The Archer (The Blood Realm Series Book 3)(7)

Come on, then. Show us what you’ve got.

When she spoke again, her tone was steadier than her hands, but hot with restrained fury. “I will see you tomorrow then.”

Robin sank down onto his haunches, his chin falling into his hand with his elbow haphazardly propped up on one knee. Another surrender. Very disappointing, Marian.

“Tomorrow.” The sheriff pointed at her with the arrow. “If you would be so good as to leave now, I must attend to my cousin’s proper burial.”

Without another word, she spun on her heel, her back as taut as her bowstring as she marched off through the woods. As her retreating form grew smaller, Robin debated his next course of action. Thus far, Marian was disappointing him. Yes, murdering Guy had been a bold move, and very exciting. But her subsequent capitulation to the sheriff’s outrageous eric dulled her allure. She was probably heading home to begin the tedious process of obtaining a loan from some other noble, perhaps begging or even offering her own hand in marriage to save her land. The land she hardly seemed to want, from what Robin had seen on the days he spied on her under a variety of glamours.

And I have still seen no hint of this precious secret the witch promised me.

Perhaps she just needs a little push. A slow smile spread over his face, a plan hatching in his mind. Cheered at the promise of excitement to come, Robin crept away from the scene of the crime, careful not to do anything that might draw the iron-bearing sheriff’s attention.

It wasn’t hard to outdistance Marian. Unlike her trek here, she wasn’t running, wasn’t lost in pursuit. Rather, she seemed to be deliberately stomping with every step, as if punishing the earth for her troubles. Her bow groaned in her white-knuckled grip, the quiver of arrows at her hip jostling with every vicious slam of her boot against the ground. More wild red curls had escaped their bondage, and waved frantically about her face as if warning all who stood in her path to get out of the way.

Patience, my dear. Robin will make it all better.

When he’d managed to put a good fifty yards between them, Robin tucked himself behind a tree that Marian would have to pass by. The yew could have hidden a small army behind its girth of pine-scented stems and bright red berries, so it was nothing for Robin to keep out of sight while he spun a new glamour.

Fox fur melted away, shrinking until it was one of many pelts fixed to a leather strap slung over a stooped shoulder. Lines flowed over his face, aging his smooth sidhe countenance to appear as a human in his later years. A slate grey tunic that matched the new hair and beard hung over worn brown leather hunting breeches. The tunic was belted at the waist by a strap laden with a small sheath holding a hunting knife. Black boots completed the outfit, and he now stood there looking for all the world like a humble fur trader. Wiping the anticipatory smile from his face, he plunged out from behind the tree just in time to collide with the stormy redhead.#p#分页标题#e#

“Oi!”

Robin stumbled, pretending to stagger under the weight of the thick pelts he carried in layers on his back. The coarse hair he’d spun to cover his silken white-yellow locks fell to block one eye, and he threw his head to the side to clear his vision.

“Oh, please forgive me, lass. I didn’t see your lovely self until it was too late for these old bones to call a halt.”

Marian inspected her bow for damage, fingers dancing with surprising care over the handle she’d been near-throttling moments ago. “It’s all right. I—” Her green eyes hardened and narrowed at the pelts on his back, her spine going taut. “Where have you come from?”

“Oh, here and there. Hard to keep track of one’s bearings when it’s an animal doing the leading. I just go where they take me—nature of the work you know.”

A tic pulled at the skin of her temple and Robin smothered a smile.

“Indeed. Well—”

“Oh, I wasn’t hunting on your land though.” He widened his eyes and fluttered his hand about in supplication. “I would never hunt on land I didn’t have permission to be on. Not after what nearly happened to my cousin.”

Marian’s face flushed, her skin threatening to blend with her hair. “Be on your way, then.”

She resumed her furious procession. Robin fell into step with her, careful to hunch over as if the pelts were a true burden on his spine. Leaning down as he was, he couldn’t help but appreciate the way Marian’s gown clung to her curves, the brief flashes he got as her cloak shifted with her steps merely whetting his appetite.

Perhaps I should have appeared as my true self. Seems an awful waste to be speaking with her in this grubby guise. Ah well, nothing for it now. Plenty of time for that tonight.