Robyn and the Hoodettes by Ebony McKenna Read Free Book Online Page B

way about.
    “ I found a rope!” She called out.
    A moment later, Mother Eleanor’s torn fabric fluttered down.
Robyn tied the rope to the end of it. At least now they had
something stronger to haul things out of the well.
    The climb down was tiring enough. The climb up would be a
total cow.
    Using her hands to see, Robyn found a small bucket. It was
already tied to the end of the rope she’d found. Hugely convenient.
Next her foot tripped over a piece of wood. Shlucking it out of the mud, she saw that
the wood was bent in the shape of a bow. It still had the string
attached, although it too was slimed in mud. The string broke the
moment she tried to pluck it. Great.
    She slotted the bow into the bucket and dropped to her knees,
sloshing through the stinky gloop in the hope of finding more
goodies. A few coins in the mud made the effort
worthwhile.
    By the saints ! She found the mother load. Wrapped in thick fabric was a
quiver full of arrows.
    She wiped her hands on her tunic and placed everything in the
bucket. “Haul away!” she called up. They would find something to
restring that bow. Maybe Shadow would donate some of her tail
hairs?
    While the three above pulled the bucket up, Robyn
slip-slopped away, finding a hammer and a large knife in the
ooze.
    A gasp of relief leapt out. The knife was in a leather sheath,
otherwise she might have sliced her fingers off.
    The stench from the mud made her gag. The sooner she finished
finding things, the sooner she could get out of here. Then head
straight to the river for a wash.
    “ This is really disgusting,” she called up.
    “ Doing great, darling,” Eleanor called down.
    “ Keep looking.” Joan added encouragement. “I’m sure there’s
more stuff.”
    Urgh. Slop, slap, slip, squelch, stink . Breathing through the mouth
was the only way to cope. With no choice but to keep on searching,
Robyn spread her hands wide. Sludge oozed through her
fingers.
    They touched something soft, wrapped around something hard.
Robyn picked it up–it was heavy–and unwrapped the putrid
leather.
    All breathing stopped as she boggled at a lump of gold as big
as a fist.
    ***
    The smoking ruins of three peasant villages lay behind them
as Roger of Doncaster and his men headed toward Sheffield after a
successful few days’ tax collecting.
    The stress began to ease out of his shoulders. His carriage
groaning with goods should satisfy Maudlin this time. Perhaps after
that, she’d finally be done with him and he could return to his
family in Doncaster. He hadn’t seen them for four
seasons.
    “ Whoa there,” he pulled on the reins and the carriage came to a
stop.
    “ Why are we stopping?” One of the men called out. “Are there
highwaymen?”
    Highwaymen? Not such a bad idea. After all, how was Maudlin
to know how much they’d collected? “We have risked our health and
our souls, for little payment.” He said to his rag-tag team. “We
have collected above and beyond that required by Maudlin. Here is
where we take our commission.”
    The men–he used the term loosely as some of them were
barely old enough to grow whiskers–wore confused expressions. Roger
sighed. Did he have to explain everything to these
cloth-heads?
    “ I’m creating a back-up plan,” Roger said. “We deposit items
here, just as if we were depositing it in the holdfast in
Sheffield. The next time Maudlin sends us on a mission, we come
here, collect the items and take them back. No risk of attack or
injury.”
    The men nodded and muttered their agreement.
    Half an hour later, they’d stashed nearly one third of their
“taxes”, all the smaller more easily transported items at any rate,
in a strongbox hidden in the shrubbery.
    Roger looked at their efforts and was pleased. “Good work.
Now, I need a volunteer to stay here and guard it.”
    At first, nobody wanted the job, until the smallest of his men
wordlessly put his hand up.
    “ Yes, you’ll do.” Roger tossed him a loaf of bread they’d