Page 41 of The Wicked Prince

Will Scarlet. That’s who this one was.

The young man was trying to spit some kind of insult toward John, but it was lost behind the gag in his mouth. John could imagine it was as flattering as most people’s comments about him. John turned to the Sheriff and said, “Where did you grab him again?”

“Found him trying to sneak out of the kitchens. He got through the gate hiding in what was supposed to be a barrel of wine for the upcoming ball.”

It was hard to plan a ball fitting for a princess when said princess detested extravagance and excess. Knowing she would fight him every step of the way, he was planning it in secret. That was a whole other challenge, planning a ball for the woman he spent almost all of his day with and keeping her from discovering said plans. It was almost as hard as keeping the very same woman he spent every day with from discovering how pathetically in love with her he was.

Now he had a third secret.

He’d caught her men trying to rescue her.

“He must have had someone help him. And there’s two more of them that could be about.” John gestured at Will. “Ungag him.”

The Sheriff shook his head but complied.

The second he did, a string of heinous insults fell out of the young man’s mouth.

“—vile, belly crawling vermin! You—”

“That doesn’t really make me inclined to not kill you.”

Really, did the boy not have a brain or any sense of self-preservation?

“How would he know that? You married a girl who bit you,” the Sheriff muttered.

John sneered at the Sheriff. “Maybe that’s why I married her. Maybe I like that.”

“Shut your filthy mouth about her!” Will spat, his chains rattling as he struggled against them. “I swear if you’ve put a hand on her—”

“You’ll what?” John rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. “What do you think you can do to me when I’ve got you chained up and am debating what method I’ll be using for your execution?”

Will fell silent, glowering at John. Hmm. John was hoping that would get him the location of the other two buffoons. Or at least confirmation that they were around for a rescue.

There were only two options here. John couldn’t keep him in the dungeons, or else Robin might discover he was there. That would cause problems, possibly even an escape. If John executed him and Robin found out, she would hate him more than she did currently—whatever that level was. She would never forgive him. But if he let her men go… they’d keep coming back, trying to take Robin from him.

No matter what he did the end result was almost guaranteed. Losing Robin.

It just differed in what way.

Will stayed silent, just glaring at him.

“That’s right. There’s nothing you can do about it if I have my hands on my wife. And I do. Every night.” John smirked as Will’s face matched his surname. “And she enjoys it.”

The best part was it was true, just not the way he was implying.

Will spat at him, causing John to jump back to avoid it. His shoes cost more than the boy’s life was worth. Will snarled, “You can kill me, but one day you’ll pay for what you’ve done. To her. To everyone. You’ll regret the day you ever saw her.”

John had no doubt he would.

He muttered to the Sheriff on his way out, “Search every inch of this castle and this city until you find the other two. Then throw them all out of the city walls and make sure they can’t get in again.”

But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to hold onto her as tightly as he could until that day came.

* * *

John would have been attached to Robin’s side even more than usual if he didn’t already spend so much time with her that it wasn’t really possible to be more attached. He couldn’t increase her personal guards without raising her suspicion so he increased the overall number of guards in the castle and city.

The Sheriff caught a man in a wig and dress pretending to be a new hire in the laundry room. John thought the man’s name started with an A, but it didn’t really matter. He’d made for a very ugly “woman”, and they hadn’t had a new hire since he and Robin had started working to cut costs.

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