X – Thicker than Blood

Adam had never liked mornings that much. If it were up to him, he would stay in bed for as long as he could. However, mornings were a good time to slip away unnoticed. This time was no different; he had packed some food, a little bit of money just in case, and sneaked out of the camp as silently as he could. Of course, this time he intended to come back. He really did.

The forest was silent as Adam made his way through the trees towards the road. He hadn't made it too far from the camp before he heard a voice behind him.

"Going somewhere?"

Adam turned around and saw Robin standing right in front of him.

"How do you move so silently?" Adam asked, slightly annoyed that he had been caught.

"Experience. So, where are you going with all of that?" Robin nodded towards the bag Adam was carrying.

Adam hesitated. He wasn't sure how much he wanted to say at this point. "I… I need to do something."

"Do what?"

"Just… something important."

"And you can't tell me what it is because…"

"Because… I'm visiting an old friend. I promise I'm not running away or anything," Adam said. He really did not want to stay and argue about this with Robin.

"Leaving at first light in secret makes me think otherwise," Robin said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Really. I swear, I'll only be gone for a few days," Adam said. Then an idea popped into his head. "You… You could come with me, if you'd like."

"Come with you?" Robin frowned.

"Yeah. I mean, I can't tell you why I'm doing this, not until I get answers to some questions I have. But if you want to know, then you can just come with me." Adam swallowed hard. He wasn't exactly sure if he wanted Robin to come with him. A part of him wished that he would stay behind, so that Adam wouldn't have to explain what he was doing in case his journey was for nothing. Of course, the others would still demand answers, but then he could just come up with a convincing lie. But if he was right… It might be easier for Robin to come with him and find out for himself.

Robin thought for a moment. Adam was sure he would say no. Why would Robin just come on a mission he knew nothing about?

"All right. I'll come with you," he said eventually, much to Adam's surprise.

Trying to connect with Guy again felt humiliating. Isabella would much rather have just continued to ignore him and let their mutual resentment make them grow apart even more. But she had to pretend to try and make amends, considering the Sheriff's threats about telling her husband where she was. Every time she tried to talk to Guy, Isabella could see that deep down he did not care for her. It was as if she had done something wrong, when it was he who had admitted that he did not care about all the suffering she had been through.

Unfortunately, Isabella's attempts at getting closer to Guy were rather unsuccessful. Whenever they were in the same room, it felt like winter had come early; He was so cold towards her. But at least he tolerated her presence. But it wasn't enough to meet the Sheriff's demands.

Isabella knew that eventually her time would run out if she didn't get actual information out of Guy. So far, all the Sheriff had gotten out of her was that Guy was under a lot of stress and very tired. But that was nothing new. What Isabella really needed to know was where Guy's loyalties lied. That was what the Sheriff really wanted to know, but since she could barely get a few words out of her brother, it was impossible for her to figure out what went on in his head.

The fear that the Sheriff would write to her husband kept Isabella awake at night. She wasn't sure how long the man would tolerate her inability to spy on Guy. A week? A month? She could always leave, but then the Sheriff would definitely not hesitate to tell her husband that she had been to Notthingham. And it wasn't like she had anywhere else to go.

Isabella knew that the only person in the world that cared about her wellbeing was herself. She had hoped that Guy, the only relative she had left, would feel sympathy towards her, but he was too busy drowning in his own self-pity all the time to care about her. She had really wanted to have a brother again. But clearly it was too late for that.

The colder and more distant Guy became, the closer the threat of her husband felt.

"So, can you tell me now where we are going?" Robin asked.

They had been riding for a few hours, on horses they had borrowed, and although he knew they were going west, he still didn't know for certain where exactly they were going.

"Do you have to know? You'll find out eventually," Adam said nervously.

"Exactly, so you might as well tell me now. Who is this friend of yours that you need to see?"

Adam went quiet. After a moment of consideration, he let out a sigh and gave in.

"I'm going to see Sir Geoffrey of Burnley," Adam said.

Robin raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

"You know him?" Adam asked, sounding just as surprised as Robin.

"Yes, he's an old family friend. How do you know him?"

Adam muttered something under his breath and tightened his grip on the horse's reins.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. When was the last time you saw him?" Adam asked quickly.

Robin decided to ignore Adam's strange avoidance of questions. "I met him when I first went to the Holy Land. But he had to return to England due to an injury."

"Oh. Good. Well, at least he's in England, then," Adam said.

"Wait, when was the last time you saw him?" Robin asked. Had Adam really intended to go look for Geoffrey without knowing if he even was in the country? What could be so important?

Adam shrugged. "It's been… a while. Maybe eight years or so, I'm not sure."

Robin eyed Adam up and down. He couldn't have been anything more than a child back then. "Do you think Geoffrey will even recognise you?"

"It doesn't matter. He'll remember me, even if he doesn't know my face," Adam replied.

"Were you close, then?"

"No."

"And you have to speak with him specifically?"

"Yes."

Adam's short replies let Robin know that he was done answering questions. Robin was still curious to know the real purpose of this journey, but he decided to give Adam a moment of peace. He would find out everything eventually. And maybe by the time they got back to Sherwood, Robin would finally know more about Adam.

"What if they've been captured by the Sheriff? We should already be in Nottingham organising a rescue!"

Much paced back and forth and ran his hands through his hair. At first, the others hadn't thought much about Robin and Adam's disappearance. But as the morning dragged on, their absence made their – mostly Much's – worry grow. By the evening, after they had been to the villages to ask around, it was clear that something had happened.

Kate was sitting by the table, leaning her chin against her palm, watching Much walk agitatedly up and down the short length of the camp. She doubted Much's theory, but it was strange that Adam and Robin had just disappeared in the middle of the night.

"Would you stop that? You'll wear out a hole on the floor," Allan said. Although Robin and Adam's sudden disappearance worried him as well, he was at least managing to keep his head cool.

"They could already be dead, Allan!" Much replied and continued his pacing.

Allan sighed and looked at John. Kate picked something up from the table.

"I suppose we should go to Nottingham just in case," John said. He did not quite believe that the Sheriff had captured Robin, because if he had, he would have already had him executed, and that rumour would have spread like wildfire. Besides, how would the Sheriff have gotten his hands on Robin and Adam in the middle of the night, if the two hadn't been out of their beds in the first place? No, the more believable answer was that Robin was up to something, but going to Nottingham would at least quieten Much's worries.

"Or maybe we should read this first," Kate said, holding up a small note. Much quickly grabbed it from her.

"Where did you get this?" he asked and inspected the note carefully.

"It was right here on the table," Kate said and pointed down.

Allan drew in a deep breath. "Don't tell me Robin left us a note and we didn't even notice it until now."

"What does it say?" John asked.

Everyone went quiet and looked at Much, who was still holding the note.

"Uh… I don't know," Much said. The only thing he could make out of the note was that it was in Robin's handwriting.

"Let me," Allan said and snatched the note from Much. His eyes scanned over the words, and the others watched him intensively.

"Since when can you read?" Much asked.

"I just… realised it was an important skill to have. Anyway, Robin says he and Adam have gone somewhere. It doesn't say where. They'll be back in a few days," Allan replied and handed the note back to Much. He took it and looked over it as if he could uncover some detail Allan had missed.

"That's settled then," John said. "I'll go check the traps."

"I'll come with you," Kate said quickly.

The two left the camp, leaving Allan and Much to argue over if Allan had read the note correctly.

"So, here we are," Robin said as they finally arrived at the town where Geoffrey lived. He couldn't help but notice that Adam was fidgeting nervously. He looked like he might just turn his horse around at any moment.

"Everything all right?" Robin asked.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine," Adam replied, snapping out of his thoughts.

The two continued to ride their horses towards the house where Sir Geoffrey lived according to the young man who had pointed it out to them. They hadn't even reached it yet when someone called Robin's name.

"Robin of Locksley?"

Robin and Adam both turned to look at the man standing by the gate. He was tall and had thick greying hair. Robin smiled as he recognised him and dismounted his horse.

"Geoffrey! It's good to see you!" Robin grinned and approached the man.

Adam got off his horse but lingered behind.

"I heard you're an outlaw these days. That's not true, is it?" Geoffrey asked, lowering his voice a little, although there was no-one close enough to hear the conversation anyway.

"It is, unfortunately. But how are you? Is your leg any better?" Robin asked with a wide smile on his face.

"A little, yes, just please don't challenge me to a duel. I'm not as quick on my feet as I used to be," Geoffrey laughed. "What brings you here?"

Robin looked back at Adam, who looked like he was trying to make himself as unnoticeable as possible by leaning against his horse. All of his usual confidence had vanished.

"I'm not actually here on my own business. My friend Adam here says you two know each other."

Geoffrey looked up to Adam as well, and for a moment the two just stared at each other – Adam with a nervous look, and Geoffrey like he was trying to find Adam's face in his memories. For a moment Robin wondered if what Adam had even told him was the truth, if Geoffrey would recognise him. Then a look of recognition washed over Geoffrey's face and the smile fell from his face. He glanced at Robin and then looked back to Adam.

"Adam, huh? Is that what you call yourself now?" he asked and cleared his throat.

Robin frowned. Was Adam not really Adam?

"Yes," Adam replied, holding onto the horse's reins tightly, although he seemed like the one that might run off.

"What are you doing here? And how… How do you know him?" Geoffrey asked and nodded nervously at Robin.

"How about you answer my questions first," Adam said. He straightened his back and tried to appear more confident than what he was. Robin watched as he walked closer to Geoffrey and handed him something.

"Tell me if this is real or not," Adam demanded.

Geoffrey unfolded a small letter and began reading through it. They were both tense, and if Robin hadn't seen Adam's chest move up and down, he might have thought that the boy had stopped breathing. Geoffrey finished reading and closed his eyes.

"Yes," he said simply.

Adam let out a shaky breath and leaned heavily against the fence. He was worryingly pale.

Robin waited for the others to speak, but when neither of them did, he decided to be the one to break the silence.

"Alright, would you mind telling me what's going on? What does that say? And is your name really not Adam?"

Geoffrey looked at Robin, but quickly turned his eyes away, as if he was ashamed. He then managed to make eye-contact with Adam, who still looked like he might pass out at any moment.

"Robin…" Geoffrey began, "Your friend here… His real name is Archer, and he is your brother."

The second day without Robin and Adam at the camp went more smoothly than the first, although Much's worry had been exchanged for annoyance at the fact that Robin hadn't told them where they were going. Without Robin and Adam, the others decided to just focus on drop-offs rather than trying to arrange an ambush with just four people.

This left Kate feeling a little bored. The Nightwatchman was reserved for fights, ambushes, and night-time, so she couldn't go into the villages in broad daylight. As far as anyone knew, Kate from Locksley had not been seen in months. She could only watch from afar as the others dropped off food and money to people. There were days when she just wanted to drop the act and openly be an outlaw – not as the Nightwatchman, but as Kate. But if she did that, it would put her family in danger, so she had to settle for sitting up on the hill as John visited Locksley.

When he returned, rather than heading back to the camp, John sat down next to her.

"How were they?" she asked, wrapping her arms around her knees.

"Good. Your mother asked about you," he replied.

"And what did you tell her?"

"That you're doing well, and that you've gotten quite good with a bow."

Kate smiled at the compliment. "I wish I could show her. And Maggie. She would love it."

John just nodded, although he had a feeling that Rebecca might not appreciate it if she knew that Kate was aiming her bow at anything other than a tree or a small rabbit.

When John had become an outlaw, he had disappeared deep into the forest, unwilling to go anywhere close to any of the villages. If he had done what Kate was doing now – watching everyone live their lives without them – he couldn't have lived with that pain. But Kate was drawn to Locksley, and she wanted to know everything that went on there. John couldn't quite understand it. Didn't that just make the longing worse?

It had for him, and that was why he had tried not to think about his wife during all those years in the forest. And if he had known that he had left behind a son… perhaps then curiosity would have gotten the better of him, and he would have found himself up here, watching him grow from a distance.

But Kate knew exactly what she had been forced to give up. John could only hope that for her, this wouldn't be permanent. He wanted her to have the life he never got to have. She was still young; she still had her whole life ahead of her. She shouldn't have to hide in the forest like this.

John did not hold the same belief as Robin did about the King coming back and setting things right. It might happen, or it might not, and if it did, it could take a while. John had accepted that he might never know life outside the forest, but Kate deserved better than that. If the King did not return, John would make sure that Kate got to leave the life of an outlaw behind her, one way or another. She deserved what Will and Djaq had gotten, and what John would never get: a second chance.

The pair sat up on the hill for a while, silently watching the village prepare for the night. Eventually John stood up, his joints aching. Something as simple as sitting on the ground got more and more difficult with age, it seemed.

"Come, we should go," he said softly.

Kate took one long look at Locksley, like she was trying to memorise every detail of the village, and stood up.

"Let's go then. Before Much thinks we've been captured," she said with a smile that did not quite reach her eyes.

Robin had read through the letter about six times now, and the words still didn't make any sense to him. If it weren't for his father's seal and Sir Geoffrey's assurance that the letter was real, Robin would have thought this was all some elaborate joke. His mind could wrap itself around bits and pieces of the letter, but the picture those words painted were shaking up Robin's whole world.

…my son by Lady Ghislaine…

…entrusted the infant, Archer, to the care of Sir Geoffrey of Brunley and Lord Henry of Colchester…

…recognising him as my son…

…legally married…

Robin's head was spinning. The letter spoke of a birthmark, which Adam – or was it Archer now? – had shown him, but Robin still had a hard time accepting any of this as being real.

Sir Geoffrey had offered Robin and Adam food and drinks, but the two of them were too deep in thought to even touch the plates on the table in front of them. Both of them had yet to properly react to the news, and Geoffrey sat on the other side of the table, anxiously waiting for the conversation they would inevitably have.

"So… I assume you have questions," Geoffrey said, fiddling with his fingers.

"Why would we have questions?" Adam asked, his voice full of bitterness.

Robin tried to push his own feelings aside for a moment – which was no easy task – to assess the situation better. Adam was probably in shock just as much as Robin was.

"Just… tell us everything," Robin said.

Geoffrey took a deep breath and began speaking. "Well, as you know – at least you do, Robin – I was friends with your father. I don't know the whole story, but I will do my best to tell you what I know. I think I owe you that much."

Adam let out a scoff. Geoffrey ignored it.

"I don't know what exactly happened between Malcolm and Lady Ghislaine. In fact, I had not been aware that there was anything going on between them until one summer Malcolm asked me for help. He… He had plans of marrying Lady Ghislaine, but the situation was… complicated. She gave birth to a son – that was you, Archer – and because they were not yet married, they needed a place for you until they could bring you home."

Robin felt sick. He had a hard time believing his father could have fathered a bastard – and with Lady Ghislaine of all people. If Geoffrey's story was real, it meant that the affair had gone on for a while, and Robin had been blind to all of it.

"We – Henry and I – were the only ones to know about the baby. I'm not sure if you remember Henry, Robin, but he was a friend of your father's as well. Anyway, the plan was for Henry and I to take Archer to a safe place so that Malcolm and Lady Ghislaine could bring him home once they were married. That letter," Geoffrey nodded to the letter Robin was still holding, "was meant for the unlikely scenario where that plan would be delayed. I don't think Malcolm even considered the possibility that things could turn out as badly as they did."

Robin glanced at Adam. The boy's – his brother's! – jaw was clenched, and he was staring blankly at the wooden surface of the table.

Geoffrey had his eyes locked on the table as well. He was avoiding looking at either of them.

"Henry and I took the baby to Lady Milton. She was a… friend of mine and agreed to take you in for a short while, although she was not happy that I didn't give her a proper explanation for who you were. Henry took the letter – although neither of us believed it would ever have any significance – and I left the country to deal with some family business. As far as I knew, that was supposed to be the end of it all."

Adam finally reached for his drink. "So what went wrong?" His voice sounded hoarse.

"It took me a few years to return to England. When I did, I went to visit Locksley." Geoffrey raised his eyes to look at Robin. "I was shocked when I heard that both Malcolm and Lady Ghislaine were dead. And since Archer was nowhere to be found, I realised right away that something had gone wrong. I went to see Lady Milton, who was not happy at all that no-one had ever shown up to pick up the child."

Adam took another sip of his drink. "Yeah, no wonder she hated me."

"I paid her to keep you for a little while longer while I took care of things. I went to see Henry, and I found out that while he had heard about Malcolm's death, he was not aware that Lady Ghislaine had died as well. So he was under the impression that someone had already taken the child back to Locksley. But now we needed a new plan."

"Why didn't you just bring him to me?" Robin asked. The idea that this entire time he had had a brother out there somewhere was making him dizzy.

Geoffrey hung his head in shame. "Looking back on it, that is what we should have done. But both Henry and I were busy with our own lives, and we felt that too much time had passed by then. And would you even have accepted a supposed brother into your life?"

"What about the letter? Wouldn't that have been enough proof?" Adam asked before Robin could answer.

"Back then, Henry said he had lost it, thinking it wasn't important. I'm curious to know how it ended up in your hands. But I am sorry that I did not do the right thing. My choices were entirely selfish," Geoffrey said sadly.

Robin was still stuck thinking about the possibility that he could have had a little brother. Would he really have accepted Adam – or Archer – as his brother? And would he as a teenager have been mature enough to raise his brother? Both of their lives would have been very different, that much was certain.

Geoffrey cleared his throat and continued his story. "Henry and I thought that the easiest solution was to just keep you where you were. I paid Lady Milton for looking after you. I didn't tell her who you were, but I hoped she might adopt you and give you the life you deserve. Clearly I was wrong."

"I think she hated you," Adam said bitterly, "and she took it out on me. I wasn't her son, but I wasn't a servant. I was around; I wasn't good enough to be treated like nobility, but not lowly enough to be doing the dirty work. I was nothing to those people. You had the power to tell me who I was, but you didn't! At least Henry had the decency of visiting me every once in a while!"

The anger that had been building up inside Adam was beginning to spill over. Robin placed a hesitant hand on his arm, but Adam flinched away from his touch. It did, however, calm him down a bit.

"I'm sorry for that," Geoffrey said, "and I must say that again, it was all my own selfishness and cowardice. Lady Milton and I… We no longer got along, so I was unsure if she would even let me visit. And I think deep down even back then I knew that I had made the wrong choice, and that shame made me stay away. I'm sorry."

Adam crossed his arms. "You still had another opportunity to take me to Robin. When Lady Milton died," he pointed out.

"Yes, I know. But I used the same excuses that time too. I was about to head to the Holy Land, and Henry was busy with his own life. I took you to Roche Abbey in the hopes that you could find a proper home with the Church. I see now that I was wrong."

"Did you even stop to think how I felt? One day you, a man I had seen only once before, show up and take me to an abbey and just leave me there? I didn't even want to go, I hated learning Latin and the whole place just reminded me of the fact that no-one had ever wanted me."

Robin saw tears in Adam's eyes. He realised that although they had both been lied to, Adam had suffered more. Robin had at least known who he was, he had money and station, but Adam had nothing.

"I really am sorry for that. I know there is nothing I can do to make it up to you, and I understand if you cannot forgive me," Geoffrey sighed in defeat. He tried to catch Adam's eyes, but the boy kept looking to the side, holding back his tears. "After I had taken you to the abbey, I left to the Holy Land. And until today, I thought that the matter was settled."

"But it wasn't, was it?" Robin cut in. "When I came to the Holy Land a few years later, you had a chance to tell me about him. But even then you just looked me in the eye and pretended everything was fine."

Geoffrey did not reply. He just closed his eyes and hung his head. Robin wasn't sure if he could forgive this secrecy either. Deep down he wondered if he could forgive his father for hiding everything in the first place, but Robin pushed that thought away from his mind. Now was not the time for that.

He turned to face Adam. "Could you tell me what happened to you next?"

Adam drew in a shaky breath. "I lasted in Roche Abbey for about two years. Then I ran away. I really did try at first, but I just knew that was not the life for me, so I left. I worked wherever I could, got in and out of trouble, and when things got tough, I changed my name and moved over to the next town. I never stayed in one place for long."

So much about Adam made sense now. Robin wanted to ask more, to find out about the life his brother had lived, but he knew Adam well enough by now to know that he would not share much willingly. Just finding out all of this was more than Robin would have ever expected.

"What I would like to know is how you two ended up together. And more importantly, where did you find that?" Geoffrey said and pointed at the letter.

Robin saw a wave of realisation was over Adam's face.

"I was just minding my own business, when one day a group of men captured me and dragged me to Nottingham. The Sheriff threw me into his dungeon without an explanation, but I managed to escape. And that's how I met Robin." Adam gave Robin a careful smile – the first one since they had arrived here. "As for the letter, I found it later in the Sheriff's room. So I think we now know why he wanted me in the first place."

"He wanted to use you against me," Robin said, the realisation hitting him as well. He was grateful that he did not have to hear about his secret brother from Sheriff Vaisey.

"But how did he get the letter? As far as I knew, Henry had it, or he'd lost it," Geoffrey pointed out.

Adam's face fell and he turned pale. "I visited him last winter. He didn't seem to be doing well. I'm pretty sure he was in a lot of debt." He swallowed hard. "Henry must have sold me out."

An awkward silence fell over them. All the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. Robin downed his drink in one go.

It took a while before Adam spoke again.

"So, who was Lady Ghislaine?"

Robin felt a knot in his stomach. It had been one thing to find out about his father's bastard son. But this part of the story was something he had tried not to think about.

"She was… Gisborne's mother," Robin said. Just the thought of sharing a brother with Gisborne was making his skin crawl.

Adam frowned. He opened his mouth but nothing came out, and he closed it again. Then he stood up and looked from Robin to Geoffrey and back to Robin. "I… I need some air." With that, he turned and walked out of the house.

Robin considered running after him but decided instead to give Adam a moment to wrap his mind around everything. He turned back to Geoffrey.

"Tell me everything again. And don't spare me the details."

Robin was not sure if Adam slept at all that night. Robin's own sleep was restless, but even as he woke up, Adam was already up and eager to head back to Sherwood. Geoffrey kept apologising, and although it was obvious he was being sincere, neither Adam nor Robin could quite yet forgive him for the many years of secrecy and lying. Perhaps one day they could, but not right now. They rode out early in the morning.

For most of the day, Robin and Adam barely spoke to each other. What were they supposed to say or do in a situation like this? Neither of them knew what it was to have a brother.

As they rode in the warmth of the summer sun, Robin couldn't help but look for something familiar in Adam. After all these years he only had vague memories of what his father looked like, but there was something about Adam that made him look familiar. Robin tried to imagine him dressed as a nobleman, but the image that popped into his head didn't resemble Malcolm of Locksley nearly as much as it did Guy of Gisborne.

It seemed like some kind of a cruel joke that Robin had to share a brother with the man that had taken so much from him. He doubted that Gisborne would be happy about this either. In fact, Robin would gladly just not let Guy and Isabella know about the existence of their brother. They would all be better off that way.

Adam was still processing all of the information he had gotten from Geoffrey, so he was far from even considering getting to know his sister and other brother. He tried not to feel bitter, but the knowledge of everything that had been taken away from him burned him on the inside. How different would Archer of Locksley have been from Adam, the poor boy whom no-one wanted? He would never get the answer to that question.

At nightfall Robin and Adam decided to camp out in the forest. As they lay on the ground, looking up at the stars high above them, Robin finally spoke up.

"What do you want to do now?"

"Sleep. Get back to Sherwood."

"I mean… Do you want to tell the others? It's up to you. If you don't want anyone else to know, we can pretend like nothing ever happened."

Adam sat up. "Do you want to keep it a secret?" Would Robin want to admit he had a bastard half-brother? If Robin ever got his lands and titles back, wouldn't Adam just be in the way?

"I would be happy to call you my brother. It will take some getting used to, but I don't resent you for something my… our father did."

Adam just nodded. He wasn't ready to decide yet, but it felt relieving that at least Robin wanted to be his brother.

"Can I ask you… Why did you lie about your name?" Robin asked.

"Well, I was just so used to it. Whenever I got in trouble before, I just told people I was someone else. Before being dragged to Nottingham I had been Archer for a while. It just seemed easier to lie, just in case. Then I just got so used to being Adam that it never seemed appropriate to just tell everyone that I had lied about my name." Adam pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on them. "Besides, I always hated my name. Who even names their child Archer?"

"Is it because you couldn't-"

"Yes, because I couldn't shoot."

Both Adam and Robin smiled for the first time since last night.

Then Robin remembered the letter that he still had in his pocket. "Why didn't you tell me about this right away?" He pulled the letter out, although there was no reason to read it again. They both knew it by heart by now.

"I guess I just didn't want to say anything in case it wasn't real. I mean, I wasn't sure if I wanted it to be real or not. So, I just tried to not think about it too much. I'm sorry, I should have told you."

"It's all right. At least the Sheriff has lost his upper hand now that we know about this."

Adam lay back down. Of course Robin was thinking about strategy at a moment like this.

They were both on the verge of falling asleep when Robin thought to ask one more question.

"Did Tuck really recognise you or not? It seemed like you were always avoiding him."

Adam thought about his answer for a moment. "Yes. Once he figured out who I was, I even showed the letter to him."

"So how did you two know each other?"

"Roche Abbey."

"Ah. Of course."

"He tried very hard to teach me Latin. I was just a bad student."

"Four days! You were gone for four whole days! Do you even know how worried we were?"

Much was livid when Robin and Adam got back to the camp. They barely had a chance to say hello when Much launched into his monologue about how irresponsible taking off in the middle of the night was.

"Speak for yourself," Allan said. "I wasn't worried."

"I left a note!" Robin said defensively.

"You know I can't read!" Much cried. Robin tried to explain that so long as one of them could, it didn't matter, but Much was having none of it. "The note explained nothing anyway! What were you doing for four days?" he asked in frustration.

Robin and Adam exchanged a look. It was now or never. They could either tell everything to the others or come up with a lie. But Adam was done with lies, so he gave Robin a firm nod.

"All right, you might want to sit down for this," Robin said.

It took Adam and Robin hours to tell the whole story – mostly because Much kept interjecting with questions. By the time they were done, the others just stared at them in stunned silence.

"So… you two," Allan said in disbelief, pointing between Robin and Adam, "are brothers?"

"Half-brothers, yes," Robin said.

"But you're also Gisborne's brother?" Allan continued, looking at Adam.

"It seems so."

"I knew there was a reason I didn't trust you!" Much said, but John gave him a warning look.

Robin cut in before anyone could mention Gisborne again. "None of that matters. This really doesn't change anything for us. Adam is one of us. Blood or not, you are all my brothers and sisters." He placed a hand on Adam's shoulder, and Much nodded in agreement. Robin was right: This didn't have to change anything. And at least Much could trust Adam more now that he knew where the boy came from.

"Well, there is one thing," Kate said. Until now she had just been quietly listening to the conversation. "Do we call you Adam or Archer?"

She looked right at Adam, who seemed unprepared for this question. He looked around at his new family – not just Robin, but the whole gang – and made his decision. "I think I'd like to be Archer again."

After the long and warm summer, autumn began to turn to winter far too quickly. The first snowflakes fell from the sky in early October, although they very quickly melted into the ground as if they had never existed. Many people predicted that the following winter would be a long one. This meant that everyone from peasants to nobility began preparing themselves for the coming season.

John Thornton was one of these people who had already put into motion plans that would ensure he would have enough to eat this winter. Starving was for peasants. That was why he planned ahead. He was a man who liked to be in control and plot every step ahead.

However, his plans were thwarted when a messenger arrived at his home, telling him that he had an offer for him.

"And what is it that you have?" Lord Thornton asked. The messenger pulled out a sealed letter and waved it in front of him.

"For the right price, I have information about the location of your wife, Lady Isabella."