Love was definitely in the air. Thomas and Martha had finally admitted their love for each other. This was nice for the first few days but after a while we got sick of all their pet names for each other and their constant over use of affection. This inspired John and Amelia to fire up their love for one another. I think they were just trying to compete.

Lilly came up to Michael and I asking "do you fancy a gamble?"

"Depends on the subject."

"Which poor sod will end up with Keighley."

This was extremely amusing "you really don't like her do you?"

"It's not that" Lilly denied "it's just that she joins the gang, very insistent about how she is just as good as the men in all aspects and then she slowly pins them off against each other to get what she wants."

This was true. She had many strong ideas but she needed a majority of people to ensure that they got pushed through. She would use her femininity to get the men to see things her way. She would give them a special little smile or start touching their arms or speaking in some silly high voice or something along those lines to make the men melt. You would think that this would only work on the likes of Much but it swayed most of the young members.

"It wont be Much," I decided "she is clearly not interested. Some one should break it to the poor man."

"Maybe she'll put brother against brother and see if they'll fight to the death?" Lilly said.

"You make her sound so evil" Michael told her "good on you."

"Scatter," she told us "she's coming," and with that she darted off to clean something.

To Michael's surprise Keighley came and sat beside him.

"Talking about me?" she asked

"Never" he lied. "Don't you have some poor sod you should be seducing with your wicked ways to ensure you get your way."

"Are you still sore about the fact that my plan for the ambush on the North road was picked over your plan. If you need to make pathetic excuses to feel good about yourself then go ahead. Just know that your plan was terrible and mine got us one of the biggest hoards of the season."

"Mine would have worked too. You just bat your eyelids and they all bow toy our will. Admit it."

"Never" she said as she walked away, batting her eyelids all the while. Michael found he was laughing. He stopped instantly when he figured this out. He also found that he was wishing she stayed. He watched as she bean talking to Thomas, all the while admiring her features. Mainly that long black hair and those dark brown eyes. He felt funny. Michael never felt funny.

This was the horrible time when he realised that it must be jealousy as he saw her talking to another man.

The small amount of common sense left in him ordered that he stand and proceed in hitting his head into a nearby tree trunk. He obliged.

So now there was another one. Michael was now clearly smitten with her. I was getting sick of it.

Lilly and I witnessed Michael being the second to be seduced. Much being the first of course. He was practically her slave around camp. Anything she wanted, he was all to happy to get her. I thought Michael was smarter than that to fall so easily for her tricks and he was a lot more subtle about it than Much but we could still see it.

The next victim was Bryce, just as Lilly predicted. I don't think either of them were particularly attracted to the other. Bryce simply hated the fact that Much may end up with her. He enjoyed being the older brother who won at everything. I knew Keighley just enjoyed the drama. Bryce actually set out to seduce her. He tried to talk himself up with fake criticism saying "I can only lift this much firewood before I get tired" and of course it was a ridiculously high amount. He went on with "Then I had to fight Robin when I was already tired from the firewood but I still fought him for most of the afternoon. Robin was beginning to look worried."

Needless to say, he barley fought Robin. Dare I say, he was defeated almost instantly.

Keighley was all to happy to play along commenting "you look so tired. Come rest by me a while." They talked for a while about things that I didn't bother to listen. I did observe that she was stroking his muscles the whole time. Lilly and I also observed the looks on Much's and Michael's faces.

This didn't last long obviously. She grew bored.

Mark was next but this also wasn't a very big and romantic fling. It was expected that something would happen there, her being the kind of woman she was and him thinking that he was God's gift to women. One day he strutted up to her, thinking he would be the one doing the seducing.

"Do you think someone should tell him that he is not as handsome and charming as he thinks he is and women are generally afraid of him?" I asked Lilly.

"I say let him figure it out for himself."

He began by telling her "So I figure we've both had enough of this playing hard to get game and it's time we just get on with it."

She looked generally disgusted. "Get on with what?"

"The fact that you cant take your eyes off me."

"That's only because I'm wondering what poor thing must have happened to you as a child for you to end up with that face."

"That poor thing was the good fortune of being granted with this face while so many others are cursed with dare I say average looks and menial charm."

The siren was laughing. "I can't believe it" Lilly said as the she walked with Will and I around Sherwood. "Beware," she told them "you lot could be next."

"Please" Will scoffed. "Roger and I are far too smart too fall for her tricks."

The next day I watched as she neither of them could look away from her as she told them some mundane story. They laughed at almost every word she said despite how mundane they were. Lilly decided that enough is enough. "Will" she sweetly asked. "Could you please come and help me with something?"

"Not right now" he told her without looking away from the siren.

"Now" she yelled at him and dragged him by his ear much to the amusement of the other men.

"You've fallen for her haven't you?" she asked as he nursed his sore ear and his wounded pride.

"She was just telling a story" he said as he tried to defend himself. "Would you please not do that in front of them others? They already think I've gone soft without the help of my sister embarrassing me further."

"You're embarrassing yourself," she told him. "She's not even that pretty. She only looks it from the way the surroundings. If a group of men live with any single women for a long enough amount of time then the ugliest of women would seem attractive."

"Then why hasn't this happened to you?" he asked and instantly regretted it.

She turned and stormed off. "You know what?" he said as her ran after me "I think I finally understand why you hate her. You hate that all the men are giving her the attention that you never got." This only resulted in her storming off faster. And not speaking to him for many a day.

So I continued to watch her, all the while feeling slightly annoyed that she never turned her attention towards me.

"Its because you're always around me," Lilly explained. "Since she doesn't like me she never approaches you."

"Plus I glare at her whenever she tries approach me."

"Nice work."

I could see the situation was going to get worse when I saw her looking at Robin.

Warning bells were working overtime.

"She's been working her way up the ranks" I told Lilly and Amelia.

"The other men may be stupid enough to let her corrupt them but Robin certainly isn't" Amelia informed me and I agreed.

We were right too.

We watched closely when Keighley first approached Robin. He was sharpening his sword at the time.

"Hard at work?" was her opening line.

He nodded barley even acknowledging her. She was going to have her work cut out for her. "I just wanted to tell you that I thought the plan went really well today and I want to thank you for backing me up."

"You didn't need me to" he told her "You have most of the men here doing that for you."

She faked embarrassment. "I don't ask for their attention. I guess it's just that if any women lives with a group of men for a long enough amount of time she will appear beautiful to them."

"That was my line" Lilly angrily whispered, "I can't believe Will told her."

Amelia shushed me and we carried on listening.

"Don't sell yourself short. You are beautiful" Robin told her and we all scoffed in disgust. He hadn't looked at her yet so I like to believe that he was just being polite.

"There's still hope," I whispered.

"I have to go," Robin told her but quickly walked away before he had to think of an excuse. We were very close to cheering. Her face added to our victory. She was shocked.

From then on Robin was her goal. The other men were not important and they didn't like this, mainly Much. She was subtle about it, silently ensuring she ended up beside Robin on jobs and working a little bit harder to impress him.

One day she even approached Lilly and Amelia. "You've known Robin a while haven't you?" she asked as they nodded, barley acknowledging her question. I simply happened to be around at the time but was ignored as per usual.

"Well what's his story?" she asked. "He's so silent but at them same time so strong. Is he shy?" We laughed a great heal at that idea.

"He is most certainly not shy" Amelia explained. "He's just never taken an interest in most women."

"But why?" she asked. Amelia and Lilly shared a look that said we needed a story.

"He's just really focused on the poor and now the Princes big plot."

"I thought so. I think he needs someone to relieve him of that stress."

I was trying so hard not to laugh by this point. She really thought she had a chance. It was rather pathetic.

"You are wasting your time," I informed her, "why not choose one of the men you've already hooked with your trickery."

"Excuse me" she said as she stood up to her full height. I shrank back a little, she was very tall, taller then most of the men. I also knew she could fight and I was no competition. But I stood my ground, terrified all the while. Amelia quickly averted her eyes and preoccupied herself with pretending to clean something. Lilly however stood up to her full height, which unfortunately was nowhere near Keighley's and told her exactly what she thought.

"You come in here, pretending to be all about feminist power but then strut around getting all of them to do your bidding. Well we see right through you."

"Leave me out of this" Amelia whispered. I nodded in agreement but said nothing. I guess that means you can add Keighley to the rather long list of things that scare me.

"Admit it," Keighley said. "You're not angry at me, you're jealous of what I can do that you never could."

Lilly had nothing to say in form of defense. She turned and stormed off.

Keighley stormed in the opposite direction.

Amelia continued to clean as we both tried to hide the fact that we had seen the tears forming in her eyes. I watched her go and realised. "She hasn't really got any friends has she? The men all like her but they are more like slaves than friends. What if she wasn't trying to seduce them? What if she was just trying to get friends and went the wrong way about it. The men here don't really know how to deal with women." Amelia continued to say nothing but I could tell she agreed and also felt ashamed. Keighley hadn't approached us for information about Robin. It seemed that she just wished for conversation. And look what we had done.

Life was a lot more awkward in the fact that Lilly and Keighley were forced to share a cabin. As far as I was aware, they never said a word to each other.

Life continued. Weeks passed and thankfully, the romance seemed to die down.

In late April, the gang was again fully focused on Prince John's plot.

Robin called us all together to tell us "Prince John has been working on his plan for the past few months and we haven't done anything to stop it. We don't even know what his next step is. He is planning something big, that much we know. We need someone who can keep us updated on his actions."

"So you want one of us to spy?" Luke asked looking shocked. "He knows all of us."

"That's why we have to do the most terrible thing we've ever had to do" Robin said as everyone started to look scared. "We have to ask Annie for help." He practically spat out the last words. The rest of the men gasped in horror. All of the new members were very confused.

"Who is Annie?" Greg asked, wondering if I wanted to hear the reply.

"The devil" Much told him.

"Some one who would like nothing more to see us without our heads," Michael added.

"My sister" I concluded.

"Well if she's all those things then why would she help us?" Bryce asked.

"It's going to be hard," Robin explained. "That's why I'm not going. She definitely won't agree to help me. Allen on the other hand-"

"We share blood and nothing more," I said quickly. "She won't help me."

"You've got to try" Will said, ecstatic at my worry.

Apparently looked as if I was being sent to his execution as I gathered some weapons. This was probably a large understatement.

"Do you often pack this much to go visit your sister?" Mark asked me.

"I'm going to need more," I said.

He wasn't sure if I was joking.

I wasn't.

"So is she an ex-lover of yours Robin?" Keighley joked. It was only a partial joke. She was fishing for information.

The gang paused and suddenly all burst out in enormous fits of laughter.

"So is she ugly then?" Keighley asked.

"Not so much ugly as extremely ugly on the inside" Much explained as he wiped the tears from his eyes. "She thinks we're all scum and is not afraid to show it."

Greg was still very confused. "Why don't you just come with me?" I asked, "then you will understand."

He was scared but agreed. The look Keighley gave him made it clear that he was expected to spy and tell her everything he learnt.

"So why is everyone so scared of her" Greg asked.

I kept telling him "You'll understand when you meet her."

And he did. The looks she gave us erased any beauty she may have had. Greg was too scared to look at her after that and kept his eyes to the floor.

"I understand," he whispered to me.

"Get out," she barked at us.

"Ok," Greg said quickly and turned to run.

I stopped him. "We need your help."

"Well you're not getting it."

"Ok" Greg said again but once again I stopped him.

"Help us and we'll go," I told her.

She considered. "Will you never come back?"

"Hopefully."

"Well what do you want?"

"To know what Prince John is planning and what he has already done."

She was not happy. "You want me to spy? What if I get caught?"

I was bored "I will stay here until you agree. You can take Greg with you who will pretend to be your guard as no one will recognise him."

That got his attention. "Well come on then" she barked at him as she stormed down the hallway.

"You better follow," I told him.

She lead him to the guards quarters where he borrowed a uniform.

"Are you going to turn around" he asked her as he waited to get dressed. She sighed and mumbled about pathetic maiden needs but obliged.

"The plan is that I will say I'm going see the Prince so the guards will let us past. You can then look through his things, which I refuse to take part in. I am merely a means of getting you there. Is that clear?"

He was too scared to say anything so he just nodded. She led him down endless passages and he was lost in seconds. The rest of the gang say that eventually you start to remember things about the castle and you'll get lost a lot less but it was not happening for the poor man. Meanwhile, he liked to think he was getting braver. He no longer stared at the floor. He now stared at her shoes. They were nice shoes. They probably cost enough money to feed a family for a month. The shoe thing was not working well while walking as he started to trip. She got sick of this and stopped abruptly.

"Your cowardess was slightly amusing at the beginning but now it's driving me insane. Stop acting like a little girl and watch where you are going."

"Yes ma'am" he sputtered.

Eventually reached Prince John's chamber. "I'm here to see Prince John," She told the guard.

"Good" he said "the Prince is right through there."

This caught them both by surprise. "You said he is never in his room at this time of the day," Greg whispered.

"Actually" she said as they backed away "I don't want to bother him. I'm sure he is very busy and I'll come back later."

The guard reached out and stopped her. "He requested your presence. I assumed that was why you were here."

"It is," she said. "Well I guess that I'd better go in then."

This was the first time Greg had seen Prince John so close. He had obviously been in crowds when he rode around taking tax money and what not. This was the first time he could actually see how intimidating he was.

"You asked for me," Annie asked as she tried to figure out why she was here.

"I did" he said and paused as he watched the discomfort rise from her. "I consider myself to be a righteous man." Greg had to stifle his laughter. "I have cared for you for many years despite not even knowing how we're related."

"Sire, I am your late sister in law's niece."

"We are not even blood related and yet I care for you. You must be married. I have even taken the job of finding you a suitor." He gestured to a man they hadn't noticed before who had been standing to the side.

"You" she said angrily when she saw him.

"Hello again" he said cheerily.

"Sire if I may, this man is evidence that chivalry is no longer taught to nobles. I have met him before and he is rude and obnoxious."

"In other words she couldn't keep her eyes off me," the man said.

"I don't care. Let me reintroduce you. Annie meet Hadrian. He shall be your husband. You may go."

Needless to say Greg felt very out of place all the while. Not knowing where to look or what to do, he prayed for the situation to draw to an early close.

"I'll accompany you back to your room," Hadrian told her. She sighed and let him lead her out. Greg guessed that meant that he was to follow.

"You can go," she whispered to him. "We'll try again tomorrow."

"Are you alright?" he asked her. "Do you want me to knock him out and send him to France or something."

She actually gave him a smile. "I can handle him." The smile was gone as suddenly as it came. "Now go!"

He ran down the hallway but stopped when he heard that their footsteps had stopped too. He snuck back to check on her and to his surprise she was passionately kissing him.

After being sick of all of the endless confusion, he gave up on the entire situation and snuck away.

Informing the gang of his findings was difficult.

"Prince John was there so we are going to try again tomorrow," was the only thing he could think of to say.

It was a lot less scary, approaching her the second time. Knowing her secret meant that he had some power of her.

She opened her door excitedly this time. This excitement died when she saw it was Greg. "Oh it's you," she said, not trying to hide her disappointment. "I forgot we were doing the thing again."

"Were you too love struck" he asked. "Too excited about your up coming nuptials?"

"As if," she retorted. "That man is a jerk. I'm working on a loophole."

"Is your loop hole kissing him in the hallway?"

She turned suddenly and pushed him into the wall. He was shocked at how strong she actually was. "How dare you spy on me" she practically spat at him. The fear of her had returned.

"I wasn't spying I was making sure you were alright. And I didn't tell anyone."

She backed of a little and he began to breathe again. "This is where you could explain why you pretended that you didn't know him," he said.

"There's not much to tell. We met long ago but he hasn't got a lot of status so we couldn't just announce that we wished to be married. It had to be Prince John's idea. Prince John would only suggest it if he thought it would anger me. Can we please get this over with?"

They walked in silence. He didn't like silence.

"So how did you meet him," he asked.

"Why on earth should I tell you?"

"Well I am a storyteller. Well, I was before I joined the outlaws. But I shall continue the noble work soon. And if your story is good enough then I shall tell it to the world, with different character names if you so wish and all shall hear of your tale."

She stared him. "You are a strange man." She deemed fit to tell him regardless. "It was at a ball that I didn't want to go to. He was rude, that part is true. We were both heading for the main doorway and he leapt in front of me. I stopped him and nicely reminded him that it is expected that a Lord must remove himself and let a Lady pass first. He told me he believed in equal rights for all and that women should be given the same rights as men. We argued over this for some time and eventually he let me pass first. I waited for him to pass as well and we went for a lovely stroll. We talked all night which was lucky because the ball was very dull as I care not for such social gatherings. Not all balls of course. This one was rather bland."

She then continued her rant about the boredom of her social class as Greg desperately waited for her to pause for breath.

"Wow" he told her. "That is so cliché"

She didn't like this. "Excuse me?"

"I was a storyteller and that kind of thing happens in every story. A man meets a woman, they initially disagree on something but end up head over heels in love. Do you know why this keeps happening? Because people know this story so well that when it happens to them, they all assume that they are in love, just because they have to follow the cliché."

"Are you implying that I do not love my betrothed?"

"I'm suggesting that you do not know that you do not love your betrothed."

Amazingly he was not scared as she turned on him. "How dare you."

"Answer me honestly. Does your heart skip a beat when you see him? Do you catch your breath whenever he enters a room. Is he your first thought when you wake and your last before you go to sleep? Would you give your life for him?"

"And tell me," she asked "how do you know that is what love is? Have you ever been in love yourself. You hide behind your pathetic stories to disguise the fact that you have not yet lived yourself."

He shrugged "If I am happy then who can complain. And you didn't answer my question."

"Because they are stupid." She was excused from further questioning because they were drawing near the Prince's quarters. He wasn't there this time and they gained access. Greg was left to sort through his things. He found many letters but was too ashamed to tell the gang that he couldn't read. He just assumed that the he would benefit from stealing each and every one of them. He had not counted on how many there would be.

"What is taking so long?" Annie asked as she noticed him stopping.

"It's nothing," he tried to explain but she didn't believe him.

"I can't read," he finally told her. She didn't burst out laughing like he expected her too but calmly walked over and began to read the letters for him. He had never felt more useless.

"Well here is Prince John's next step," she told him. "In a weeks time some one is arriving from the Holy Land. It doesn't say anything more. Only his name; Terrowyn."

…..

Esteemed words of the Sheriff of Nottingham

21st May 1191

Prince John could see that Hood's man was growing tired of his spy status, or rather that his conscience was taking charge.

This tends to happen to pathetic people. I pride myself on having no conscience. Or if I do, it is thoroughly silent.

"If you have nothing to tell us then leave," the Sheriff told him, angry at having his time wasted.

That inward battle was occurring again. Faithfulness to his master or faithfulness to revenge and money. I personally believe that revenge is no longer a controlling factor. That man is just as corrupt as the rest of us.

Eventually he told us, "Robin knows of your plan with Terrowyn. He is already working on intercepting him."

"How did he find out?" John asked, getting angry at how he was always a step ahead.

"He got into your private quarters and found a letter."

John groaned to himself. "I have hired imbeciles. Sheriff, make sure the guards wont let anyone through again."

I left with an evil smirk in anticipation of this job. The Prince threw a coin bag at the other man's feet. "Enjoy," he told him with a smirk. Corruption is rather fun I feel.

The plan was already forming in my head.

Hood will never see it coming.

I wont say any more here. As you know, I do not like to state my plans until they are successful for the chance that Hood intercepts them.

But I have a good feeling about this one.

Terrowyn is of upmost importance to the plan after all.

And he is coming.

All I can say is, it is about time.