Page 29 of The Wicked Prince

She glared at the guards as their horses surrounded her. She held her hands up and away from the bow and arrows still on her back.

It might look like a surrender, but it was the start of a war.

* * *

It occurred to Robin when the door to King Richard’s study shut behind her, she’d never actually seen Prince John angry.

He’d always been smug, bored, or afraid.

Now he looked livid.

She’d gotten under his skin. For the first time since Robin had laid eyes on Prince John, she was winning.

Now that she’d gained ground, she wasn’t going to give an inch back. She had to keep pushing forward if she wanted to get anywhere.

Robin put her hands on her hips and said, “I’m a little surprised you didn’t have me chained to the chair again.”

Prince John was pacing by the window, and he pointed at her. “Don’t tempt me.”

She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. She’d really gotten under his skin. “Sorry, I forgot to send a memo to reschedule the time you spend creepily spying on me. I’ll remember tomorrow.”

“There won’t be any repeats of this!” John snapped. “Did you not stop and think for a second about your own safety when you abandoned your guards?”

Robin couldn’t control herself a moment longer and her laugh ricocheted off the walls. “Please, I’m not so stupid to think you care about my safety! This is about controlling me. If you even thought about trying to sell that lie for more than a second, you’d have come with your guards and fetched me yourself! Thankfully you’re too much of a coward for it to occur to you before now!”

“Fine! Even if you’re delusional enough to believe you are invincible, you still did not think about your actions. Do you have any idea what you just did?”

“Got to actually speak to people who aren’t on your payroll?”

“By this time tomorrow everyone is going to be talking about your little escape and they’re going to think—”

“That I’m a prisoner and we’re notmadlyin love.” Robin put a sneering simper to her words. “They already know I’m a prisoner. Half of the people out there were convinced you’ve been keeping me chained up in a tower where you visit me only to beat me. Pretending this is a happy marriage isn’t going to make anyone out there love you.”

“Who said I wanted their affection? That’s what you’re here for.” John scoffed, gesturing at her. “You keep them at bay with your reputation so I don’t have to worry about them coming for my head. You trying to run away only leads to them coming for my head.”

Was that really such a bad thing?

“Maybe we should just give the people what they want.”

“The desires of the mob are no way to rule a country.”

He couldn’t be serious.

She scoffed, “Like you know anything about actually ruling a country.”

Then the anger vanished, and John looked at her with a strange tranquility. He said, “You truly do not understand a single thing about me.”

Obviously.

“Upon reconsideration, I’ve determined it’s a wholly futile endeavor and have abandoned it lest your maniacal tendencies spread like a cold.” Robin tightened her grip on her arms. “Whatever rot there is in your soul that makes you this wicked creature, I’ll have no part of it.”

John just paused by the desk and leaned on it, crossing his arms with a lazy grin. “What did you hope to accomplish with your display today?”

She blinked at the abrupt shift again in topic.

“I think I made myself clear last night. I was proving that you can study me all you want, you can obsess over every detail until you get it perfect in your little sketches, but it’s not going to be enough for you to break me. I’m not going to stop fighting you every step of the way. And I’m not going to stop fighting for the people down there who suffer and starve because of you.”

“And have I ever lifted a finger or said a word to try to stop you?”

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