The Fellowship of the Hood~A California Girl in Nottingham's Court

Chapter Six

Chapter Six~The Man With A Plan

Robin Hood of Locksley

Taking the queen mother back to France would be no easy task, but I knew we were up for it.  After all, we’d been in more difficult situations than this one before and always managed to come out the better for it!

We had a great fellowship of hearty warriors in our group.  Ian of the clan MacLeod had joined us on the road to Plymouth.  Aylaina’s father was a legend according to John, who had heard stories of his triumphs over the years and he had several of his soldiers with him. John, Guy and Archer along with Kate and Aylaina traveled with us.  I wasn’t too concerned about having women in our troop, especially these two.  Both Kate and Aylaina knew how to handle themselves in battle.

Now we were aboard Lord MacLeod’s Nef ship headed for France.  Archer and Elliot were taken captive by some slavers, or so we thought.  Their captors were French so we assumed they were taking them to France.  Their ship had a head start and we tried to catch up, but made shore about two hours after they had.

Standing on the shore, I pointed out to Guy that Elliot was coming out of the woods.  His grandfather greeted him first.  Ian approached Guy and me.

Quietly, he said to Guy, “Yer sister has Archer captive and she wants to capture ye and Robin and give the queen back to Prince John.  Elliot is to lead the two of ye into an ambush and then lure the queen away, too.”

“Well.” I said, with a grin, “Let’s give them what they want!”  I had a plan and after hashing it out with the gang,  I motioned to Guy to follow me.  We walked into the woods with John and Ian flanking our left side.  Ian instructed his soldiers to flank our right.  Elliot followed a safe distance behind us.

We didn’t have far to go before Prince John’s soldiers surrounded us.

“Stand where you are!”  They ordered us.  Gisborne and I stood back to back, facing the soldiers.

“Come with us quietly and no one gets killed.”   One of the soldiers pointed his sword at us.  At that very moment, our men surrounded the prince’s.

Ian commanded, “Drop yer weapons, and aye, no one will be killed!”  But the prince’s soldiers were not to be outwitted.  They turned, and with unsheathed weapons, began to fight with our team.

Guy already had his sword out as did I and we began to fend off the opposition.  John, firmly gripping his quarterstaff, was striking away at a soldier and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Elliot hard-pressed to ward off an attacker.  I felled my opponent and turned to take on another one and that’s when I saw Kate, Aylaina and the queen.  Aylaina climbed up into a tree and Kate was , what?  Actually helping the queen up the tree as Aylaina steadied her from above!   I shook my head, grinning.  Kate joined us in battle as Aylaina covered her from the tree with her slingshot.

From all sides the battle wasin full swing.  I took down a soldier and Guy slashed at another.  Ian’s men were striking hard as we gained the upper hand.  One of Ian’s men went down and Ian rushed to kill the attacker.   Soon, no one was left standing except for the six of us.

Out of breath, I dropped to the ground.  Kate rushed to my side.  John went over to the tree to help the queen and Aylaina get down.  Elliot’s arm was bleeding and Guy was helping him to sit.

“Is anyone else injured?”  I called.

“Nay.” said Ian, “ but my soldiers are dead.”  He knelt beside them, his head bent in prayer, I supposed.

“John.”  I ordered, “you and Elliot get those soldiers uniforms.”  I looked to Elliot.

“Are you able?”  I asked.