Daughter of Sherwood by Laura Strickland Read Free Book Online Page A

away.
    “Wren.” He spoke her name like claiming.
    Instinctively, she shook her head. No. Too intense. Too terrifying.
    “Martin?”
    The spell, fast-woven, broke when someone spoke his name. Rennie looked round to see a young woman approaching with a smile in her eyes.
    A lovely, slender thing she looked, with rosy cheeks and fair hair all tucked up into her cap, save a few strands. Dimples flashed when she smiled at Martin. “I am to attend Geofrey’s burial with you. Father says I might.”
    Martin nodded woodenly. “’Tis well, Sally. This is Lil’s girl—Wren—come to join us, from Nottingham.”
    “Welcome, Wren! ’Twill be a fine thing having another lass about to help me deal as fit with these lads.”
    “Aye.” So, this was the young woman said to have given Martin her heart. But how did he feel for her? Impossible to tell now; his expression had closed like an oaken door.
    “You live in Oakham?” she asked, striving for politeness.
    “Aye, just my Da and myself, since Mother died.” For an instant her expression, transparent as clear water, clouded.
    Martin spoke. “Sal’s mother was cut down by Sir Guy’s men last winter.” His anger surged once more. Rennie felt it clearly, even though they no longer touched.
    “I am sorry,” Rennie murmured.
    Martin shrugged stiffly. “The flaming Sheriff thinks it his right to destroy the homes—and the lives—of those who sympathize with us.” He gazed at Sally for a moment. “Take comfort, Sal, in the fact that Sir Guy met his just end, as will Lambert, after him. So have I promised Wren.”
    Sally’s gaze clung to his worshipfully.
    Martin strove for a lighter tone. “Now, Sally, perhaps you can help Wren into her lad’s disguise.”
    He went off quickly, and Sally turned her eyes on Wren. “Why has he promised to kill Sir Lambert, do you know?”
    “Aye, you will hear it soon enough. I faced off with Lambert in the kitchen yard, and am now banished to Sherwood, in hiding.”
    “Faced off with him? How is that?”
    “He thought he could take what I was not willing to give.”
    “Oh!” Compassion filled Sally’s eyes. She stole a look after Martin, making it more than clear where her desire lay. “It is an evil thing, indeed, when a woman’s most prized possession is not hers to bestow as she will.”

Chapter Eight
    “As light always follows darkness, as the new leaf replaces the sere, as summer always comes to us when the wheel of the year turns again, so will our brother one day return to gladden this world we know.”
    Alric’s quiet words seemed to float upon the glittering afternoon air, the way the sunlight danced in ladders through the branches of the giant oak for which Oakham was named. Sparrow tipped back his head, his eyes following that light, and felt sorrow tangle inside him with a sense of renewed purpose. Aye, Alric was right—all things that died came again. Yet some bonds reached beyond the grave, and some spirits remained ever-present.
    Like Robin’s, and that of Sparrow’s father and, no doubt, Geofrey himself.
    All Sparrow’s life, Geofrey had been there, a force of wisdom and strength, someone upon whom Sparrow’s world relied. Even though they had now laid Geofrey, with all due dignity, beneath the loam of Sherwood and the sheltering branches of the tree, Sparrow could not conceive of his absence. Surely his spirit rode those motes of light; his wise eyes yet watched the folk for whom he had cared so long.
    Seldom had Oakham seemed so quiet, its inhabitants gathered with those come from the forest to remember, and grieve. All around Sparrow, folks wept openly. And at his side—
    He stole a look at the woman who stood so silent beside him. Not a sound had escaped her this long while, not a hint of reaction. She held herself tight, the leather hood she wore raised to shield her face. Her borrowed clothing suited her well. Tall for a woman, she was slender enough to play a lad, indeed, and the boots laced