AN HOUR passed, and then another. Just as Marian was beginning to despair of anyone coming for her ever, the door swung open and Lucy stepped inside.
“Lucy,” Marian breathed. Perhaps all hope was not lost. “Oh, Lucy. I’m so glad to see you.”
“His Majesty, God save him, bid me see you bathed and changed.”
“Lucy, if you’ll only listen to me—”
“You can have nothing to say to me,” Lucy snapped. Marian had never heard her voice so cold. “I came only to open your door for the maids.”
Without another word she left the room.
Three stewards came in, hauling bucket after bucket of water. After the tub was filled, a maid Marian had never see came in and stripped Marian of her dress. Her job was not her fault, and Marian didn’t protest when she helped Marian into the water. She sat quietly as the maid washed her hair, then combed it out. She helped Marian from the tub and dried her down with a bath sheet.
“The king, God save him, requests that you dress in your finest. One of the others will be in to help you. The friar will be here shortly.”
“The friar?” Marian heard herself ask. Her voice sounded far away, like someone calling to her from the other side of a valley.
“Of course,” the maid said. “Your marriage announcement has been made.”
Marian started laughing, and once she started, she couldn’t stop. She laughed until her stomach hurt, laughed until tears ran down her cheeks, making the wound the king had left sting.
“Are you quite all right, my lady?”
She wiped the bloody tears from her cheeks. “Why in heaven would I not be?”
Biting her lip, the maid looked down at the floor. “As I said, one of the others will be in to dress you.”
The guard fastened the lock behind her. Marian sat in her underthings for a long time, staring at the door and willing it to open. When it didn’t, and another hour had passed, she got up and went to the window.
What would happen if she threw herself from it? It was quite a fall. Would it kill her immediately, or would her death be long and painful? The king would not mind; there was so much blood on his hands he’d hardly notice Marian’s. He could find a more suitable woman in a matter of hours, could move her into Marian’s chambers, have all her gowns shortened, and no one would care a bit. Oh, they’d have someone else to hate, of course, but no one would miss her.
No one except Robin. No one except Johnny.
With a shake of her head, Marian turned from the window. She lay down on her bed and watched the shadows pass across her room, waiting for the sound of the lock.
When it opened, Marian could hardly believe her eyes.
There, in the boxy, shapeless dress the maids wore, her arms loaded with fabric, stood Lady Lillian. She shut the door and leaned against it.
“Marian,” she said. “You stupid, stupid girl.”
Marian had gone mad. That was the only explanation for it. The king had knocked something loose in her head, and now she was mad. “I—what are you—?”
“I brought you this.” Lillian dropped the bundle of fabric at Marian’s feet. One of Marian’s gowns spilled out.
“You’ve… you’ve brought me a gown.”
“No, you fool. I’ve brought you this.” And she reached down and, from the folds of the gown, extracted another of the shapeless shifts of the ladies’ maids. “They see a maid go in and a maid come out. They don’t even look at the faces.”
“But….” Marian’s thoughts were slippery and her mind clumsy. She stared at Lillian and shook her head. “How did you get these?”
“You’re not the only woman at court who knows how to use what she has to get what she wants.”
“Are you helping me?”
“It would seem so,” Lillian said coolly. “Now put this on.”
“But why? Why would you help me?”
“You’re such a simple, stupid girl, you know. You never could see what was right beyond your own face. So long as you’re here, I can never get what I want.”
Marian paused in pulling on the dress. “The king.”
Lillian spread her hands out, palms up. “The first intelligent thing you’ve ever said.”
Marian dressed more quickly than she ever had in her life. With no jewels, her hair undone, she could easily pass for a maid. She’d done it a thousand times before.
“You go first,” Lillian said, once she was done. “I’ll wait a little while and then let myself out. No one will even think on it.”
“Thank you for this.” She did not take Lillian’s hand, though she wondered if perhaps she should. “No matter your reasoning, I am in your debt.”
“Then for the first time in your life, you’re where you ought to be.”
Perhaps she should take the lifeline Lillian was offering her and run as far and as fast as she could. But something had been niggling at her mind, and she couldn’t go without at least asking. “Could I ask you one thing before I go?”
Lillian shrugged dismissively. “You can ask. I may not answer.”
“I saw you sneaking away from the inn one night.”
Lillian went as stiff as a board. Her lip curled and her nostrils flared. If Marian hadn’t already shrunk back, Lillian might have struck her. “That,” she bit out, “is none of your concern.”
“No, you’re right. It isn’t. The only thing is, I can’t help but think…. I saw how he was looking at you—Johnny. I saw how he watched you at the feast.”
“Go,” Lillian said. “Go right now before I call the guard.”
“If it is him you were with,” Marian said, and she did reach for Lillian then. Lillian snatched her hand away as if Marian were coming at her with a red-hot poker. “If it is Johnny, I beg you, try to keep him in the city. Don’t let the king send him to France. It’s bad there, Lillian. Worse than anyone knows. The king will be furious with me. This is your chance. Ingratiate yourself to him. Capture his favor. Convince him to keep Johnny here.”
In all the years she had known her, Marian had never seen Lillian undone. She’d always thought her unflappable. But her face was white and her hands were shaking.
“I don’t owe you anything,” Lillian said shakily.
“No, you don’t. But I ask it of you all the same.”
Marian held Lillian’s gaze for a long moment, then rapped twice on the door. The guards did not even look at her as she passed.
IT WAS nearly sunset by the time Marian reached the city gates. She had doubled back so many times she’d nearly gotten lost herself, but she was certain no one was following her. What if Robin had heard the wedding announcement and thought Marian had changed her mind? What if she’d already left? Or worse, what if she’d returned to her post in the king’s army?
Marian quickened her steps, drawing her cloak more tightly around her. She rounded the corner of the city wall and nearly screamed into the night to see Robin standing there, her arms crossed over her chest and her jaw as hard as stone.
“Robin,” she breathed, crowding Robin into the wall and pressing in close, shaking with relief. “Where were you?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you on the road.” She reached up and carefully touched the cut on Marian’s cheek, wincing when Marian shrank back from the touch. “Are you all right?”
“I will be.”
“I was an hour from storming the castle myself.”
Marian exhaled. “You’d have been killed.”
“Well, then. It’s a good job you got yourself out, isn’t it?” She shouldered her bag and reached for Marian’s hand. “Ready?”
Marian didn’t turn back to look at the glittering castle behind her. “Let’s go, then,” she said, and they went.