone in Nottingham to re-evaluate their priorities.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherLaura McVey
Release dateFeb 15, 2015
ISBN9781310457715
Sherwood Forest: The Absent King
Author

Laura McVey

Laura McVey is a university graduate with a minor in history, though neither of these things seem to have done her any good yet. She writes stories about heroes and kissing.

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    Book preview

    Sherwood Forest - Laura McVey

    Sherwood Forest: The Absent King

    by Laura McVey

    Copyright 2015 Laura McVey

    This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold

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    work of this author.

    All I’m saying, Much said, is that it wouldn’t hurt to wound a few of them. Just for the sake of reputation.

    Most of the group, having heard this argument several times over, ignored him. Only Will, who was stubborn enough- and had missed the earlier fights, having been in town when they took place- replied, What reputation is that? That we’re savages who kill unprovoked?

    Well ‘savage’ is relative, isn’t it? Much countered. "You might as well call the Sheriff himself savage; he certainly kills unprovoked. But he upholds the King’s law-"

    He does not. (This was Robin.)

    He does, Much insisted, or at least, he claims he does- which is all that really matters, because he has the right to do whatever he pleases so long as the King approves.

    And I say again, Robin said, with an expression that said he acknowledged the futility of trying to ignore Much, that he doesn’t have the King’s approval, because the King is not in England, and hasn’t been since before the Sheriff began his rule. If he was, and he’d given the Sheriff his blessing, then he might be able to claim authority on King Richard’s behalf. But as King Richard has no idea who the Sheriff is or what he’s been doing, he can do no such thing.

    Ah! Much raised a finger. So if he isn’t acting in accordance with the law of the land, then his justice can be called savage- he has no right to punish the people of Nottingham, but he does anyway. We, meanwhile, act within the bounds of the law- if the law accords Robin with the position of Earl of Huntington, which-

    Which it does, Robin said wearily, but proving it would be an exercise in futility, since we have no king to appeal to and no army to crush the Sheriff with. And now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, will you please be quiet so we don’t scare off the carriages?

    Much lowered his voice, but he didn’t stop talking. My point was, before Will changed the subject- Will made an irritated noise, -that the Sheriff is in power because people fear him. No one will rise against a man who chops off the heads of those who dare to criticize him. If we’re going to present any sort of opposition, we’ll need to be as feared as he is. So why not wound the travelers? I don’t suggest killing them, just shedding enough blood that they know we mean business.

    What would be the point? Will whispered, one eye fixed on the road, waiting for the carriage to roll around the corner. If we win by the sword, then Robin will return to power as feared and hated as the Sheriff is now. That’s not victory.

    It is if you believe Robin is the rightful earl, Much hissed back. And I didn’t suggest he wound the people he’s meant to protect. I suggested he wound the wealthy travelers who we’re currently plotting to rob. We’re already taking their money- why not throw a few injuries into the bargain?

    Will opened his mouth to reply, but Robin reached over and shoved him. Be quiet, he hissed, someone’s coming.

    Someone was coming; now that Will and Much had fallen silent, they could all hear the creak of the wheels along the road. Despite the uproar when Lord Bernard and Lady Adela had been killed, the Sheriff had yet to post guards along the road- an omission Will found slightly odd, as the Sheriff’s own allies (Lord Philip among them, Will remembered with a pang) had been the ones who pushed for it. It was one of the questions Will had raised when Much first suggested they rob travelers along the road. If he’d left the area unguarded, he must have done so for a reason- and that reason may have involved a trap being laid for Robin. Robin, in turn, had pointed out that if the Sheriff knew to look for him near the road, then he would just bypass setting a trap and send soldiers in to search for him. Probably, he said, the Sheriff simply didn’t want to spend money on guards to protect the roads- not when he wasn’t the one who faced the possibility of being robbed. Robin had won the argument, but Will was still uneasy about it.

    Whatever the Sheriff’s motives for leaving the roads unguarded, however, they benefited the outlaws in the short run: they could come and go as they pleased, and when they knew a carriage was likely to be passing through- as one was today- they could rob it without fear of immediate reprisal. They’d heard gossip about a rich carriage passing through the territories surrounding Nottingham, disappearing into Sherwood Forest the day prior, and so Robin had assumed that it would travel on the road that ran by their camp.

    He’d assumed correctly. As the carriage rolled into view, Will bit his lip. It wasn’t as ostentatiously gilded as the likes of Ralf de Moynaux’s chosen transport, but it bore an unmistakable design burnt into the door- a lion clutching a rose in its claws, emblazoned on what Will suspected would be a field of yellow, if the seal were painted instead of burned. It was one of the most recognizable coat of arms in England- not King Richard’s seal of three lions, but the one Richard had granted

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