Page 65 of The Wicked Prince

John twisted, trying to break Richard’s grip as Richard started pulling him away to another tent. He looked over his shoulder, Robin’s name in his mouth as she was practically being herded back inside by her three ruffians.

John stumbled into the tent Richard pushed him into. John pulled himself away and started brushing off his clothes as the general who currently occupied the tent scurried out after Richard was in. Once he was gone, Richard drew himself up, crossing his arms and saying, “It never ceases to amaze me the mess you make of things.”

John couldn’t stop the sneer on his face. “Really? I’m the one that’s had six years to win a war and is nowhere close?”

Richard narrowed his eyes. “Would you like to try your hand at it?”

John blanched but managed to cover it. “That’s not what I’m here for.”

“Right. You’re here for Robin Hood. Or Roberta depending on who you ask,” Richard said. “Honestly, the fact that you’re here at all, I still haven’t fully gotten my head around.”

Frankly, neither had John.

“Just say whatever you’re going to say or tell me what it is you want me to say so I can do what I came here to do,” John snapped.

“What exactly is it you came here to do?” Richard’s brow furrowed. “You had to know I wasn’t going to just let you drag her back to Lathe kicking and screaming to a marriage you trapped her in.”

John bit the inside of his cheek and heat crawled up his neck. He would gladly tear himself open and lay it all at Robin’s feet to see if there was a sliver of a chance he could still salvage this. But showing his raw, exposed heart to Richard? That was mortifying.

“My marriage with Robin is not your business, and if you think I could drag her kicking and screaming anywhere, you severely underestimate her.”

“I’m king and your brother. Your marriage is most certainly my business. Especially when your wife is asking for me to draw up annulment papers.”

“Did she ask or did her men ask?”

“Does it matter as long as she signs them?”

John’s lip curled up into a sneer. “And that just shows how you know absolutely nothing about this situation, so are we done here?”

“Not by a long shot.”

John braced himself as Richard launched into a lecture and tirade their father would have been immensely proud of. With Richard in the desert fighting for the last six years, John had gotten used to them coming in letter form. It was a poor substitute for the real thing.

John imagined Richard had been waiting for this moment for a while.

Most of it wasn’t even about Robin.

A lot of it was about John’s failures as regent before he married Robin. How universally hated he was. All the decisions he’d made that Richard didn’t like—how had Richard even heard of them? Maybe that was why they hadn’t won the war. Richard was too busy fretting over every little thing John did to focus on the real enemy.

They finally did get back to Robin.

“—a mess of that too! How could you think it was going to end any possible way but this? After everything you did to her?”

John had settled in, willing to just take it like he always did, but that dug under his skin like sand. He snapped, “Like what? Spared her life? Didn’t force her to do anything she didn’t want to do? Kept my hands to myself? Worked with her to try and keep our country together? Painted a portrait of her parents and her because I love her? Gave a speech and put myself amongst people who would like to see my head roll because she believes in them? Came running after her the second she ran away so that I could have one last chance to make it clear to her how much I love her and value her and have a hope that maybe she’ll see me for more than the weak coward I was before I ever met her?”

Richard’s eyes widened.

John was slightly out of breath from his own outburst, but he just straightened up. He couldn’t think of any time in his life he’d spoken to Richard like that. Snide comments. Disrespectful jabs. Short curt responses to orders.

And when necessary, begging for something. Like when he’d begged not to be sent to the frontlines.

He’d never stood up to Richard before. Not like this.

“You don’t remember,” Richard said.

“Remember what?”

But instead of answering, Richard nodded and said, “So I should let a criminal help you run my country because you love her? A criminal who doesn’t even want you.”

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