Author's note: Thank you so much for reading this story so far. Thank you especially to Cherylann Rivers, max2013, Guest, EvergreenDreamweaver, sm2003495, and BMSH for your reviews on the last chapter!

Chapter VII

"I don't get it." Ned Nickerson frowned. "After you called me last night, Nancy, I looked up everything I could find on this Robin Hood character. Kidnapping doesn't seem like his thing."

He was standing in the snow in the parking lot of the non-denominational church where George had evidently disappeared, shivering as Nancy walked around, trying to find any clue that the police might have missed. Bess was also there, standing close to her boyfriend Dave Evans. George's boyfriend Burt Eddleton was leaning against Ned's car, looking like he was still in shock from the news.

"What do you mean?" Bess asked Ned. "He's a crook. Why would he stop at kidnapping?"

"It's just that, while no one will admit that this guy's given them any money, everyone seems to think he's doing the same thing with his ill-gotten gains that the original Robin Hood did," Ned explained.

"If that's the case, why's he hitting charities?" Dave pointed out. "That money would have gone to help people out anyway. Why not rob the rich if he's going to act out this whole fantasy?"

Ned shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe rich people have too good security for this guy to get past."

Nancy glanced up at the sky. "The police were right that there's no evidence of anything. They said it started snowing at about eight-thirty last night and it hasn't stopped since. It looks like this stop was a dead end."

"Nancy," Burt finally spoke up, "you know more about this than you're telling, don't you? Why don't you let us in on it?"

Nancy sighed. "I'm starting to understand Mr. Hardy more and more. Okay, but it's a really long story, so the main part is going to have to wait till later. For now, the main thing you need to know is that my dad worked on a case fifteen years ago, and it really looks like the people – well, the person – behind it is back for revenge, and they're trying to get that revenge through me.

"We don't know for sure that that's who it is, but it seems likely. For one thing, they've got a thing about books. In the original case, it was Sherlock Holmes. If another of our conjectures is right, a few months ago they were pestering the Hardys with Macbeth. Now it looks like they're going after me with both Le Morte d'Arthur and Robin Hood.

"They sent me a copy of Le Morte d'Arthur in the mail. Then they sent me some texts from George's phone that pointed me to the story of Sir Gareth. It's kind of impossible to not equate that story with kidnapping –"

"Maybe not for you," Dave interrupted, "but not all of us are into super old literature. Who's Sir Gareth? What does he have to do with anything?"

"I can answer this one," Ned spoke up. "I told you an English major would come in handy, Dave."

"I still say an engineering major like you started with would have been better, but okay. We'll let your English major have its moment," Dave teased him.

"Sir Gareth was the nephew of King Arthur," Ned explained, ignoring Dave's teasing. "He was the younger brother of Sir Gawaine, who was one of the greatest knights of the Round Table, and the half-brother of Mordred, who eventually betrayed Arthur and killed him. However, Gareth was the most humble and chivalrous of his brothers. He wanted to become a knight for his own merits, rather than because of who his uncle or his brother was.

"So he disguised himself as a kitchen boy and went to work in the kitchen of Arthur's castle. Sir Kay, Arthur's adopted brother, was the head of the household, so Gareth was directly under him. Kay didn't much like Gareth, and he made fun of him. He had some nickname for him –"

"Beaumains," Nancy supplied. "It's French for 'fair hands.'"

"Right." Ned nodded approvingly. "Anyway, at the feast of Pentecost, it was a tradition for Arthur to hold a huge feast with all of his knights and they would all wait for some adventure to befall them. This particular year didn't fail. A woman came into the feast, saying that her name was Lynette and that her sister, Lyonesse, had been captured by the Red Knight of the Red Lawns and she needed a knight to come with her and rescue her.

"Immediately, Gareth volunteered to go. Now, I believe Lancelot, who was Arthur's best friend, as you all probably know, knew who Gareth was, even though no one else recognized him. Don't ask me how that worked. I'm really not sure. Anyway, Lancelot assured Arthur that Gareth could handle the quest, so Arthur gave his permission to let him go.

"Lynette, however, was not convinced. She was downright furious that a mere kitchen boy was to be her champion and she was sure he'd make a mess of the whole thing. Sir Kay was another one who thought for sure Gareth would fail. He seemed to think it would be great fun to see Gareth get killed, so he followed him and Lynette. Lancelot also followed them.

"The whole time, Lynette was super rude to Gareth and was constantly telling him how he was going to ruin everything. Gareth just took it, though, like a knight should. Sir Kay caught up to them and he started in on making fun of Gareth, too. I don't remember exactly how it happened, but finally Kay and Gareth started to fight, and Gareth won easily, even though Kay was known as one of the strongest of all the knights of the Round Table.

"So Kay went home, surprised and unhappy. Lancelot had watched the fight, and he knighted Gareth before he went home, too. The whole incident hadn't impressed Lynette, though, and she kept right on being a pill.

"A little while later, Gareth got challenged by the Black Knight. Lynette was more than happy to see them fight because she thought Gareth would get killed and then she could go find a better knight to assist her in her quest. But obviously that's not what happened. Instead, Gareth killed the Black Knight and took his armor.

"Later on, they met the Black Knight's brother, the Green Knight. At first, he thought Gareth is his brother, but when he found out the truth, he fought Gareth. Gareth defeated him, too, but he didn't kill him. Instead, he sent him back to Camelot after making him swear to turn himself in to Arthur. Then the same thing happened again two more times with the Black Knight's other two brothers, the Red Knight (a different Red Knight than the one who has Lyonesse) and the Indigo Knight.

"After all of this, Lynette finally decided that maybe Gareth wasn't so bad after all, and started to be civil toward him. Just about then they came to where the Red Knight of the Red Lands was holding Lyonesse. Gareth fought him and he was as strong as something like ten men, but Gareth eventually defeated him but didn't kill him. It turned out the whole thing was supposed to be a trap for Lancelot, but Gareth made him swear to give up that idea. Then Lyonesse was saved and Gareth eventually married her."

"So, Nancy, you think that George got kidnapped and whoever did it is trying to get you to go on some sort of quest to rescue her?" Burt asked, raising an eyebrow just a little. "One thing I can say for sure is that they picked the wrong girl to play the damsel in distress."

"They just obviously don't know George," Nancy replied. "But, seriously, I think that's exactly what they're trying to do."

"Then what's our next move?" Burt looked at her almost pleadingly, as if he expected her to come up with a solution to the case on the spot.

"I guess we've got to go find a Black Knight," Nancy said. "At least, that's the only thing I can think of."

"There's not exactly a plethora of knights running around these days," Ned reminded her. "Where do we find this one?"

"Let's try the local newspaper," Nancy suggested. "It might ring some bells with them."

NDNDNDNDND

The office of the Baker Gazette was modest and unassuming and, most disappointingly of all, closed. A sign hung on the door saying, "We'll be back soon."

"How soon is soon?" Dave asked.

"Not very soon with those people," a stranger broke into their conversation. They all turned to see that it was a young, sandy-blond woman who was no more than four or five years older than them. "I hope whatever you need isn't very urgent."

"We were just hoping to ask some questions," Nancy replied.

"Then you should try Jim's Grill. It's the gossip hub around here," the woman told her.

"How many people hang out at a grill in the morning?" Dave asked.

"You might be surprised," the woman said. "They serve a mean cup of black coffee."

Nancy narrowed her eyes just the slightest bit at the choice of words, a hunch forming in the back of her mind. She smoothed her thoughtful expression away behind a smile and held out her hand. "I'm Nancy Drew. I'm a detective from River Heights, and I'm investigating a case here in Baker."

"Ooh." The young woman shook Nancy's hand. "I've heard of you. Is it this Robin Hood case? I'm Lynn Morgan, by the way."

"Yes, it is the Robin Hood case. You seem to know a lot about what's going on around here. Maybe you can help us," Nancy said.

"I'd love to," Lynn replied. "How can I help?"

"How about you start by showing us where Jim's Grill is and then you can tell us everything you know about Robin Hood?" Nancy suggested.

"Okay, sure." Lynn waved her hand at the other side of the street. "Showing you where Jim's is is easy. It's right over there. Let's go."

As the others began following her, casting puzzled looks at one another as they did, Ned caught Nancy's arm and held her back.

"What is this all about?" he asked, keeping his voice low. "It's not like you to be so buddy-buddy with some random stranger that you met on an investigation."

"Trust me." Nancy spoke even more quietly than Ned so that he could only just barely help her. "I have a feeling that meeting someone named Lynn who went out of her way to use the word 'black' while telling us where to go is not a coincidence."

"Hold on." Ned stopped walking in his surprise. "You're saying she's in on it? And we're just going to do whatever she says? Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"If I'm right, she's playing a game with us," Nancy replied. "Until I know exactly what that game is, the only thing we can do is play by her rules."

NDNDNDNDND

George groggily picked herself up off a cold, stone floor. Her head pounded and all she wanted to do was lie back down again, but that wasn't an option. She was shivering already and the floor was too cold – and it was damp, too.

There was a little light coming from a window near the ceiling. From it, George could see that she was in a cell that resembled an old-fashioned dungeon. The door was made of iron bars and the only furniture in it was a little wooden cot with a straw mattress. George sank down on it, only to find that it was damp, lumpy, and a little bit moldy-smelling. Maybe the floor was better, after all.

George stood up and started to pace around, miserable between her aching head and her constant shivering from the cold. She glanced up at the window and realized that there was no glass in it and snow was falling through. No wonder everything was damp and cold.

As she paced back and forth, George became aware of other footsteps besides her own. They seemed to be coming closer. Curious to catch a glimpse of her jailer, she went to the front of the cell and looked as far down the hallway outside it as she could. She could just make out the figure of a man in a forest green tunic and a Robin Hood hat coming toward her, and she readied herself to face her captor.