Free Outlaw Princess of Sherwood by Nancy Springer Page B

cows?”
    â€œTrickster knave—”
    Etty burst out laughing. She couldn’t help it. Imagine, Robin Hood calling someone else a trickster?
    Robin scowled at her.
    â€œRobin,” Etty told him, laughing, “everything is all right. Let it go.” The sun shone fairer than the king’s gold, Mother sat on a throne of soft deerskins with worshipful outlaws clustered around her, Father had been banished into the giant oak tree’s hollow trunk, and all was well compared with what it had been. Etty wanted only to enjoy the peace of the moment. “Judge a tree by its fruit, not by its leaves,” she added.
    â€œEuripides,” Beauregard put in.
    Etty gawked at him, but managed to continue her thought. “Beauregard helped me free my mother. And he came back here, didn’t he?”
    Robin said grimly, “What I need to know, first of all, is how he got away.”
    â€œ Mon foi , why you not say so?” Beauregard could not have been more infuriating if he had thumbed his nose. “ C’est facile. Easy. I climb inside the tree until I find a little hole, and out I slip, then away through the branches like a, how you call it, a squirrel.” He flashed a grin.
    Robin’s eyes widened. “Lady have mercy.”
    â€œBut I think the king Solon will not climb so, non ?”
    Once again Robin scowled. “Beauregard, I don’t know what your game is—”
    â€œGame? Why do you think I am playing a game?” Beauregard flared. By the way he squared his shoulders and dropped his Frankish accent, Etty could tell he meant it.
    â€œYou think I am a spy?” Beauregard challenged.
    â€œI don’t know what to think.”
    â€œRobin,” Etty put in, “it’s simple. Judge the tree—”
    â€œI heard you the first time.”
    A gruff, unexpected voice spoke. “I was welcomed for less reason.”
    Several heads swiveled to stare at Rook, sitting there with his grimy hands on his scabby knees, his strand of the silver ring hanging by a thong on his bare chest.
    â€œAll I did was keep my mouth shut,” he growled.
    â€œYou could have betrayed us,” Rowan said, “but you did not.” She turned to her father. “Just as Beauregard could have betrayed us—”
    â€œAnd may yet do so!” Robin lifted his hands in appeal. “He comes here with bleached hair and a false accent and you want to trust him? We are outlaws ! We cannot afford to let down our guard.”
    Although no one restrained him, Beauregard stood watching and listening, something impish dancing in his dark eyes.
    Robin went on. “He’s hiding something. Why would he wish to join us when he held a favored position at court? Why would he return here after I had imprisoned him? He must be a spy! There can be no other reason!”
    Etty spoke up placidly. “But there is another reason, and I believe I know it.”
    Several heads turned toward her at once. Rowan stared. Lionel peered. Robin frankly gawked. And Beauregard stood like a startled deer.
    â€œToads,” Rowan murmured, peering at him, “you’re pale. Are you all right?”
    His dark eyes looked huge in his white face. He did not answer.
    â€œThere’s no shame to your secret,” Etty told him.
    Still he did not speak, but just stood there poised as if to leap and flee.
    Etty sighed and turned to Rowan. “Do you remember,” she asked, “when I first met you, you were dressed as a boy, but I knew you were a girl?”
    She heard someone gasp, perhaps Beauregard, and other voices murmuring, but she kept her eyes on Rowan, because it was always a treat to see Rowan smile.
    Rowan did not fail her. She smiled like a summer day. “As I recall,” she remarked, “you knew it because I showed such good sense.”
    â€œIs that what I said?”
    â€œYes, indeed it was.” Rowan turned her smile on Beauregard, and