Chapter 13

It takes only hours for Ana to start missing Will. Their idyllic little cabin in the woods feels too small and too big all at once. Every chirp and chitter from the woods sends a shiver up her spine and she keeps expecting to turn round and see Maleficent's beloved Raven perched on the window sill or worse, Maleficent herself standing in the clearing, tapping her long fingernails against her staff impatiently. As much as Anastasia wants to believe she is safe, that she can take a breath and that maybe, for the first time, her life might be going somewhere, it's all much harder without Will's distracting and comforting presence.

Ana is used to solitude. At least, she tells herself she should be. She has certainly spent more than enough hours alone. The groundskeeper wasn't exactly long on family bonding. She thinks she understands why now. Who could love a bastard? Let alone a bastard child whose birth had meant the death of a beloved wife. Anastasia feels a wave of unexpected, unprecedented pity for the man who raised her. He isn't her father. He doesn't want to be her father, Yet, she loves him as only a daughter can love a father. She can't stop herself, even when she tries. He must have been in so much pain. Finding out that his beloved wife had betrayed him, had lain with another man. Worse, that she had become pregnant by this other man after so many years of painful trying and failing. It must have cut him deeply, and then to watch her murdered and be forced in a split second to make a choice no man should ever have to. She aches for him.

Although there is another part of her, a small but undeniable voice in her heart that rebels against this acceptance of her father's indifference, against the cool calculation that transformed grief which by all rights should have led him to drown Ana in the creek, a fate she think at times might have been better than the life she was granted instead, into years of plotting. She thinks once he decided she was going to live he should have chosen to be a father. An actual father, not the disciplinarian who kept her healthy and alive solely for the purpose of selling her to the highest bidder. Bastard or not, she deserved better.

One thought gives her comfort: As soon as they get to Wonderland she is going to have the life she wants, and no one, nothing, is going to stop her.

.

.

.

Will can't believe this is happening. Ten minutes ago he was sitting on a log near a fire, eating roasted rabbit, drinking ale and laughing at a joke told by the large man who called himself 'Little John.' Now he's pressed back against the trunk of a cedar tree and Robin is binding his hands. "I won't have you following us"

"No, you'll just have me eaten by a wolf." Will returns bitterly. This is definitely not the stuff of his childhood adventure stories. In stories the young hero finds his mentor and they work together to defeat the villain and it's the villain who ties the hero to the tree.

Robin huffed an exasperated sigh. "There haven't been wolves in these woods for longer than you've been alive."

Then again, maybe this is exactly like his childhood fantasies, only with Robin cast as villain instead of hero.

"Excepting of course around the full moon," Much interjects from the far side of the clearing.

"Well it's a good thing it's not a full moon then, isn't it?" Robin snaps.

Will and Much exchange looks. "Not a full moon until, tomorrow, sir." Will says somewhat hesitantly. Robin may have a reputation for nobility, but he's also tying Will to a tree, so it's possible that reputation was overstated. What Will hopes will convince Robin not to tie him up at all might in fact make the "prince of thieves" tie the ropes a little tighter.

Robin mutters something under his breath, glares at Much and then with a final twist of the rope steps back with a half-smile on his face as he surveys his work. "These knots are not tight. If you're even half, nay, a tenth, as talented as you seem to think, you'll be out long before wolves' time."

"Sounds like a waste of rope then." Will says, already pulling at the binding.

"It's for your own good lad." Robin pats will on the head as if Will were a boy of seven instead of seventeen. "When you get free, which no doubt you will, do not try to follow us. Go home!"

"Empty handed?" Will asks. "How am I supposed to do that?" He can't bear the thought of telling Anastasia that he has failed. They need this. Without it, they are lost.

"I'm sure your mother is worried sick about you, boy. If you love her half so well as you claim, you'll go back to her in one piece now rather than in a wooden box tomorrow." Robin pulls a small purse from round his neck and slings it around Will's. "There's money enough in there to keep your mother comfortable for a year at least."

Will knows he should say thank you, but the words stick in his throat. He's too angry, too disappointed, to be properly thankful for the gold. Although, from the way the string weighs around his neck, Will is pretty sure it holds more gold than he's seen is his entire life. Maybe even enough for he and Anastasia to flee across the sea where they could start a new life far enough from Maleficent's clutches that they might be able to stop looking over their shoulder.

He watches Robin and Much disappear into the woods by the same path the rest of the men had already left and it feels like he's losing something. It's true that gold will bring them some peace of mind, but Will knows the only real security will come when they are in a world that doesn't have Maleficent in it. For that, they need the looking glass, and to get that, they need Robin and his Merry Men.

.

"Really, Robin, was that strictly necessary?" Much asks as soon as they are out of earshot. It's barely mid-day, so he doubts the boy will come to any serious harm, but it seems to him to be an unnecessarily drastic step to take.

"Should we take on children, Much?" Robin sounds resigned, weary, but also a little defensive.

"He's at least a year older than you were when you went to war."

"And therefore far too young for this life."

Much sighs. In many ways he agrees. The war was brutal. They saw things and did things that no man should do and they'd been only boys. However, he also remembers what it was like before all of those things. He remembers being fourteen and desperate to make something of himself, to earn his place in the world. When the King had called for men to help with his crusade in the far east, Much had only hesitated long enough to gain Robin's permission before putting his name on the roster. He'd been so proud. And so naïve.

"Out with it." Robin's voice is terse.

Much tries for a look of innocence, but he can tell by the expression on Robin's face that it's not going to work. "If he's determined to live this life, he'll do it with or without our help."

Robin harrumphs.

"A man might argue that it would be safer for the boy if he were with an experienced crew." Much can almost feel Robin's ego basking in the attention. "One with a strong leader, and a good purpose."

"He's safest back home with his mother."

There is a brittleness in Robin's voice that Much hasn't heard in years, and suddenly he understands why Robin has gone to such great lengths to leave Will Scarlet behind. He murmurs "Of course, Robin. You're right as usual," and continues on in silence. Much has never blamed Robin for anything, and so sometimes he forgets that Robin blames himself for everything. And while a young, agile, strong, fearless young man could be an asset to their crew, it wasn't worth it if it made Robin remember all of the many losses that had led he and Much into the forests in the first place.

In almost every way he and Robin were two sides of the same coin. Robin came from wealth, Much was the son of a servant; Robin was fair, Much was dark; Much was a ladies' man, Robin had never fallen in love but when he did Much knew it would be for good; Much liked to plan out his moves beforehand but success or failure he didn't look back, Robin jumped in with both feet without thinking twice and then spent months or even years looking back and regretting every mistake. Their differences were often the source of conflict, but Much knew Robin's moves and motivations as well as if they were his own and it kept them close – closer than friends, practically brothers. There is nothing Robin can do that Much can't understand or forgive. There is nothing short of death that will drive Much away from Robin's side.

By the time they reach their new camp the rest of the Merry Men have already started a fire and cleared away enough of the underbrush to make for comfortable sleeping around it. Allan and John are off fishing while the rest of the men work to make camp as comfortable as a camp in the woods can be. Much and Robin join in the work and any talk of the young man they left tied to a tree to keep him from following them is forgotten.

.

.

.

By the time Will works his way free of the ropes he's covered in sweat and has run out of curse words. He rubs the circulation back into his feet which have gone numb from standing so still for so long and then stands undecided in the middle of the clearing. The chill in his bones, the still stinging rope burn on his left wrist, and the way his heart constricts just at the thought of her pulls him back home to Anastasia, but the side of his brain that's still thinking in logical terms and the voice in his head that is Anastasia telling him that this is their best shot push him towards the narrow gap in the underbrush through which Robin and the Merry Men disappeared hours earlier. Now that he has a place to start he thinks he can track them, even in the semi-dark of evening. He just isn't sure it will be worth it.

If only Ana was here. She would know in an instant what to do. Probably she would tell him to stop being such a ninny and then proceed to make Robin very sorry he had ever said no to either of them. But of course she isn't here. She can't be here. Women aren't allowed in the Merry Men, and if Robin knew that Will's sole motive for being there wasn't a sickly mother who needed the money but a beautiful, vibrant woman on the run from an evil sorceress Will isn't sure he would be any more inclined to help. Probably he would tell Will to take the gold and flee across the sea, certainly he would never agree to break into that same sorceress' fortress to steal a magical looking glass. Frankly, Will doesn't think anyone would agree to their plan. It sounds suicidal, but it is also the only plan they have, and Will loves Ana too much to let her live out all her days hiding in a cottage in the woods, looking over her shoulder and jumping at shadows. She deserves everything the world has to offer, it just happens that it will not be this world in which she gets that. It's up to Will to help her get to the next world, a land where they can both have everything. For Will, Anastasia is everything. But he knows she wants more and he is willing to do anything in his power to get it for her.

He knows what he has to do, but he dawdles for another minute coiling the rope Robin used on him around one arm. One never knows when a length of rope might come in handy. When he has no further excuse to stay back, Will pushes his way into the forest, following the trail of the Merry Men.

A/N: For those who are interested in knowing more about Robin and Much and their lives in the Enchanted Forest, keep an eye out for the spin off/prequel A Gold Standard which will begin posting after A Scarlet Heart is completed.