Page 62 of The Wicked Prince

Robin shook her head. “One survived, but not that one. He painted it himself.”

Little Jon hmphed. “Didn’t know he was an artist.”

Robin tightened her grip on her bad leg. “There was a lot about him I didn’t know either. He wasn’t… He wasn’t what I thought.”

“What was he then?”

“He wasn’t a tyrant. Or lazy.” Robin looked up at the stars peeking between the tree branches. “Or as greedy as I believed. And…”

“I love you.”

“Braver than I imagined.” Robin shook her head. “But that doesn’t matter. He’s still a coward. He won’t be coming after us, not personally. Not where we’re going. That I know.”

If Robin had to be the bigger coward, she would be.

Chapter25

John had never ridden so hard and fast in his life. He barely ate or slept and only when Guy reasoned with him that they had to stop and rest or else they’d kill the horses and slow themselves down even further.

All John could think about was Robin.

He had to reach her before he lost her.

If this was the end…

For the first time in his life, John was going to at least go down fighting.

* * *

Robin stared down at the papers in front of her.

The air was dry. Of course it was. It was the desert, after all.

“Why isn’t she signing?” Will hissed in the background.

The day before, Robin and her men had arrived at their destination.

King Richard’s encampment in the Scaldier desert. Her men were quite resourceful even without her. Maybe she wasn’t the only one who could come up with a plan. Those months she’d been in Lathe, after Marian had refused to help them, they’d gone to the only person who had power over Prince John. King Richard.

Robin could barely recall meeting him now. It had been such a whirlwind, her heart in her chest as she knelt on the sand in front of him as he examined her, the girl his brother had married. The outlaw who had been ruining his war efforts.

He’d gone through the story her men had told him. How John had captured her and coerced her into marrying him. How John was a villain starving the people and withholding funds from the army.

And that was when everything sort of rushed back into clarity as she’d pushed herself to her feet, declaring that wasn’t true.

King Richard had raised an eyebrow and said, “So you mean to say your own men are liars and have wasted my time?”

“They’re not liars. What they told you is mostly true. But John wasn’t trying to starve anyone or withhold from the army.”

“But it is true he coerced you into marrying him?”

Robin had fallen silent again, spinning the wedding band around her finger.

Richard continued on. Either way, there was a legal error. John had pardoned the Merry Men following their marriage.

He’d never pardoned Robin. Not before or after. Which meant Richard had the power to annul the marriage with her consent since she was still a criminal under the law, and once the marriage was annulled, he could pardon her. Everyone would win, except for John.

All Robin had to do now was sign. So once the paperwork had been drafted, a day after they’d arrived, she was staring down at it sitting on Richard’s desk.

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