Page 44 of The Wicked Prince

“Be careful with the next words that leave your mouth.”

“You’re in love with her.”

John immediately looked back over at Robin, but she was far enough away and completely engrossed in her conversation with Marian that she didn’t hear.

John hissed, “You’d be wise to stop talking from now until you die lest I find a good reason to shut you up myself!”

Unfortunately, John’s threats had little effect on Guy who had long since grown used to them and they were more often empty than not. You fail to actually go through with executing your only friend a few times and it loses its power.

Guy did lower his voice as he said, “Anyone can see it written on your face the way you were looking at her like a lovesick little boy.”

“More or less the way you looked at Marian for years before you finally did something about it?”

“So you admit it.”

“I admit nothing to anyone whose business it is not.”

“And what do you think is going to happen next? This war won’t last forever. What happens when Richard comes back and finds out you married a criminal? The one responsible for hurting his war effort? Do you really think he’ll let you keep her?”

“We both signed with our legal names. If Richard tries to take her away, good luck. He’ll need a reason to annul the marriage.”

“He’s the king. He’ll find a way.” Guy shook his head. “I never liked this scheme of yours. Trying to turn an outlaw into a princess was always destined to fail.”

“I hardly think I’ve failed.” John gestured to the packed ballroom around them. “Quite the opposite in fact. Astren is in better shape than it has been in years.”

“You captured an outlaw and offered her death or your hand. Just because she chose your hand over the noose doesn’t mean she’ll give you her heart.”

John had no witty response to such a cold, blatant fact that he had long since accepted.

He had marked himself as hers, but that did not make her his. No matter how many times he called her his wife.

“I’ve had to deal with her schemes and the three men that trail behind her for years, Your Highness. She’s just biding her time until you make a mistake and she sees the next opening. And you’re foolish enough to give her one that will tear your own heart out with it. She’ll never love you because she will never choose to. She will never choose you over her men or her freedom.”

John refused to look at Guy, keeping his gaze on the crowd, trying to determine who he and Robin should fleece first. He said, “You thought she was a man and chased after her on horseback a couple of times while trying to woo her cousin. I’ve spent every day with her for months. I know her. She’s my wife.”

If he called her his wife enough times maybe it would be true in more than just name.

“She’s a pet. And she’s not even yours.”

Guy was only half right.

“Shut up before I have you thrown in the dungeons. Nowthatyou know I will do.” John left Guy and strode toward Marian and Robin.

John had thrown Guy into a cell once for waxing on about Marian instead of delivering a plan for what he was going to do about the criminal who had just made off with the taxes Guy and the Sheriff had come to Lathe to deliver.

“—months. I thought… by now…” Robin said, her voice low.

John slowed in his approach, making sure to walk up behind her.

“Then maybe they listened to me for once and let you go the way they should have the minute you told them who you were,” Marian said.

John swallowed. They had to be talking about her men. Who were actually desperately trying to get to her.

“Marian.You’ve never liked the fact I chose to stay with my men instead of coming back to you and taking the Locksley name, but it was where I belonged. Besides, by the time I saw you again, I was already wanted for poaching. It would have been a matter of time before everyone discovered I was Robin Hood. I’d found my purpose, and I wasn’t going to give that up for anything.”

Could she ever be happy in Lathe?

“Purpose?” Marian scoffed. “You had a vendetta against Prince John and wanted to make him pay however you could. Decrees and taxes were just the excuses you could use to justify it and make yourself a hero for it. How about for the chance to do some real, substantial good? To have a life and a home that has walls and a roof?”

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