Djaq waited to make sure Will was preoccupied with helping Much skin the rabbits for dinner before she pulled Robin aside.
The two walked to the edge of the camp, and Djaq looked carefully to make sure no one was eavesdropping.
"You all right, Djaq?" Robin had noticed the worry on her face when she and Will and returned to the camp.
"I've seen Allan. He pulled me into an alleyway by the midwife's house."
"Did he hurt you?" Robin, alarmed, began to look Djaq over for signs of abuse.
"No! He gave me a message for the gang, but I thought I should give it to just you, first."
"Oh, he has a message, has he! What, we can buy back his loyalties with a few more gold coins than what Gisbourne pays?"
"No, he said he knows he has done wrong, and that he feels badly, but knows it's too late."
"I'll say." Robin snorted.
"He also said that he hasn't told them where we are, and that he plans to store up information for us to use. He wanted to make sure we knew that he would never let harm come to us."
"Yeah, well, actions speak louder than words, and in his case, his actions so far have gone against him." Robin sighed. "The man's been a sneak and a liar from the moment I met him. I just never thought he would use it against the gang. Now, no matter how badly I want to I just can't trust him."
He clapped a hand down on Djaq's shoulder.
"Thank you for coming to me first, Djaq. I'll need to mull this over before I tell the rest."
Robin turned and made back for the fire. Djaq stayed put.
"I especially won't let them touch you, sweetheart."
She could not lie to herself and say that she had not ever felt more than a friendly affection for Allan, but she had soon realized how much of a flirt the man was. Besides, she had always found Will Scarlet a better match for her tastes, strong and silent, not wiley and brazen. But for him to so candidly admit that he cared for her? That set her mind reeling. Allan had always been the type to make it look like he cared only for himself.
And now, she had gotten a confession from one, when she had wanted it from the other.
Djaq sat silently, thinking about this debacle for quite some time. A crunch of leaves startled her from her thoughs and she jumped to her feet.
"I'm sorry, Djaq, I didn't mean to scare you." Will apologized.
"It's all right, I should not have been so lost in my thoughts." She smiled.
"Ah, then it is my turn to ask what you are thinking about." Will smiled coyly.
He remembered.
"Oh, lots of things."
"Such as...?" Will took a step closer to her.
"Such as..." Djaq fidgeted nervously, wanting to tell him how she felt, but still not wanting to put herself on the spot.
"DINNER!!! NOW OR NEVER!!! LET'S GO!!!" Much had run up behind them. "How long does it take to fetch someone for dinner, Will, honestly?"
The two younger members of the gang laughed and turned to follow Much back to the fire.
Djaq breathed a sigh of relief.
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After dinner, Robin told the men, and the lady, to stay seated.
"Djaq's had some news from the traitor today."
They all turned to look at her, but she felt Will's confused stare the most.
"Allan yanked her into an alleyway with a message for us. Seems he's had a change of heart. Feels badly for what he's done and wants to rectify things by being an inside man, as it were."
"I don't think so." Little John growled.
"That's what I thought when Djaq was telling me, but then I thought about it. It could be quite useful to have him there, along with Marian. There's only so much they'll tell a woman. If he wants it badly enough, he'll tell us everything. And to be on the safe side, we give him nothing in return."
Much shook his head. "I don't know, Master. He's a tricky one, he is, who knows what he could have planned?"
"We don't. But it's a risk we may have to take. This has been drawn out too long as it is. We need more of a direct line to information. If Allan wants back into our good graces so badly, he'll be that line. He's privy to all kinds of things, being Gisbourne's right hand man. Plots that even we don't know about."
He looked around at the gang. "He's not back in, it'll be a long time before he earns enough trust for that, but he can still be useful. All in favor, say aye."
"Aye."
"Aye."
"Aye."
"Will?" Robin looked at the silent carpenter.
"Aye." Will snarled as he stood and left the campsite.
Robin stood to follow, but Djaq grabbed his arm.
"No, I'll go. I fear this has to do with me."
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She found Will by the river, staring silently into the water, brooding.
"Will..."
"Why didn't you tell me that you saw him?" He asked, without looking at her.
"Because, I felt that Robin should know first, because of what Allan asked. I didn't want to spread it around."
"Why did you run back to the marketplace, if you had no intention of telling me?"
"I don't know."
"He told you how he feels, didn't he? He's always had feelings for you."
"No, he didn't tell me, but he may have implied something to do with them. Will, why does that bother you so much?"
"It doesn't."
"It does, or else, what you would be complaining about is that your best mate showed his face to someone else."
"It doesn't matter, not if he's told you how he feels."
"What doesn't matter? What are you going on about?" Djaq's eyes teared up in frustration. Except for when his father died, Will had never shown this much hostility to any of the gang, especially not her. If he was trying to tell her he had feelings for her, and the business with Allan was making him jealous, she wished he'd just spit it out already.
"Nevermind, Djaq. Just go get some sleep."
"No, I'm not going back until you tell me what your problem is."
"MY PROBLEM IS YOU!"
"Oh, well then..." Djaq turned and marched off back towards the camp.
"I didn't mean it like that!" Will ran to catch her. "I didn't mean you're my problem in a bad way."
"Since when are problems ever good, Will Scarlett?" Djaq kept her face turned away so that he would not see her tears.
"Since you became mine. I'm sorry, Djaq. I shouldn't have been so angry back there. The truth is, when you sat beside me last night, and asked what I was thinking about, it was you. I always think about you, and I've been working up the courage for ages to tell you. But, I've always known about Allan's feelings for you. I knew as soon as Robin told us you'd seen him, and thought about how you came running to the market, that he told you something. And rare is the woman who can resist Allan A'Dale."
"Then today is your lucky day, because you have found one."
Will smiled and leaned down to press a kiss to her lips. She softly reciprocated, then pulled away.
"I think it would be wise for now to let this wait. Things are too tense right now. Let us see how things with the Sheriff and Gisbourne play out. We could end before we begin."
"I understand."
The two walked together arm in arm back to camp, stepping away from each other when they reached the light of the campfire.
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