Chapter Fifteen
"Can you do it?" Robin asked Allan, his brilliant green eyes expectant.
"That depends. Do you want clever, or really clever?" was Allan's reply. Robin grinned and ran his fingers through his hair.
"Excellent."
* * *
"What's going on?" Marian asked Sir Guy of Gisborne as they stood in the external hallway, watching a small crowd drifting into the courtyard. The peasants seemed expectant, like something interesting was going to happen.
"You'll find out soon enough," Sir Guy replied, his voice indifferent, as usual.
"But where is Charlotte?" Marian asked, searching the crowd for someone wearing bright colours. This time Sir Guy gave a humourless laugh, which made Marian uneasy.
Suddenly there was a fanfare from the trumpeters and the Sheriff emerged, smirking even more so than usual. Charlotte was still nowhere in sight.
"Welcome, everyone," the Sheriff addressed the crowd. "Look at all those eager faces! Well, I promise that you won't be disappointed. Men have been and will always be superior to women. Today I will demonstrate what happens when women try and disprove that fact."
Suddenly Charlotte was brought out, her arms pinned behind her back by a guard. He forced her down the steps and onto the wooden platform. She did not resist; there was no point in doing so.
'Ah, revenge is sweet,' the Sheriff thought. 'Oh, wait! Haven't we been here before?'
Another guard brought forward some nasty looking shears. Charlotte held her head high, a slightly insane whisper of a smile on her lips. One guard lifted up her long, honey blonde hair, while the other began to roughly snip through the thick mass. Once finished, he held up the hair triumphantly.
Suddenly, every pair of eyes was on Charlotte. Marian's were sympathetic, the Sheriff's were gleeful and Sir Guy's were impassive. Having your hair cut off publicly was an immensely embarrassing thing for a woman. Even Marian had been unable to hold back tears. But Charlotte, being Charlotte, tossed her head.
"Wow, that feels lighter!" she exclaimed. The Sheriff was not amused.
"Look out, Sheriff coming through!" he called, pushing through a group of guards to get inside.
"Look out, the Fuzz coming through!" Charlotte called in true Charlotte style as she leapt down from the platform. Marian turned to face Sir Guy.
"You've got to admit, that girl is either immensely brave or immensely stupid, or both."
"I think it's both," Sir Guy replied.
"Me too," Much muttered to himself from behind them.
* * *
The Sheriff lounged in his chair, staring vacantly at the Council of Lords. Only Sir Edward was missing. Sure enough, he eventually arrived, excusing himself for his lateness. Once seated, he murmured something to a nearby Charlotte.
"You've had your hair cut," he observed.
"Yeah, best rates in town," Charlotte replied loudly enough for the Sheriff to hear. "Your pride for your hair."
The rest of the meeting continued as normal, with only one interruption from Marian.
"How can you possibly raise the taxes when people are already heavily indebted to you? It is unfair and unjust."
The Sheriff looked at Marian as if she were a piece of dirt.
"On behalf of Marian, I apologise for her outburst," Sir Edward cut in, giving Marian a meaningful glance.
"Oh, no need," the Sheriff replied. "Being men, I'm sure we're all aware of the fact that women say and do things before they think."
Both Charlotte and Marian blushed slightly, making the Sheriff give a wry smile.
* * *
"Have you learnt your lesson?" the Sheriff taunted as the rest of the Lords disappeared out the door. Charlotte hung back.
"Do you want to know what I was thinking the whole time that I was up there?" Charlotte asked, her tone strangely light.
"What? Some way to complain about your unfair treatment?"
"I was wondering whether planting my cut hair on your head and watering it would make it grow; you certainly need it." Charlotte smiled. This confused the Sheriff. In truth, Charlotte was smiling at Allan in his guard disguise, who was imitating the Sheriff behind his back. Vaizey would never know or understand why she had smiled at him so kindly that afternoon.