Shadow of the Wolf by Tim Hall Read Free Book Online Page B

was wearing only a thin shift, which with the water had turned almost transparent.
    She caught him staring and he looked away, heat rising to his face. He glanced at her again and now she was watching him, smiling slightly, pillowing her head on her hands.
    ‘What?’ Robin said.
    ‘Nothing.’
    She rolled over on her back, closed her eyes, still smiling. Robin looked across the lake. Above its surface a layer of gnats shone in the sun’s rays: it looked like a second, enchanted lake, shimmering above its twin. On the far bank, ponies stood in the deep shade, flicking their manes. He lay out flat and watched the light sparkling emerald through the leaves. This was a moment he would remember for the rest of his life: the feeling of warm breeze across wet skin; the sound of crickets in the long grass, and the skylarks high above.
    He must have dozed off because when he opened his eyes Marian was at his side, on her stomach, propped on her elbows, her face close to his.
    ‘Do you ever wish …’ she said, ‘you could pick one day to last for ever? Did I tell you what my mother used to say about Winter Forest? She said sometimes it spreads overnight and swallows villages whole. The people are all in there somewhere, in the wildwood, still collecting water from the well, digging in their crofts, children playing snitch – they live the exact same day, over and over. Well, I was thinking, does that sound so bad? I might even be glad, if that happened to us. Imagine if it was today we lived, again and again. What would you …? Robin, you’re not even listening! What are you thinking about? What could be more important than listening to me?’
    Movement across the lake had caught Robin’s eye. The ponies had raised their heads, all at once, their ears flicking up. One made a sudden movement, which startled the others.
    ‘What’s up with them?’ Marian said.
    Finally they heard what had unnerved the ponies: a creaking, rolling rattle. A wheeled vehicle, moving through Summerswood, passing close to the lake.
    Marian sat up straight, mischief already glinting in her eyes. ‘Let’s go and see,’ she said. ‘Could be easy pickings.’
    They pulled on their clothing and Robin collected his shortbow and hunting pack and Marian hoisted her knapsack and they ran up the bank and crept along a high ridge, scanning the ground below.
    There, moving through a tunnel of trees, rocking violently on the woodland road, was a two-wheeled litter. The driver was Hadden Sloop, a stable boy from the manor, and riding in the litter was a plump old man and a skinny youth: Father Titus and Elias Long. Marian took one look at this and she licked her lips. She turned to Robin and they both smiled and nodded.
    ‘Not like those two to venture so far from home,’ Robin said.
    ‘And all alone,’ Marian said. ‘Not a single guardsman. How they’ll come to regret that. Stay out of sight. I’ll whistle when I’m in position.’
    She pulled from her knapsack two glass phials, each containing a brown powder: a mixture of crushed pepper and rosehip seeds and various other irritants. She scampered away, and a few moments later Robin heard a whistle. He took from his hunting pack the speaking horn they had found years before. He put the horn to his lips and he spoke through it and his voice boomed.
    ‘Hold your horses, if you value your lives.’
    Hadden Sloop tugged at the reins in surprise; the litter came to a shuddering halt.
    ‘We have you surrounded,’ Robin said. ‘Lay down your blades … if … if you carry blades.’
    ‘Who’s there?’ Father Titus shouted, standing. ‘Show yourselves!’
    ‘Mercy … Mercy on our souls,’ said Elias Long. ‘I told you, Father, didn’t I say … there are bandits in these woods. The same ones what robbed old man Jones.’
    ‘Bandits, here? How dare they!’ Father Titus shouted. ‘How dare you molest us, here? These are Guido Delbosque’s lands. He’ll have you hung, drawn and quartered.