Page 56 of Queen of Sherwood

“Now then,” John said once Alan was finished. “Shall we go back to camp and try to make sense of what has happened to our damned minds?”

THE SUN WAS RECEDING by the time we wandered back into camp. Afternoon had come and gone, with little work done on the site. Wood remained unchopped. Cookfires were unlit. Merry Men were haphazardly littered about the camp in various states of undress and haziness.

Robert blinked at me with eyes that were too large for his face once the five of us returned from our gallivanting. We’d been gone a long time, so I didn’t blame his scrutiny. Yet, it appeared like he didn’t know where he was—his soul detached from his body—and there was a tinge of fear ringing his bright orbs.

A shout from the left had everyone’s eyes swiveling like a turret. Griff tore out of a tent and sprinted through camp with his hands over his head.

“I’ve seen Jesus!” he shouted.

Griff was also entirely nude. Not a spot of cloth on his body, and I blushed at the poor lad’s display as he streamed past me and my mates, body parts flapping in the wind.

A small huddle of girls sitting nearby giggled as Griff careened past them like a madman. The lasses were a mixture of ones from the orphanage and from the sex-slave carriage, arranged in a ritualistic-looking circle.

Griff came to stop at the girl Maria, the lass Much had fancied. Standing stark nude in front of her, Maria’s eyes bulged and her fair cheeks reddened.

Griff went on one knee, as if to propose, and bowed his head. “Maria. Much the Miller’s Son was my friend. I know what he meant to you. I know I’m not him—no one was. But I’ve seen Jesus, and he’s told me what I must do. I vow to protect you in his stead.”

My heart blossomed. If it weren’t for the odd circumstances of Griff’s announcement, and his sorry state, I might have felt even better about what he said.

He raised his head. Implored her with his dewy eyes. “Will you allow me the honor?”

Maria stammered, caught off-guard.

Friar Tuck took the opportunity to walk up to her. Gently, he began saying, “Griff, lad, perhaps—”

“Another time to proclaim your unrequited love, aye?” Alan-a-Dale finished for him, coming to stand next to the maddened boy.

Griff hung his head in shame. “Right. I am without my wits, truthfully.”

“One couldn’t tell,” Will muttered sarcastically.

Little John leaned in and whispered to me. “Something is amiss. Seems everyone in camp is in a state of disarray. Not just us.”

“Aye, it does seem that way, doesn’t—” My breath caught in my throat when I veered my head to the right, to the nearest tent.

The flap was thrown back, allowing me a look inside. And inside were Ada and Gracie—my dear friend Emma’s sister—hugging one another and unabashedly kissing with their legs and arms locked in a fierce, torrid embrace, rolling around on the damned ground together.

I blushed something fierce. Gulped and returned my eyes to John, nodding. “Doesn’t it?” I finished with a croak.

He didn’t catch what I’d been looking at, and thank God for that. I wondered if Emma knew what her sister was getting up to.

“What is it that we all shared, that might have affected us all?” John asked, however rhetorically.

“The food?” I questioned.

He offered a sage nod. “Aye. What I was thinking. Could someone have tainted Bess’ afternoon meal?”

I narrowed my eyes and searched the camp a bit more analytically. I ignored all the wide eyes and sleeping bodies and bare body parts, the ritual circles and girls speaking in tongues, and the embarrassing situation of Griff and Maria . . .

And my eyes landed on Maid Marian, tucked away in a corner of the camp near the shade of a tree. She was seated, rocking back and forth with her arms circled around her drawn-up knees. Marian certainly didn’t seem to be having a good time.

Yet that didn’t stop my blood from instantly boiling.

I stormed across camp, Little John hot on my heels.

When I got close to her, I reached for my waist and pulled out the dagger I kept strapped to my pants—pants that were now damp from dew.

I drew the blade, and all eyes at the camp heard the rasp of steel and looked over to see what was happening.

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