Page 7 of Robin and Marian
Scarlett must have been too distracted to have straightened him up, just as she had missed the extra pair of glasses—in addition to the pair that he wore—that was hanging haphazardly from his dress shirt pocket. Only he could get away with that.Richard looked proud to have Scarlett on his arm. Though he’d tried to fill the void of their father with his unfailing love, Scarlett had taken the loss of their father hard.
Scarlett’s mother was in the crowd. She dabbed decoratively at her nose. If she was crying, it was because her daughter had gone for the son of one of the poorest families in the neighborhood. No doubt she blamed Robin for that.
The next figure in the procession was the sheriff of Nottingham. Wait! Robin did a double-take. The sheriff? William Lyon took the backseat in plainclothes and buzzed hair, dressed up for the office—not for a wedding—with a blue pastel dress shirt, short knitted tie, and his badge glistening on his cinched-up, gray pants. Robin watched him closely as the man cradled his hands against his lantern jaw. He stared unflinchingly back at Robin, a condescending smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. The man had always hated Robin and his friends, like he was trying to follow a Robin Hood storyline where the sheriff had to be his archrival. Now that they were older, nothing had changed. Who had invited him?
Scarlett joined Alan in front of the altar. He took her slender hands, his own trembling as if this was the first time they’d touched. Tears sparkled in Scarlett’s eyes as she stared up at him while the pastor explained the importance of such a union. The two completed their vows and exchanged a chaste kiss.
As the magnificent hall erupted into celebration, the sheriff stood and marched woodenly through the middle of the aisle. Scarlett’s enraptured smile faltered. The cheers and applause were dying now as his hand disappeared inside his pocket to produce a fluttering white paper that he thrust into the bride’s hand. “You’ve been served,” he said.
Her delicate brows drew up. Alan slipped the paper from her hands to read it in an incredulous voice. “A subpoena for embezzlement?”
Robin’s grandfather stood up in indignation from the front pew. Robin’s stomach dropped. The sheriff had done this at Scarlett’s wedding? He must truly hate the King family.
“Yes, congratulations, Alan,” the sheriff said. “You can apply for an annulment with me later this afternoon if that is your wish. You might,” he raised his voice, “after you find out that everyone who’s invested in the Sherwood branch is ruined.”
An audible gasp echoed through the chapel. Most of their investors were in this very room. These were their friends and neighbors. No one in the King family would knowingly hurt them. Robin saw their looks of horror. This meant something different to all of them—broken dreams, uncertain futures.
“What? Why are you saying this?” Alan asked. “On what grounds?”
The sheriff shrugged. “We were suspicious when Jana Prinz pulled out of Nottingham and your stocks remained intact, even after all that negative publicity onsomeone’slove life.” That bitter comment was directed at Robin, who stiffened. Before he could fight back, the sheriff went back to his asinine theories. “Nothing. Nada. No consequences for your indiscretions, not even a dip. Seems almost impossible.” He broke into a smug laugh. “Turns out itwas. Someone at your company cooked the books to make everything seem fine, then used those numbers to trick investors into pouring more money into a failing business. The Sherwood Branch is broke.”
“No!” Little John was the first investor to speak up. “Scarlett would never do this to me!” The last syllable came out as almost a whisper and the man slumped down in his seat, his massive hands upturned.
“She’d never!” Marian repeated. Her arms were clasped protectively around her friend.
Robin shoved through the crowd to reach his sister before the sheriff could do something stupid like arrest her at her own wedding. He could’ve done this more privately, but he had waited for this happy occasion to spring this on them. If the man wanted a public fight, he’d get it. “Where’s your proof?”
“Oh, you want to play that game, do you?” The sheriff sneered at him. “We’ve confiscated her computer and found her handprint all over this. She signed the documents; she fudged the numbers; she fired anyone who would’ve caught on.”
Scarlett was speechless. Robin took a deep breath and forced himself to remain calm. They’d fight this. They had the best lawyers money could buy. He threw his arm around his sister’s trembling shoulders. “Scarlett,” he said. “It’s okay. We’ll figure this out.”
“I… I…” She had nothing to say for herself. “I thought I’d turned in the right numbers. If they were wrong…?”
The truth hit Robin like a cement block to the stomach, and he felt like he was suffocating under it. She’d done it, hadn’t she? This wasn’t just a simple accounting mistake, and if she tried to pass it off as one, they’d take her down. He wouldn’t be able to save her. His head was spinning. But why had she done it? Had she tried to protect him, all of them? Knowing Scarlett, she probably thought she was shielding the original investors, sure that the real numbers would eventually catch up to the fake ones if only the money kept coming in. Stupid, sweet Scarlett.
She’d only made it worse for the newcomers that Alan had brought in—like Little John and Marian’s aunt and uncle. Marian’s mouth trembled. Shifting, Robin saw Alan’s stricken look. He’d brought in those investors, thinking he was doing them a favor when he was leading them into certain financial ruin like a sadistic pied piper. Alan’s reputation would be in shreds.
These thoughts ran through Robin’s mind in a matter of seconds. The blood drained from his nerveless fingers as he held onto his sister’s arm. He tried to figure out a way to keep her there with him, but there wasn’t a way to protect her. Still, he tried. “We all use Scarlett’s computer,” he argued. “It could’ve been anyone who manipulated the numbers.”
Guy glared at Robin, but he ignored that. Robin had no intention of throwing his hapless cousin to the wolves, but he’d have to cast enough doubt to stop Scarlett from getting torn apart.
“Who else uses her computer and knows her passwords?” the sheriff asked. “You? Your cousin? Are you going to fess up to this or are you going to frame someone innocent?”
Robin would never, butsomeonewas going to jail for this. Robin felt his mouth go dry as a new idea took shape. Could he possibly do it? But he knew the answer: he would never let his sister go to prison. None of this would’ve happened if he hadn’t dated Jana Prinz and dropped her on her frizzy head. He was partly to blame. He cleared his throat. “I have a confession to make.”
The sheriff stilled in surprise. “Youhave a confession to make?”
Too late, Robin noticed Midge listening closely with a worried expression. If Robin was going to take the blame then he’d have to do it in style, and so Robin tempered his voice with a grin. “You’ve got the wrong King.” He put his hands up, letting go of his sister and stepping away. “It was me—Scarlett had nothing to do with it.”
Marian gasped.
“No!” Scarlett shouted out the same time her mother shrieked out somewhere in the vicinity behind him like a scene from his childhood. He couldn’t have orchestrated this better had it been a play.
“You’ve always been trouble!” his stepmother shouted, rising in her seat and crushing her hanky in her hand. “Get away from my daughter!”
Scarlett disobeyed her mother’s wishes by flying forward in a flurry of white wedding skirts, grabbing desperately at him. “Robin, no! Don’t do this! You didn’t do it! I know you didn’t! I know!”
He bit his lip. Her reaction only convinced him that he was doing the right thing. If she tried to convince the room that she was guilty, he wouldn’t let her. “I used Scarlett’s name,” he said. “All those signatures are mine. I used her computer, figured out her passwords. I mean, look at my sister—her only crime was trusting in me.”
