Page 81 of Robin and Marian
Alan blew out a disdainful breath, like he knew how that would end. “Good luck with trying to call the shots. You don’t know Guy as well as you think. He says jump, you get a trampoline.” His shoulders sagged in resignation. “If he wants you, he’ll get you.”
“See?” Jana clapped her hands. “This is going to be so much fun. We’re going to be business partners again.”
“You dropped out,” he reminded her dully. “Not me.”
“Only because Guy said that I could get the land for a lot cheaper. You told Elinor to sell her mountain at market value. You’ve always been a lousy business partner, but….” she rubbed his arm and Alan stiffened behind them, “I’ve always enjoyed your company.”
He uneasily ignored that, caught on what she’d said. Guy had set this up from the beginning. He’d been the puppet master and pulled a few strings and they were all dangling in a freefall before him. Robin didn’t know how he’d do it, but he had to find a way to fight back before it was too late.
Chapter 21
Robin hadn’t been acting like himself the night before. He’d been withdrawn, and in the morning when Marian had seen Alan’s bruised cheek under the light of day, she’d guessed they’d fought. The two were clearly not on speaking terms. That made three of them.
She was seething about Robin’s fistfight with the press the day before. Yes, Robin had been completely justified—there was no question—but besides the fact that Guy was too dangerous to confront openly, the altercation was caught on camera. Robin was definitely breaking his parole by punching his cousin in public. To make things worse, Robin had withdrawn from her. He poked listlessly at the fire. He was still in his faded jeans from yesterday and he’d thrown on a dark corduroy jacket over his black shirt to ward off the chill. It made him look like death. She knew he was keeping something from her, and there was no question that it had to do with seeing Alan with Jana Prinz.
Robin’s family made their way around the campsite in silence, setting up the fire pit and getting breakfast ready on the grill. Midge ran around the fire between Alan and Robin, trying to get them to pay attention to his new whistle. Finally, Alan broke. “Midge! You’re going to get hurt. Get lost.”
“He’s staying right here,” Robin said. It was quiet but firm and the first thing he’d said all morning.
Scarlett exchanged looks with Marian and lifted a shoulder in amused acceptance. It wasn’t the only thing she wasn’t taking seriously. That night Richard would be announcing his successor at the closing ceremonies, but instead of keeping safe she was explaining her accident away as if it had been nothing.
They ate their meals in silence while Scarlett desperately tried to come up with topics of conversation. Midge ran off to get more rocks at the lagoon while Marian scooted closer to Robin. She had on her white gown for the Raspberry Lake Parade’s dress rehearsal that night as the May Queen, but she wasn’t sure if Robin was planning on going through with that anymore. She was more than willing to abandon the uncomfortable role, as well as her grueling shift at Ye Olde Turkey Drumstik—very willing, but first she had to get him alone to find out what was really going on.
“Robin,” she whispered. “Would you like to come with me to get some drinks?”
His eyes went to Scarlett and then to Alan. “No, let’s stay.” He bit into his bagel and she fumed some more.
They were saved by the sound of a bicycle bell ringing through the forest. Tuck appeared through the foliage, the tires of his newly acquired bicycle bumping over the trail. At seeing them, he screeched to a halt, dragging his feet in the dirt to stop like he was a kid from an 80’s movie. “Special delivery,” he said… though he didn’t look happy about it.
“What’s this?” Robin started to ask before Tuck thrust a newspaper into his hand. He’d turned into their newspaper boy. “A hit job from theNew England Chronicle,” he said. “You were in the news last night too. Apparently you were smirking too much at the cameras before you pummeled Guy’s face, so you’re a bad person.”
Scarlett lurched up from her camping chair. “You did what?”
“Read it,” Tuck said. “It’s pretty good. It’s called ‘Mayfair’s very own ‘Robin Hood’.”
Alan set his uneaten food aside. Marian felt her throat tighten. Guy was behind this. Robin unfolded the paper reluctantly and—at Scarlett’s urging—read it aloud:
A viral video on YouTube has gotten a lot of attention when, yesterday, Robin King was confronted by his cousin, Guy King, for being involved in shady business practices in their small town. Allegedly, Robin lured investors into spending extravagant amounts for a failing, unprofessional festival. He’s also accused of blocking property deals in order to stop a competitive business from moving in and bringing the town stable jobs. Is Robin up to his old tricks again? The video catches Robin letting his temper get the best of him.
Transcript below. Edited for brevity. See the online article for video.
Tuck was already pulling the video up on his phone. Robin snatched at it, his brows creased in fury.
“What is this?” Scarlett was practically shrieking. Marian leaned around Robin to see it over his arm. It had over 8 million views.
The video started out with the Chronicle’s top gossip reporter confronting Robin in the crowded pavilion.“Robin King. It’s been too long. Where have you been hiding your beautiful self?”Robin glared at her.“Prison.”The camera cut to Guy, who’d dressed up for the encounter with a pleasant, concerned expression.“Is it true that you are behind this Mayfair?”he asked his cousin. According to this edit, Robin didn’t let him finish.“You want a story?”He snatched a microphone from the stage like a jerk, but they cut out anything he said after that.
Robin groaned. Any lie was possible with that kind of editing.
The video went to Guy’s astonished face as he said,“I’ve always given back to the community.”Again, the camera focused lovingly on Guy and his hero pose then cut to Robin who looked the perfect villain. “That’s right,”his voice dripped with sarcasm. “Your Global Kids for Veterans foundation.”Another close up on Guy’s stoic face.
By this point, Robin was shaking his head at the video, caught between laughter and rage.
The camera went back to Robin ripping through the crowd to get to Guy like some kind of monster. Marian winced as she saw herself grab at Robin on the screen,“No, Robin, stop! No more!”And then Robin was beating on his poor cousin. It was a masterpiece of editing. Nothing was in context, but with two cameras, the footage was cut to perfection.
Robin shoved the phone back at Tuck. “I give them points for creativity.”
Tuck shrugged. “Twitter’s enraged, of course—they’re calling for your head. Again. Oh, and there’s a story on Guy too.”
