Chapter 6
"Good afternoon." Robin looked up with a start, bleary eyes adjusting slightly to the light. Lost in his memories, he hadn't noticed Evie wake, and she was now sitting up, cross-legged, gazing at him thoughtfully.
She'd been making a steady recovery for about a week, thanks to Djaq, but hadn't been allowed to leave the camp at all, leaving her very bored, and very frustrated. Lying in bed with nothing to do, watching the outlaws go about their business had driven her mad, but she understood the looks that were passed between her brother and Djaq, and knew it was for her own good. That didn't make her any less patient to get up and just do something though, and now she could honestly say she was feeling fine, and apart from a nasty cough, was ready to get up.
Sliding off her bed, she wandered over to her brother, arms folded across her chest for warmth, and sat next to him, tucking her knees up and resting her chin on them. Looking at him with her trademark shrewd, open blue eyes. "Are you alright?" Robin shrugged nonchalantly, not wanting to reveal what had been running through his mind. After Djaq's strenuous assurances that his sister was in fact recovering, and he didn't need to worry half as much as he was, he had calmed down from his panicked state.
"Yeah." Evie didn't take her eyes off him, not believing him for a second. Although a fairly good liar when he wanted to be, more often than not she could read him like a book.
"Liar." For a second, Robin contemplated arguing, but thought better of it and shook his head, tossing the twig he'd been absentmindly fiddling into the flames.
"It's nothing important." Still looking at him with a raised eyebrow, Evie looked utterly unimpressed by this pathetic excuse for an argument. Deciding to change the subject swiftly, he stretched his arms out in front of him, clicking his fingers and looked sideways at her. "How're you feeling?" Evie smiled sardonically.
"I've been better." She batted his outstretched arm away good-naturedly. "No, really, I'm fine." It was now Robin's turn to look at her disbelievingly, but he wisely decided not to press the matter. They sat in silence for a few moments, each quietly going over things in their minds. Evie began to fiddle with the laces on her sleeves, a sure sign she was about to ask a question of which she wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer.
"So. Are you ready to talk to me yet?"
"What do you mean?" Evie raised and tilted her head, and gave an exasperated sigh.
"Well, you're not dead, you're living in Sherwood Forest with Much, Will Scarlett, a very large man called Little and an apparently very limited vocabulary , a very loud man who quite makes up for it and a female Saracen physician. Do I have to say it?" Robin snorted derisively, realising how it must look to an outsider. Knowing he'd have to explain sooner or later, he decided sooner was better, and reluctantly started to talk.
"The Sheriff and his lackey…" Evie's eyes flickered, just slightly, but enough for Robin to notice and stop, looking up at her questioningly.
"You know them?" Evie's mouth twitched.
"We've met." A need to know what had passed between the Sheriff and Evie surged through Robin, but the look she gave him told him she was not prepared to discuss it. He let it pass, and launched into his familiar story, as she watched him carefully, taking in every word.
"Yeah, well. Me and Much returned from the Holy Lands to find a corrupt system…the people were being taxed to the hilt, being punished brutally for the most minor of crimes…this new Sheriff, Vaisey, was going to hang Will and Luke, Benedict Gibbons – you remember him? – and Allan, for stealing a couple of sacks of flour to feed their families! I couldn't watch them hang for that, so I helped them escape, and became outlawed in the process. Been living out here ever since, helping the poor as much as we can. What we take from the rich, we give to the poor." A small smirk crossed Evie's features. That was her brother all over, never one to play the long game, always jumping in without thinking.
"How very heroic. I'm sure your names will go down in history – Robin of Locksley and his men, stealing from the rich to give to the poor." Robin sighed a long-suffering sigh and ran his hand through his sandy hair.
"Don't you start." Realisation dawned on Evie, and she bit her lip, stifling a laugh at the exasperated look on her brother's face.
"Ah. So I take it Marian isn't one of your trusty outlaws?" She clearly already knew this, as Marian had not had the chance to visit since Evie arrived, but was intensely curious about the woman she'd always thought of a sister and felt he was unlikely to tell her straight out.
"Well…sort of…She's still in the castle." Evie recognised the pained look on his face, and the smile faded.
"Still believes the best way is to work within the system then?" Robin sighed again, running his fingers through his sandy blonde hair that, Evie noticed, was getting far too long.
"Unfortunately, yes." He looked back up at his sister, who was looking at him doubtfully.
"And life would be safer in the forest, as an outlaw?" Robin sighed again, shaking his head.
"She's in too much danger there. She should be here, with me, instead of being drooled over by Gisbourne…" Recognising the signs of Robin building himself up into a long rant, she gently intercepted, putting her hand on his arm.
"Robin? She can look after herself." Robin was saved from having to reply from the undeniable truth of this statement by the return of the rest of the gang.