Thief

Chapter Five

Hey guys!  Here's chapter five!  Do any of you have favorite characters yet?  Let me know in the comments!  Enjoy!

Roberta tapped her foot impatiently on the floor as her quill zipped across the paper. When she was done she folded it neatly and pressed its seal with a ring the king had given her. Then she pulled on her cloak and headed out of her room and through the castle. It had been a month since she'd been confined to her room and Marian had finally managed to convince the prince to let her out. Now she was on the verge, if she was caught, of being shut in for another year. That wasn't so bad though. The prince and the sheriff never bothered her in her room and it was easy to entertain herself, much to the chagrin of her uncle. She tucked the letter deep into a pocket of her dress as she made her way through the castle. It was easy to slip past the gate guards with a group of merchants leaving the castle and from there all she had to do was disappear into the crowd to be beyond the prince's grasp, at least for a little while. She wandered through the village pretending to look at the cheap baubles being sold from shops or carts and avoiding soldiers. If someone was following her, perhaps they'd get bored or decide she was just wasting time. Despite her efforts, it was only about an hour before she noticed someone was trailing her. The baubles hadn't worked. It wasn't hard for her to guess who it was. Of course the prince didn't trust her. He'd picked his personal boot-licker, the sheriff, to follow her around. Roberta glanced back again. Wouldn't he and the prince just love to see what she wrote about them in her letter. She had to lose him or get rid of the letter before he tried to take her home.

The people seemed to all have disappeared as she tried to blend into the crowds. Her steps quickened as the sheriff's presence made her more and more nervous. She turned to look back several times and saw him moving through the people who only seemed to appear after she passed them. She did everything she could to drop him, but he never quite seemed to lose sight of her. She finally turned down a narrow alley and, when she turned to look back again, ran into someone coming from the opposite direction.

"Oh, I'm sorry-...oh, it's you. Wish you'd been here sooner."

"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Allan said with a smirk. Roberta glanced back. She could see the sheriff moving toward her though he wasn't looking at her.

"Here, take this to the king!" Roberta said, shoving the letter at Allan. He took it and glanced at the seal before tucking it into his shirt.

"Thank you. You better get out of here. The sheriff is on my trail," she said. Allan nodded and smiled a little before disappearing back the way he'd come. Roberta turned to meet the sheriff. He was just entering the other end of the alley and looked over Roberta's shoulder in curiosity.

"Who was that?" he demanded.

"Just a peasant," Roberta replied.

"What are you doing outside the gates?" the sheriff demanded.

"I went for a walk," Roberta replied easily.

"Why were you trying to get rid of me?" the sheriff asked.

"Why were you trying to follow me? And why do you think I was trying to get rid of you? I don't need a babysitter. It's insulting," Roberta snapped and pushed past him. The sheriff scowled at the cobblestones and followed her as she strode back towards the castle. Roberta dreaded what would happen when the sheriff tattled on her, but she felt much better about the letter. Hopefully it would work.

>>*<<

Allan hurried almost recklessly through the village. His cloak mostly covered his green shirt, but he knew it was still visible if anyone looked very closely and the guards that patrolled the streets did look closely.

Slipping through the crowds, he bumped into several people, but just one took any real notice. A guard wearing the black and crimson of the sheriff turned sharply on him.

"How dare you! You ought to watch where you're going!" the man cried.

"Pardon me, sir! I'll be on my errand," Allan said, hunching up in his cloak. It didn't work. The guard took one look and saw the green material of his shirt. It was stupid of him not to have changed before coming. The guard's face lit up at the thought of what reward he might get for having actually caught one of the forest men! Allan saw it at once.

"What errand?" the man asked, clenching his fist on Allan's collar more tightly.

"Nothing," Allan muttered.

"It isn't nothing when you wear the green of Robin Hood," the man said as he pulled the collar tight around Allan's throat.

"Well then, I'm certainly not telling you," Allan said, crossing his arms. There was a loud crackle from inside his shirt as he crushed the letter and the guard's face beamed. It wasn't hard for the guard to take snatch the letter and Allan was left to watch as the guard tucked it securely out of reach in a deep pouch hanging at his side.

"This has been a productive day," the man sneered as he began to jerk Allan toward the castle. With a sudden twist, Allan kicked the guard's shins with all his strength and while the guard's grip loosened, he wrenched himself away and sped off down an alley and out of sight.

>>*<<

Roberta sat reading by her window when she heard someone coming down the corridor to her room. She groaned. The footsteps sounded like the prince's. A moment later, there was a firm knock.

"Come in," she said quietly. Prince John entered with a paper in his hand. The seal was broken. Roberta recognized her letter.

"What is the meaning of this?" the prince asked, slamming it down on her desk. She didn't say anything. Nothing would have helped.

"I gave you a little freedom and this is what you use it for? I'm ashamed of you," Prince John snapped. Oh, so now he's trying to play the parent.

"I thought the king should know what was going on," she said bluntly.

"So you disgrace my name to him so you'll be safe from being sent to the convent? You wrote very strongly about the convent in most unnecessary hostility " Prince John replied.

"I wrote for the people's sake, not mine. They barely have enough to survive, but they surely won't if you keep up these taxes. No one from the other villages will trade with them because of the cheapness of their wares. And you wouldn't want to be sent to a convent either," Roberta retorted

"I'm sure the people could do better," the prince said.

"No they can't! They give all they have for their trades, but still they can't produce enough quality to entice anyone to buy!" Roberta cried.

"You are mistaken. What do you know anyway? You are nothing but a child," the prince said. "You are confined to your room. This time you will learn your lesson," he added as he swept of the room, dropping the letter into the fire as he went. She stared at the fire as the door slammed. Well, that had failed in the best way possible. She was confined to her room again and the prince probably wouldn't visit her now anymore than he had before. Still, it had already been a month. It was a little tiresome. She stared out the window toward the village for nearly an hour. Eventually, her attention was diverted to the gardens where her sister and the prince had come out to walk. Marian was picking flowers and the prince was helping her. Roberta glared at him. Of course he liked Marian. Everyone liked Marian. She was beautiful, kind, loyal. That's what Prince John wanted. Loyalty. Don't you mess with my sister you stinking tax troll. She watched for several minutes as they talked and laughed. Then her temper flared when the prince attempted to put his arm around Marian. Roberta lunged toward her wardrobe and dug around behind the clothes. She pulled out a slingshot and a small bag of pebbles. She hurried back to the window and took aim through the curtains. She pulled back further than she ever had before and let go with a snap! She dodged out of sight before the pebble hit and tried to still the curtains so she wouldn't be suspected. A howl of pain erupted from the peaceful garden and she couldn't resist peeking out to see the prince trying to rub the unreachable spot on his back and looking around for who had done it. He wouldn't have looked up at Roberta's room because he would never give her credit for a shot like that. Marian looked around too, but Roberta could see she was trying not to laugh.