Robin will save you, Dad said. Everything will be fine.But then my eyes met Robin's, and I knew that it wouldn't be fine.
A knot formed in my stomach as I heard the words. They were going to hang us.
Luke and Benedict yelled and struggled as we were taken away. I could have done the same, but what would it accomplish? At this point it was up to Robin. The only thing we could do was wait to see if he would come through for us.
The guards locked us back in the cell and Benedict crumpled onto the floor beside me. I watched numbly as Luke sat beside him and attempted to comfort him.
These boys were too young to die. "It's my fault," I thought. I was the oldest. I should have known better. I should have stopped them. Sure, it had been Benedict's idea, but I should have been the one to say, "No".
When Dad lost his hand it had been a warning. I couldn't believe we had been foolish enough to steal again. The thought of Dad or Lukey starving like Mother made me sick, but what would Dad do when we were dead? That hadn't occurred to me until now.
We had been his extra hands in the workshop. Luke and I took over the jobs that came in since Dad could not hold a block of wood as he once did. What was he going to do without us?
I sank to the floor silently next to the other two. As Luke shivered, he reached for me. I put my right arm around his shoulder and pulled him close.
The door opened again and I heard a yell from down the corridor, "Throw him in with the Locksley lot!"
"You hear that?" The guard muttered to his fellow, "Locksley."
A man was shoved inside the cell and onto the ground. Then, the door locked again and the footsteps faded as the guard retreated the way he came.
Our new cellmate pushed himself into a sitting position and looked at us. He was ginger-haired, only a few years older than me.
"You're not from Locksley," I said.
"Yeah, I know! I tried to tell them. It's all a misunderstanding." He rolled his eyes. "I'm Allan A'Dale. From Rochdale."
"What are you in here for?" I asked.
"Wrong place. Wrong time." He shrugged. "What about you?"
"We stole flour," Luke said before I could answer.
Allan smirked. "You don't look like the thievin' kind."
After everyone was silent for a while, he spoke again. "Who are you, then?"
"I'm Luke Scarlett."
"Benedict Giddens," Benedict mumbled.
Allan looked at me. "You got a name?"
"Will Scarlett."
"Might as well get to know each other if we're all stuck here." He held out his hand to shake mine, and then dropped it when I made no effort to reciprocate.
"So...Will?" Allan asked after another stretch of time. "Do you know what's going.."
"We're to hang," I cut in. I could see where he was going with that. The blood seemed to leave his face. I didn't know what crime he had committed but it was pretty clear that he was to share our fate when they left him in this cell with us. He stood up and began to pace as well as he could in our very confined space.
As I said the word "hang" out loud, Benedict began to shake again. His frightened eyes met mine. "Will? Aren't you scared?"
There was a lump in my throat as I truly contemplated our fate for the first time. Until now, I had been thinking only of how our deaths would affect others, and who would be left suffering in our absence. It's not that I was afraid of dying. If I had imagined the end of my life however, it would have been as an old man, with my wife and children around my bed as I took my last breath. But hanging –
I shook my head. I couldn't tell him the thoughts that were really going through my mind.
"Allan?" Benedict turned the question around to him.
He finally stopped his meaningless pacing and looked at us with a shrug. "Pfft! Me? Scared? Never." Then, he came over and sat down next to me.
Benedict and Luke wore identical expressions of fear and doubt. I wished there was something I could do to comfort them; to give them some sort of hope that we would make it out alive. I had nothing to give them.
Allan sighed as he closed his eyes and leaned his head against the stone wall. I turned to look at him, my arm still wrapped around Luke.
Then he spoke without bothering to open his eyes. His voice was so low, only I was able to hear him. "Damn right I'm scared."