It did not take Bess's intelligence network long to provide fruit. The news came that the Sheriff intended to move a large consignment of wealth from West Goscote up to Nottingham.
The Sheriff had chosen New Year's Day as a time when most people would be busy with devotions and other business. He relied on the outlaws respecting the peace of the time and not suspecting that such an event would take place on a Holy Day.
In addition to his selection of a strange date for such business, the Sheriff had also sworn the band of men to do the job to secrecy. As some of the Sheriff's elite guard, they had chosen to spend some of their wages over the feast days on a visit to Lady Bess's district.
In amongst more general carousing, they had found time to brag about their return to be serviced by even more of Bess's girls because of the monies they were bound to receive from their accomplishments.
Of course, when sober, and about town, these men would probably have been more discreet, but when drunk the tongue loosened and after a little flattery the boasting came out. After all, what did it matter what you told a whore on a night of self-celebration?
So it was that Robin assembled a small band of men together. Yughi was there, of course, as were Scarlet and John. The latter two were accompanied by Hal and Stephen respectively and all had managed to bring a couple of others for support.
Marian was keen to prove herself in the field but eventually agreed to act in a support capacity. Neither Yughi nor Robin wanted it advertised that they had such a valuable asset as a combat-ready woman, she was more useful hidden.
Bess provided one of her best girls, under Marian's protection, to serve as a decoy. Marian was further persuaded to take a less active role in the actual attack because she wanted to keep Bess's girl, a pretty little blonde called Gwin, out of danger.
A fancy dress had been provided for Gwin to wear and the thieves had acquired a small wagon and a spare broken wheel.
"You know what would really finish off this decoy?" Robin said, looking over the scene with the hobbled coach and Gwin dressed up like a woman of noble birth. "We could really do with a couple of dead guards."
Taking the hint, Yughi set out to get Robin what he required.
It didn't take the assassin long to find a small guard patrol. Not only because Yughi knew where to look. The consignment they were looking to hijack was coming through the main road from Goscote to the south of Nottingham.
Thankfully there were a couple of small villages just off the road and that meant there were intersections with smaller roads. The ambush would take place at one of those intersections. In many circumstances, Yughi would not have confronted the guards he was intending to kill, but these two needed to look as if they had been in a fight.
Besides Yughi did feel a little bad that the two men would die purely from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. You could say much the same about any guard an assassin killed in combat, but in this case, Yughi was going out of his way to find them, he wasn't encountering them en route to a mission objective.
So when he found his prey, rather than just dropping a smoke bomb, jumping down and killing them, he made his presence known. He did not really know what he would do if they decided to ignore him. He couldn't afford to let them go.
As it turned out this dilemma was not an issue. The minute they saw Yughi they called out for him to stop, drew their swords and gave chase.
Drawing his own blade, Yughi made ready to take them on. The fight lasted less than a minute. The Sheriff's general guard was not highly trained, in fact at this stage most of the outlaws were better trained than any ground level soldier in Nottingham's pay.
Yughi concealed the bodies in a bush and went back to Robin to get help. Will, John and Stephen went back to the bush with Yughi. Before long their trap was complete.
The Sheriff of Nottingham's Money Wagon was preceded by a scout on horseback. This was expected. Will and a couple of the younger outlaws surprised the rider, dragging him from the horse's back. Then Will, who had some experience handling horses, calmed the steed and lead it away.
Quickly the rest of the outlaws wheeled out the small wagon and tipped it onto its side. They quickly replaced one of the front wheels with the broken one. Meanwhile, the rest of the men put the bodies of the two dead guards on the floor as if they had been thrown from the front of the wagon.
With this done the outlaws disappeared back to their assigned positions to wait. The money wagon followed on behind. Two guards sat up on the front of the wagon. As they approached two more riders came into view behind.
The wagon passed under Yughi's position in the canopy and he observed two more guards sitting in the back of the wagon. He imagined there were probably at least two more again, out of direct view.
As the wagon drew level with the crossing Gwin ran from the side of the road into the crossroads waving her arms.
"Please!" she cried out. "Stop! Help me!"
Surprised by this the guard holding the reins brought the wagon to a halt.
"What's this?" he asked. The first thing he saw was the pretty young woman waving her arms. The second thing was the upended cart and dead soldiers behind her. "What happened here?"
"Outlaws!" Gwin said. "They attacked my wagon, stole my things. While they were fighting the soldiers I escaped. I've been hiding here ever since, waiting for someone to come by."
The wagon driver's companion jumped down from the cart. He and one of the outriders made their way over to the ruined cart. The other outrider came around the other side of the wagon.
The men on the money wagon were nervous but the set up was thorough and the outlaws knew how to stay hidden. As the driver's companion bent over one of the dead guards the outlaws struck.
Yughi's first job was simple. He dropped down onto the canopy of the wagon, used his hidden blade to cut a hole in the cloth roof and dumped a smoke bomb inside.
In seconds the men in the back of the wagon jumped out into the road, choking on the fumes. Yughi dropped down and killed the rear two before they even knew what was happening.
As the smoke cleared Yughi could see Stephen Malebys fighting with two more of the guards. The assassin drew his own sword and helped to dispatch the remainder. As the last of the guards who had been on the cart bed died a voice cut through the chaos:
"STOOOOOOOP!"
Yughi stopped like everyone else. Twisting his body to look in the direction of the voice he saw that the driver of the cart had got hold of Gwin. He stood in the centre of the crossroads pressing a knife into the young woman's throat.
"You want her to die, outlaws?" the driver demanded. "You want to go home with her blood staining your spoils?"
Most of the driver's companions were now dead, only one of the other outriders remained.
"You!" the driver said. "Take the reins on the cart. If any of these bastards so much as twitches I will execute this filthy little whore right away."
To address his colleague the man had to turn his head a little, he was trying to watch everyone at once but it was an impossible task. Yughi moved quickly, darting into the overgrown bushes at the side of the road.
The horse rider had been pulled from his steed. He kept his sword drawn and backed up to the wagon. He climbed up into the driver's seat. Yughi was moving up the side, towards the edge of the crossroads. Unfortunately, there was no way across without being seen. The wagon could not be allowed to leave now, not so late in the plan.
"Now, all of you, move behind our cart," the driver said to the gathered outlaws. "ALL OF YOU! GO!" he bellowed when nobody moved at first.
The outlaws began to move towards the cart. The driver got them past the wagon all waiting together on the road. That was when the driver made his mistake.
He pushed Gwin towards the cart, coming round to sit by the driver. As he passed by Yughi's hiding place the assassin struck. He stepped out from his bush and slid his blade into the driver's side at the back. The driver twitched his arm, intending to puncture Gwin's throat but Yughi had already encircled the driver with his free hand and now held the driver's wrist in a lock.
"It's over now," Yughi said to everyone. "She is safe."
The final guard surrendered, holding his hands aloft and pleading for his life.
"We can't take prisoners," John said. "And I don't see as we can let this one go."
"Why not?" Robin said.
"Uh, because then the Sheriff will know who took his money," John said.
"What does that matter?" Robin shrugged. "You think that when this money goes missing the Sheriff isn't going to guess who's responsible? The real question is not who did it but how we knew. He doesn't know that."
"So, what?" Scarlet said. "We just let him go?"
"Not just," Robin said approaching the guard. Robin took his sword out and, using the hilt to help, coshed the man into unconsciousness. "Yughi, you think you can take this man back to Nottingham?" Robin asked.
"I can," Yughi said.
"Keep him safe for a few hours so we can get clear then, well, let him run off and tell his master how outmatched he found himself."
"It would be my pleasure," Yughi said. And it was.