Page 9 of The Wicked Prince

He’d had the guards take Robin back to the dungeons for one more day while he had the servants prepare a room for her to stay in for the two weeks before the wedding. After that, she’d be moved to the quarters connected to his. The two weeks were mostly for a dress to be made for her. During that time, her men stayed in the dungeons. They’d get their pardon and their freedom after the ceremony.

But at Robin’s immediate badgering, he did acquiesce that she could visit them. She claimed they were the only family she had. It was cute that she thought he’d believe that. He insisted she have guards with her when she did, so there’d be no breaking them out or creating escape plans. Robin didn’t go anywhere in the castle without three guards. She was the prince’s fiancée. She needed to be protected.

John also didn’t trust her as far as he could throw her, and he couldn’t throw anything very far, much less her.

But thankfully the two weeks passed without incident, other than Robin complaining about the extravagance the few times he saw her. John ignored her. It was a royal wedding. It demanded opulence. Robin didn’t try to escape. He didn’t actually see much of her; she chose to eat most of her meals in her room. She spent almost all of her time in her room when she wasn’t visiting her men in the dungeons. She was allowed to go to most places in the castle, but instead, she stayed holed up like she was still a prisoner. On the occasions he did see her—mostly to fill her in on the details of their wedding—she never tried to attack him. She also never cared about the details.

That was fine by John. He had a vision for the wedding, so at least he didn’t have to fight with her over that.

The day before the wedding he stopped by her room, mostly to make sure she hadn’t broken the lock on her wardrobe and destroyed her wedding dress. She had just sat there as he’d fussed with the way the dress was on the hanger until he was satisfied and locked it back up. When he’d told her that Lady Marian had arrived in the castle that day for the wedding, she’d only narrowed her eyes at him. As he went to leave, he bit back a smile and threw over his shoulder, “Sleep well, we have a big day tomorrow.”

Robin rose from her seat, arms still crossed and called out, “Why don’t you hate me for everything I’ve done to you to make you miserable the last five years?”

The question stopped him in his tracks. He looked over his shoulder. “Who ever said I didn’t?”

Did he? He hadn’t really thought about it.

The last five months, he’d been thinking about how much he needed her. Whether he hated her or not didn’t change that.

“You’re marrying me. Until death is a long time to spend with someone you hate who hates you twice as much.”

“Hmm. Maybe I value my life so much and hate you just as much that I could think of no better revenge than to condemn you to me until we die. Maybe I’m marrying you to make you as miserable as you’ve made me.”

Then he was gone.

He spent the night before his wedding tossing and turning, trying to figure out what Robin had been hunting for in her questioning. He didn’t like it. But whatever it had been, it wasn’t going to stop their wedding.

The morning of the wedding, John was fussing with the placement of his crown, trying to find just the right angle where it was secure while also making sure not a single hair was out of place, when a knock sounded on his door.

“Your Highness, I have an urgent matter.” The voice from the other side was the Sheriff.

John rolled his eyes and called out, “Come in.”

He heard the door open, but he didn’t look away from his reflection. He did see the Sheriff and Guy—now Lord Guy thanks to his recent marriage—in the corner of the mirror. John said, “What could possibly be so urgent on the morning of my wedding?”

The Sheriff and Guy looked at each other for a moment before the Sheriff took a long breath and said, “We believe Robin and her Merry Men are up to something.”

That was what they were interrupting him for?

John laughed as he turned around to face the other men. “Did you two come here just to waste my time with something so obvious?”

“Your Highness,” Guy said, stepping forward. “We believe Robin and her men have some kind of code they’ve been speaking in so they can create their plan without giving it away to the guards.”

Obviously they had a code.

That had to be what her questioning the day before had been about. Her strange way of trying to discover if he’d found her out.

John gave Guy a sympathetic wince. “I take it your new wife isn’t too happy with you if you’re concerning yourself with this instead of enjoying being married.”

Guy sighed. “You could have warned me that you were going to use my wedding to capture the outlaw.”

“Where you would have ruined it by telling Marian and cost me my chance to catch Robin?” John scoffed. “It’s no wonder the two of you failed spectacularly to capture Robin for years before I got involved.”

“My wife thinks I was involved!”

“Blame it on me.” John waved his hand dismissively. His hand was healed and thankfully not infected. He hadn’t been certain Robin didn’t have diseases. She lived in aforest.“She’ll get over it. She’s also lucky I’m not going after her as Robin’s accomplice. Be grateful. Now, will the two of you oafs stop wasting my time?”

“Your Highness, if Robin and her men have been able to use this code to plan under your nose this whole time—” the Sheriff tried again.

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