Author's Note: Thank you so much to everyone who has been reading and following. Thank you especially to everyone who was left reviews on the last chapter: max2013, Tinee Dancer (for your reviews on the last two chapters), Cherylann Rivers, EvergreenDreamweaver, and BMSH. I appreciate you taking the time to tell me what you think. I also love it when you make guesses about the mystery. The only problem is when you make a guess that gets me super excited and I have a hard time not giving everything away!

Chapter XII

Nancy caught her breath and tried not to show any fear as she met the eyes of the masked man standing before her in the flickering candlelight. He held his arrow loosely on the bowstring, but Nancy didn't doubt that he could quickly pull it tight.

"So we have a thief here, do we?" The man raised an inquiring eyebrow.

"You're one to talk," Nancy replied. "Though, for the record, I had no intention of stealing anything. I suppose this money is yours?"

"It's in my keeping, for the moment," the man said. "If you're not here to steal, why are you here?"

"That's not easy to explain." Nancy debated with herself what to say. To give herself more time, she added, "My name is Nancy Drew."

The man lowered the bow. "That changes things. Then you're here about your friend."

"What do you know about her?" Nancy demanded.

"I know where she is." The man looked hard at her. "I'll take you to her – but we'll be walking into a trap."

Nancy shook her head in disbelief. "This is all a game to you, isn't it? You're just trying to prove to me that you can outsmart me. Who are you?"

Some expression passed over the man's face, but with a mask covering half of it, it was hard to tell what that expression was. "Not who you apparently think I am. I'm not the one who set this trap. I'm the fool who's going to be walking into it with you."

"You mean, you're not the one who kidnapped George?" Nancy stared at him, trying to decide if he was telling the truth. "But you still know where she is?"

"Right," the man agreed. "I also know a little bit about the people who are after you and what they want, but I can tell you on the way."

"On the way where?" Nancy asked.

"To rescue your friend, of course," the man said. "As I said, it's a trap and they know we're coming, but it's the only way. They made sure to tell me that."

Nancy took a few moments, trying to process all of this. Finally, she asked again, "Who are you? Take off that mask and let me see your face."

"I can't do that," the man explained, sounding almost apologetic. "I'm not in league with these people, but I do have some secrets of my own. Besides, you're a detective, so I hear. That means you're literally the last person I should tell who I am. For now, you can call me Robin."

"And you expect me to just trust you and go wherever you say with you?" Nancy asked. "That doesn't sound like a very good idea."

"No, I suppose not," Robin admitted. "Perhaps I should explain it more. I am a thief, but not for personal gain. You may not realize this, Nancy, since you're not from here, but many of the people living in Baker are very poor. There aren't many good jobs available, property taxes are high. All the apartments in town are owned by one person, and having the monopoly, he charges exorbitant rents."

"So you steal from these people so you can give it back to them," Nancy concluded.

"No." Robin sounded taken aback. "No. No, no. I don't steal from the people I'm trying to help."

"You steal from charities and that's the same thing," Nancy replied.

"It's nothing like the same thing," Robin argued. "Do you know how much of the money you donate to a charity actually goes to whatever cause you donated it for? A lot of it goes to paying employees, paying for office space, paying for office supplies, paying for postage, paying for these ridiculous high-class dinners for rich people to go to and they don't even invite the people they're claiming to help."

"All right, I won't excuse them for that," Nancy admitted. "Although, to a certain extent, it does make sense. Without several of those things, they won't be able to bring in as much money as they can with them. But, yes, you're right that there are charities that carry it much too far. Even so, you can't just steal money."

"Every penny I take goes to the very people it was supposed to go to in the first place," Robin insisted. "Even if I am a thief, I'm not really stealing it. If anything, I'm keeping it safe from people who would steal it."

"Well, that's all wonderful, but no one knows that that's what you're actually doing with it," Nancy said.

"Don't they? I thought my disguise made it rather clear," Robin replied.

"I've seen thieves dress up as any number of things, but that doesn't mean that that's what they were," Nancy told him. "So you take money that was meant for the poor and you give it to the poor. What about the money and jewelry you've stolen out of the pockets of the patrons at these charity events? What if they didn't mean to donate it?"

"They ought to share their good fortune with those who have none," Robin said. "Tossing a few hundred into a charity's collection is nothing when you have a few thousand in your wallet."

Nancy shook her head. "But it's their money. It would be wonderful if they shared it all with people who have less, but it's not right to force them to do so."

"We haven't time to argue all of this." Robin changed the subject abruptly. "We need to go find your friend."

"How do you know where she is?" Nancy hesitated before making a move to follow him.

"I've seen her," Robin explained. "If it's any help, they told me to tell you that I'm the Green Knight. I don't know what it means, other than that I suppose it's a reference to my costume."

Nancy caught her breath. The Green Knight was the second knight that Sir Gareth had had to fight. This had to be the next part of the game that someone was playing with her. In that case, she had no choice what her own next move would be.

"All right," she said. "I guess I'll just have to go with you."

Robin blew out the candle, and Nancy felt a bit nervous in the pitch dark. She realized she was putting herself in a foolish position, and she was tempted to try to make a break for it after all. However, she heard Robin heading for the backdoor first, and so she cautiously followed him. Before she left the building, though, she took out her phone and sent a text to Ned, wishing she had asked him to come along with her.

"We'll take your car," Robin said. "You drive."

Nancy considered it for a moment. "No. We'll each take our own car. I'll follow you."

"Can't," Robin replied. "I don't drive my car when I'm out at night. Makes it too easy to identify me."

"Okay. That makes sense," Nancy admitted. "But you drive. You know the way, anyhow."

NDNDNDNDND

Nancy tried not to look tense during the drive that followed. Every moment, she was feeling more and more keenly that she had done something incredibly stupid. Robin was taking her out into the country around Baker, and Nancy knew that that meant if anything went wrong, she was completely on her own with no place to go if she couldn't keep using the car.

"Where are we going?" she asked finally.

"They're keeping your friend at the old castle," Robin replied.

"The old castle?" Nancy repeated, incredulous. "What castle?"

"Oh, I thought you might have known about it, being a detective and all," Robin said. "It was built by some rich guy from Chicago as a sort of private getaway fifty years ago. He didn't use it very long, although it still belongs to his family. Now it's basically just deserted."

"I would think that would be a terrible place to keep a prisoner," Nancy replied pointedly. "There must be people going over there to look around all the time."

Robin shrugged. "There's a wall around the grounds that you need a ladder to get over, unless you have a key to get through the front gate. That keeps all the less determined people out. Then, of course, there are the ghosts."

"The ghosts?" Nancy did not sound impressed.

"Rumor has it that this rich guy who built the place cut corners on the building materials," Robin told her. "That's part of why he didn't use the place much, because the castle just simply isn't any good. But the main reason is that a section of a wall collapsed while the castle was being built, burying several of the workmen alive. Now their vengeful spirits wander the empty hallways, seeking to bring the same fate that befell them upon the millionaire and all his family."

"You don't really believe that?" Nancy asked.

"I tend to keep an open mind about ghosts and all that," Robin replied. "In this case, though, it's just a rumor. I've been to that castle, and there aren't any vengeful spirits haunting it. There are just some very much so alive people haunting it."

"And why exactly were you there?" Nancy continued. "You'll excuse me if I don't quite trust you and find it more than a little suspicious that you were able to just walk right in to this place, talk to George, and walk right back out."

"That would be suspicious," Robin admitted. "That's not how it happened, though. These people have some odd ideas about what I do and why I do it. They misrepresented what they wanted, though, so when they invited me there to talk about it, I went. I ran into George and pretty quickly figured out what they wanted. When I told them, I wouldn't help them, they told me that I had no choice. I was the Green Knight now, they told me, and if I didn't play along, they'd kill George. I didn't have a whole lot of choice."

"You certainly don't seem to have any qualms about dragging me into what you know to be a trap," Nancy observed.

"You knew it was a trap all along, too," Robin reminded her. "You already knew what you were getting into. I have a feeling, though, that they don't just want us to be chess pieces. I think they want us to be their chess opponent."

"Who are they?" Nancy asked.

Robin took a deep breath before answering. "It's against my honor to lie, so I will have to hope that you'll be satisfied when I tell you that I can't tell you. There's a woman, though. I know that much. There's something odd about her, but I can't quite put my finger on it."

"You can't tell me or you won't tell me?" Nancy inquired. "You know, refusing to tell me everything you know isn't helping me trust you."

"I know," Robin admitted. "It's just – It's a bit difficult to explain why I can't tell you without giving away what I don't want you to know. But never mind that now. We're here."

He slowed the car to a stop as its headlights illuminated the gates of a fourteen-foot stone wall. Beyond, Nancy could just barely make out the towers and the heavy wooden doors of the castle.

Robin got out of the car and pushed the wrought-iron gates open without effort and then drove the car through. Nancy asked him why the gates had been unlocked.

Robin gave a wry chuckle. "It doesn't do any good to set a trap but not let the mice get into it."

He parked the car in front of the castle. They went to the front door, but before either of them touched it, it swung open on its own.