Page 32 of Robin and Marian
“I thought it was already broken?”
Robin turned at that. If he wasn’t mistaken, that was the sheriff. Tuck was there, too. He was plastered to the Sheriff’s side like glue. A bold move. Tuck nodded in agreement, the snipe beak of his mask flopping with him. “It’s broken now.”
The air was alive with sparks from the fire and the blur of flashing lights and sirens. Crews from the forest service were busy containing the flames so that it didn’t spread to the forest beyond them and consume all of Elinor’s property. Next to Robin, Alan landed on his knees and ripped the sleeve of Robin’s red plaid shirt to get at his arm. His brace was wet through, the heat of the fire making him sweat through his clothes. Even the ends of Robin’s hair dripped.
“Robin!”
Scarlett knocked him back, crying hysterically. She already had Midge tucked under her arm. Robin was startled to see that Midge’s face was black with soot, his hair was wet, and a thin thread of blood spread from a cut next to his ear. Robin hadn’t noticed Midge had looked like that before, but he guessed he looked much the same way. “You okay, little guy?”
Midge nodded.
Scarlett let her uncle go long enough to grab Robin by the collar and pull him into the chokehold of a hug, shouting. “I love you, Robin! I love you!”
He grinned until she brushed his wrist. He let out a pained grunt. “Careful.”
“It’s broken now.” Alan explained. Judging by his tight expression, he wasn’t as quick to forgive him. His was the kind of disquiet a man got when his job to protect was taken away.
“Oh.” Scarlett’s punishing grip loosened on him and she pulled back to stare at her brother. The pain aching through his hand and wrist was nothing to the relief he felt that she was talking to him again. “Thank you, Robin! Thank you for saving Midge.”
He spotted Marian standing shyly next to his sister, and he couldn’t help it. He cracked a joke through his dry lips. “Aren’t you going to give me a hug too?”
She hesitated, running her hands down her arms. “You’re hurt.” And then bursting out in a sob she knelt next to him, taking turns wiping the tears from her eyes and wiping the soot from his face. She pushed Robin’s sopping wet hair back, her fingertips brushing against his skin. “You saved Midge’s life!”
Would that earn him a kiss? As tempting as that was, he wanted a second chance with her more. Did this mean that she’d changed her mind? She watched him like she starved for his touch, but before he could try his luck, the sheriff interrupted the moment with a loud clearing of his throat. He tugged up his gray suit pants to kneel in the hard dirt next to them with a grunt.
“Someone else put him in danger,” the sheriff said, his face an inscrutable mask.
Alan jerked angrily away from Robin at that to fight back. “We took all the proper precautions. Nothing like this has happened before.”
“Oh, Alan.” Scarlett forgot her own pain in his. “We don’t blame you. We’re just happy no one was killed.”
Groaning, he pulled his wife to him, holding her tightly and then catching Midge’s shoulder in his embrace, his hand squeezing the material of his shirt so it bunched. The boy was too tired to object.
The sheriff caught Alan in a stony glare, not caring about his feelings. “Exactly. Thishasn’thappened before.”
Guy pushed his way through the tight group of people. “What’s going on here?” His eyes went briefly to Robin then to Marian and they moved quickly away. “Is there some sort of problem?”
Besides the ski jump now lying in a pile of steaming ash and Midge and Robin almost going up in flames? Robin lifted a brow at him. “Where haveyoubeen?”
His cousin ignored him. “Richard is calling this an accident,” he told the sheriff. “He’s talking to the fire crew now, but you might be on to something. I just had one of my men check the mechanism. Someone tampered with the release.”
“It jammed,” Alan said, his eyes defensive.
“So they say,” Tuck muttered. He ripped off his snipe mask to give him a probing look.What was he, a lawman now?Of course the king of conspiracy theories would think this was no accident.
The sheriff gave him a double take. “And you are?”
“The youth pastor.” Tuck shook the sheriff’s hand.
Robin carefully kept his gaze away from them, his eyes going back to Marian, who chewed on her lower lip like she was afraid of saying anything. She threw her hair behind her shoulder as the sheriff approached them with a pad of paper and a pen. “Robin?” His stern glare was on him. “Do you have any reason to believe that this was intentional? Maybe you were the target here?”
He listened to Marian’s sharp intake of breath. She laced her fingers through Robin’s.
Robin shook his head. It was purely an accident that he and Midge were caught in that firetrap. “Did you even see what happened, Sheriff? That would have to be some evil mastermind to get that fire to chase me.”
The sheriff treated him to a long stare. “Just answer the questions. Were you not on the ski jump minutes before this all started?” Robin’s arguments died on his lips, and the sheriff pointed a rough finger at him. “Let me try again. There are plenty of people who might be angry at you here in Nottingham. Does anyone stand out in particular?”
The sheriff didn’t say Little John, but he didn’t have to. And John would never stoop to that, either. Never mind that the odds of catching Robin in that blaze were next to nothing. He felt like he was being used like a club against his friend, but why? Instead of squabbling with the sheriff, Robin opted for a safe answer. “No one stands out.”
