Chapter 10: Getting up to Mischief

"So old Bob walked into his barn and his whole stock of apples was gone, right? And he was kicking up a right fuss, yelling and stamping all over the village. So I told him I had a batch of apples I'd be willing to sell him cheap for him to sell on at a profit. Bought them all, the old fool – I'd nicked them off him in the first place!" Allan let out a bellow of laughter.

Cassie laughed at Allan's tale, although she knew she shouldn't encourage him in his trickery. They were returning from taking bagfuls of the haul they had taken the previous day to Nettlestone. Making deliveries with the roguish outlaw was always fun; he was full of tales and it took a lot to stem the flow of words from his mouth. He was also full of surprises; you never knew quite what was going to happen if you went anywhere with Allan.

On the other hand, it could be quite tiring spending more than ten minutes with the man. He always needed to be entertained, always needed something to do.

As if on cue, having been quiet for about three seconds, Allan began to whistle. Cassie let him be for a few minutes until the tuneless noise threatened to drive her crazy, and she told him to shut up.

After another fifteen seconds of silence Allan suddenly turned to Cassie with a mischievous grin. "Truth or risk?" he asked.

She sighed. "Do we have to play this?" Allan nodded eagerly. He had come up with the stupid game a few weeks previously and tried to get the others to play it as often as possible. It was entertaining when the others had to reveal embarrassing secrets, and there had been a few hilarious moments when someone chose to take a risk, such as Robin having to conduct an ambush in the nude. But it wasn't so much fun when she had to tell them one of her secrets, or do something foolish for their entertainment. "Truth," she chose.

Allan considered her for a few moments before settling on one. "If you had to kiss one of the gang, who would it be?"

Cassie rolled her eyes at his blatant attempt to get her to stoke his ego. "Well, John is married. So not him. Robin is too – well, as good as." Allan nodded, the sparkle in his eyes diminished for a moment as he remembered Robin and Marian exchanging vows as she lay dying. "Cam is my oldest friend, so not him."

"So it's between me and Much," Allan concluded for her, smirking at her. "Easy choice, right?"

"Yeah, it is." Cassie smirked back at him. "I'd choose Much."

Allan stopped dead in his tracks. "What?!"

"You are so arrogant!" Cassie told him. "Assuming I'd pick you! Why wouldn't I choose Much? He's adorable. And a gentleman, which is more than I can say for you."

Allan gaped at her. "I can be a gentleman."

Cassie snorted. "If I kissed you, I'd be the latest in a long line of foolish young girls beguiled by your pretty eyes and your charming tongue. I'm cleverer than that."

She started walking again and Allan stared after her, still in shock, before hurrying to catch her up. "You have to ask me now."

"Truth or risk?"

"Truth," Allan replied confidently.

Cassie raised her eyebrows. Allan always chose a risk; he didn't care how silly he ended up looking. He'd rather look like a fool than have honesty spill from his lips, or share something personal about himself. "When was the first time you…you know."

Allan smirked at her again. "That's a very personal question Cass."

"That's the point of the game," Cassie countered.

"Alright," he shrugged. "I was fifteen and it was a girl called Eleanor. You know old Bob I was telling you about earlier?" She nodded and Allan grinned. "It was in his barn."

"You know how to treat a girl well," Cassie remarked dryly.

"You don't know the half of it," Allan replied with a sly grin. "Your turn again. Truth or risk?"

"Risk," Cassie decided. If Allan could surprise her, then she could do the same. She regretted her choice almost immediately as a grin slowly spread across his face. Her heart sank – she knew that look, and it normally meant that she wasn't going to like what happened next.

"We're near Stonewell. And it seems to me that you never punished Sloane enough for what he did to you and your pa."

"So?"

"So, your risk is to sneak into the manor and do something that's going to upset him."

Cassie stopped and looked at him in disbelief. "Are you mental? That's…that's just crazy. No way."

"C'mon Cass, it'll make you feel better. Think of Farrell."

Cassie opened her mouth to yell at Allan for using her friend's memory to try and force her to do something ridiculous purely for his entertainment, then slowly closed it as she saw his face. She could tell that he honestly thought she would feel better if she did something cruel to Sloane, and he wanted to help her to do so. "What do you suggest?"

Allan smiled, relieved not to receive the rough side of her tongue. "Will once showed me how he made boxes, and sometimes he uses this stuff his dad discovered. It comes out of the root of this plant, I don't remember its name, but it sticks things together. I used to drive the gang mental sticking stuff to stupid places in the camp."

Cassie grinned. "I like it. Simple."

"But effective. We just need to find the plant."

After describing it to her they continued walking, scouring the forest floor until they managed to find the plant. Pulling up a few handfuls they turned and headed west, towards Stonewell village.

XX

"Shhh!" Cassie hissed at Allan. She was sitting in the branches of the tree outside Sloane's bedroom, and Allan was climbing up to join her but had knocked his head against a branch and let out a groan.

He glared at her as he hauled himself up to sit beside her. "Let me hit you over the head with a branch and see how you like it," he growled back at her.

Cassie stuck her tongue out at him before shuffling forward until she could reach out and touch the shutter over the window. Pushing it open she saw the room was empty, and managed to swing herself over onto the windowsill and into the room. Allan quickly followed.

Communicating with gestures and expressions the two moved about the room, squeezing sap from the roots of the plant onto various objects and sticking them into ridiculous places. Within minutes they were stifling laughter at the sight of a comb stuck to the ceiling and an expensive looking ring stuck to the table.

Cassie's eyes lit up as she spotted a hat hanging on a hook. "He always wears this," she whispered to Allan, before squeezing the glue into it and placing it on the table, laughing silently at the image of Sloane putting the hat on his head only for it to stick firmly to his hair. As she looked around for something else Allan glanced out the window and let out a low whistle.

"He's coming back," he whispered. Cassie joined him at the window and they watched as Sloane walked up the path. As soon as he entered the house Allan lifted Cassie up, pushing her through the window until she was in the tree. He followed and they swiftly descended through the branches.

At the bottom they ducked behind the tree trunk and waited. Within seconds they were rewarded as Sloane gave a roar of anger.

Stifling laughter the two outlaws took off at a run.

XX

Later that night, as the outlaws ate, Allan relayed the tale of the days mischief through bursts of laughter. Robin tried to chastise them for being reckless but neither he, Cam nor John could disguise their mirth for long. Only Much fretted that they could have been caught and punished.

"Stop being such an old woman," Allan scoffed at him. "It was just a laugh."

Grumbling under his breath about how he wouldn't care if Allan was strung up in the courtyard at the castle, Much gathered up some of the dirty pots and left the camp to wash them in the stream. Cassie shook her head at Allan for upsetting him, but she couldn't be annoyed at his laughing eyes for long.

As Allan turned away to talk to Robin, Cassie found herself still gazing at his profile in the flickering firelight. He was the most frustrating human being she had ever met; never said what he meant, would always choose a cheap quip over something meaningful. Backed out of any corner with a joke, and never stopped poking fun at his friends. Sometimes she just wanted to push him in the river to shut him up, but sometimes…sometimes she just couldn't take her eyes off him. There was something about him, something in his infuriating smirk and mischievous eyes that made her heart hammer against her ribcage. He was a good man, too, underneath all the bravado – that day, for instance, he had truly wanted to help her humiliate Sloane as he had humiliated her father.

Picking up her empty plate Cassie slipped out of the camp and walked the short distance to the stream, smiling at Much's tuneless singing that floated through the silent trees. Crouching beside him she began to wash her plate.

"Allan didn't mean it," she told the man beside her. "It's kind of you to worry about us."

"I'm not going to worry about that oaf any longer," Much grumbled and Cassie smiled.

"Well, I appreciate you worrying about me." Her plate clean, she took a pot from the pile beside Much and began scrubbing at it. "So, it must be hard for you men to meet women, living in the forest as you do."

"Not really," Much replied. "Well, it is, but we've all had our… I mean, Robin had Marian. Will and Djaq had each other. And John had Alice, but then she thought he was dead, and then she found out he wasn't but she was angry with him and she left with the cooper and Little Little John."

"Erm…right," Cassie replied in confusion. "How about you?"

Much stopped scrubbing at his plate and gazed out into the darkness, his eyes wistful. "I met the most wonderful, wonderful woman," he replied softly. "Her name is Eve. When all this is over, when the King returns, I shall marry her."

Cassie reached out and squeezed his hand. "That sounds great, Much." She looked down at the stream and swallowed, before speaking in a voice that was a study in nonchalance. "And Allan?"

Much snorted. "Allan, well, I imagine half the village girls and twice as many castle maids have known Allan."

"Oh," she muttered, disappointed.

"They were all just for a bit of fun, though. It was Djaq that Allan always wanted."

"What?" Her head snapped up.

"Yes, Allan always loved Djaq," Much chattered. "A long time ago he and Will both confessed to liking her, but nothing more was said of it. As time went on, well, it was obvious that her and Will were made for each other. Allan never said anything, but if you ask me, he never quite got over it."

Cassie was somewhat disturbed by the sense of disappointment that washed over her at his words. So, Allan's heart was already taken. And by a woman living thousands of miles away with his best friend! But still, love was love.

Wiping her hands dry on her breeches Cassie stood, gathering the clean pots for her and Much to take back to camp.

As they entered the outlaw's camp Robin looked up from where he was relaxing by the fire. "We're going to take food to the villages tomorrow," he told them. "Cass, you're going to Clun with me so I can keep an eye on you."

Allan grinned. "He thinks I'm going to lead you astray."

"You did today," she retorted.

Allan shrugged. "It was all for a good cause. C'mon Robin, me and Cass make a good team! Let her come to Locksley with me, Cam can go to Clun with you instead."

"Do you promise to behave?" Robin asked Allan suspiciously, narrowing his eyes.

"Promise," the trickster replied innocently.

"Cass?"

Cassie shrugged. "Whatever is fine." She retreated to the far corner of the camp and clambered into her bunk, leaving the others raising their eyebrows at each other.

"Allan obviously has a bad effect on women," Cam said with a grin, before leaving the camp to take up the guard position for the night.

XX

Shortly after dawn the outlaws left the camp carrying sacks of food. They split up to head in their various directions; Allan and Cassie to Locksley, Cam and Robin to Clun, and Much and John to Nettlestone.

Cassie and Allan knew they had to be especially careful in Locksley, with Gisborne living there. He was very rarely seen, according to the villagers, and the outlaws assumed he was living at the castle. Although the subject of Marian was very rarely broached they all secretly believed that he could not face living in what would have been their marital home.

They delivered the food as quickly as possible; Locksley was the worst village for guards. The peasants knew that the outlaws were putting themselves in danger every time they entered the village and repaid their kindness by making no fuss if they spotted any of the mysterious hooded figures sidling through the shadows.

The two outlaws were soon walking back towards the camp. Cassie was partly disappointed that Allan had stayed true to his word and not attempted to lead her into mischief, and partly glad that she didn't have to speak much to him. Ever since her conversation with Much the night before she had been sulking, and was irritated by how strongly she had reacted to the knowledge that Allan was in love with Djaq.

"I told Robin I could behave," Allan muttered, half to himself.

"Don't worry, I'll tell him you were good," Cassie teased. He nudged her playfully with his elbow.

The sharp crack of a twig sounded and Cassie's brow furrowed. There was something wrong. Glancing down she realised instantly what it was; they were passing through a sunlit glade, a space free of trees. Their soft leather boots were silent upon the soft grass. Neither of them had stepped on a twig.

Grabbing hold of Allan's arm she yanked him to the right, dragging him behind the cover of the nearest tree. He frowned at her, rubbing the sore spot on his arm. "We're being followed," she hissed, drawing her sword. Allan's eyes widened and he pulled his bow free, taking an arrow from his quiver and nocking it against the bow string.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a new voice said. Its owner, a thickset man in a guards uniform, appeared from behind a tree a few metres away. He smiled, but the expression was unctuous and did not reach his eyes. "We've got you surrounded."

Author's Note: Eee another chapter! We're two thirds of the way through now! Thank you for the reviews, candyfloss77 and gatewatcher!