Page 30 of The Wicked Prince

She didn’t know where this was going now, but she didn’t like it. “Stop me from…?”

“Whatever it is you want to do that you think can help those people you say you want to help. You say I’m the root of all evil in the world, yet you have not cut me out. If you did, you’d be regent and could do what you want.”

Did he… want her to kill him?

Robin’s confidence had faded when John’s anger had. A calm John was a scheming one.

“I don’t want to be regent.”

“Why not? Clearly I’m the wrong man for the job.” John started opening drawers and tossing large, thick books onto the desk, one on top of the other. “You went out there because you’re trying to prove a point; how about you stop grandstanding and take action? I’m a tyrant who is starving our people and our army to death with my grandiose extravagance. Obviously.”

Robin took a small step forward as the stack grew with each book, but John was oblivious as he continued on.

“So now that there’s someone who is part of the royal family and painfully loyal to Richard and has the people’s best interests at heart, I can stop playing regent and hand the running of the kingdom off to someone so obviously much better suited for it. Here.” John punctuated the word with a final book on the now towering stack, as tall as him, and while he was scrawny, he was not short.

He patted the top of the stack and gave her a smirk that should have sent her running as he cooed, “My righteous outlaw, my brave princess, my hateful wife, save your people from their greedy, wicked tyrant.”

Robin didn’t have to understand a thing about John to know this was a trap. Somehow he’d twisted the game into his favor again right in front of her.

But knowing it was a trap only made it all the more tempting.

She had known the Sheriff’s competition had been a trap set for her. It had been obvious. That was how she’d easily devised a plan to win the arrow and the taxes that day. John’s traps, however, weren’t obvious, and that was why Robin had fallen for them.

But if she knew it was a trap… why not spring it?

The previous traps had only worked because she’d underestimated how much John knew about her. He was underestimating her this time, assuming her noble upbringing had been abandoned by her completely and that she knew nothing of how to run things or any sense of economics. But Robin knew plenty, and better, she’d lived it. No one had seen more than her the effects of these taxes and John’s policies.

As long as she was careful not to underestimate him, she could navigate this trap like she had every single one that she’d come across before John. He wasn’t special. Just sneaky.

Robin grabbed the stack of books and hoisted them into her arms, bracing them against her chest as she peered around them and sneered, “Gladly, my cowardly husband. Sit back and watch the people’s hero save them again.”

John took a seat at the desk and put his boots up on the edge and stretched his hands to hold the back of his head. “I’ll send them your way.”

“Who?” Robin paused by the door and looked over her shoulder.

“Little Birdie…” John licked his lips and grinned. “Everyone.”

Fight. Alan had told her.

Robin tightened her grip on the stack of books.

No matter how daunting the challenge, Robin never backed down. Even if this fighting style was completely foreign to her, she would conquer it.

And Prince John.

Chapter12

At the break of dawn the next morning, John, already dressed and ready for the day, stood in his doorway, leaning his back against the doorframe and crossing his arms. The second the door to Robin’s room opened, he smirked.

Robin was chased out of her room by three handmaids and two courtiers. She nearly tripped on the hem of her dress as she juggled the books in her hands, wide-eyed and only giving the courtiers nods and hums as the men talked a mile a minute about Robin’s schedule for the day and the matters that needed her attention first.

Oh, yes. This was John’s most brilliant idea yet.

When Robin did get her books back in order and she looked up, her panic instantly vanished as she spotted him and a steely determination replaced it. His smirk grew. He waved at her and blew her a kiss before calling out, “Have a good day, darling!”

Robin was already being ushered down the hall, her guards falling into place with the entourage, but she whipped her head around even as the courtiers dragged her and she ground out, “Oh, I will, my love!”

John laughed.

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