Bluebeard and the Outlaw by Tara Grayce

Chapter 8

The duke turned the castle inside out looking for the outlaw and his band, searching everywhere except one place. The bedroom of his supposedly resting wife.

And yet, as my brothers wiggled out my window, shimmied down the rope, and vanished into the Greenwood, everything had changed. We had a new mission, but the same enemy.

It was time to prove that Duke Guy was fae and using those powers for some nefarious purpose.

After I rubbed his nose in my victory one more time, of course.

* * *

The knock finally came on my door at nearly midnight. I wore a comfortable, loose-fitting dress, as expected of a lady in the throes of suffering.

I took one glance around, checking yet again that no sign of my brothers’ presence that day remained in my rooms. Like the other numerous times I’d checked, everything was in order.

I opened the door to find Duke Guy there. He leaned heavily against the doorjamb, his angular face drawn into deep, weary lines. “I’m sorry to impose at this late hour, my lady. I hope I didn’t wake you.”

“No, not at all.” I kept my voice low and tight, as if I was still recovering. It was an effort to keep my voice soft and empathetic as I said with a straight face, “I heard the outlaw got away. I’m sorry.”

During the afternoon, one guard had knocked on my door to ask if the outlaw had come that way. When I’d said no, the soldier had stationed himself at my door to guard me, forcing my brothers to stay very quiet the rest of the day until they had escaped once darkness fell.

The duke’s whole body sagged even more against the doorjamb, his dark eyes swinging up to meet mine as if seeking strength or reassurance from me.

I was the last person who could give him those things, but I plastered on a soft look anyway.

He sighed and shook his head. “I’m afraid this means I must leave first thing in the morning to travel to the king’s court. He has summoned me to answer for my repeated failures to capture the outlaw, and this latest debacle will not help my case any.”

I had to swallow to force my voice into something suitably wifely and sympathetic. “How long will you be gone?”

“A week. Maybe less, if the king has his fill of raking me over the coals quickly.” Duke Guy shrugged, his gaze distant as he stared at the ceiling above my head. “Assuming the king allows me to return at all.”

I should be hoping that the king removed the duke and solved all my problems. But, I wasn’t. The duke was mine to defeat, and it would be a terrible let-down if everything simply ended like that.

The duke’s jaw hardened, and his hand shook where it was braced against the jamb. After a long moment of what seemed like internal struggle, he reached under his shirt and pulled out a small key on a chain. His jaw worked as he drew the chain over his head and held out it out to me, the key winking in the candlelight as it swung freely. “While I am gone, please watch over this key for me.” He paused, throat constricting. “Do not open the door this key unlocks. Please. If you value your life, do not disobey this command.”

As if I would ever obey a command like that. This was the key to the small door that reeked of fae magic. I would finally find out what that door was hiding.

I gave what I hoped was a meek smile as I took the key, gripping it tightly in my hand. “I will take good care of this until you return.”

At my words, he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, almost as if he were in pain.

Yet, when he opened his eyes, his face shuttered, all traces of vulnerability wiped away behind that layer of hard steel. “See that you do. I will ask for it upon my return.” He gave a stilted bow. “I will be gone when you awaken, my lady. This is farewell.”

Before I could respond, he spun on his heel and strode off at a brisk pace that quickly carried him out of sight.

I uncurled my fingers, revealing the key he’d given me. This too jangled my senses with the whiff of fae magic clinging to it.

Slipping it over my head, I let the key fall inside the dress. Despite the fact that I had been holding it tightly in my hand and it had been resting against the duke’s chest, the metal of the key remained strangely cold as it slid against my skin, causing a single shiver to quiver down my back.

Tomorrow night, once the duke was gone, I would investigate that room.

But, for tonight, I had a different plot in mind.

I waited for another few hours, making sure the duke would be asleep, before I once again dressed in my Hood costume and slipped out my window.

Yes, I know, it wasn’t the smartest thing to wander the castle as the Hood on a night when the castle guards were still alert and watching for me. But I’d had to leave the archery contest before claiming my prize, and I wasn’t about to leave it in the duke’s hands any longer.

I had to climb out my window to evade the guard outside my door, then I used the servants’ passageways to reach the room filled with the stuffed magical beasts. The small door called me, the key warming against my skin, but I pushed past the temptation. Soon, I told the door and the room beyond. Soon.

As before, the stairway to the duke’s rooms were guarded, so I had to wriggle out of a window hidden in an alcove and climb up the tower instead. My fingers burned by the time I pulled myself through into the duke’s rooms, and I was already dreading the climb back down. My muscles were sore after all the shooting I’d done after a few days with little practice and exercise.

The starlight cast faint light into the duke’s room, and I eased from the window seat to the floor, my focus centered on the bed. There, I could just make out the shape of someone sleeping beneath the covers, his breathing deep and even.

The golden arrow lay on a table near the door to the sitting room, bright and winking even in the low light. I tiptoed toward it, pausing to glance at the bed every few seconds.

This could be a trap. The duke could have guessed that the Hood would come for this arrow.

But I had also seen the weariness in him. It had been the despair of a man certain his quarry was well out of his reach. He and his soldiers had searched the castle thoroughly enough that they would have been convinced the outlaw had long vacated its premises.

In that case, the duke would plan to use this arrow to set a trap on the road. After all, he would have to travel through the Greenwood to reach the king. He had to be expecting an ambush then, rather than here in his well-guarded castle.

With my chest tight with the thrill of sneaking through the duke’s room, I reached for the golden arrow.

As soon as my fingers brushed it, I knew that this, too, was made of fool’s gold rather than the real thing.

No matter. It was my prize, its symbol worth far more to me than whatever material it was made out of.

I slipped the golden arrow into my quiver and drew out one of my black-fletched arrows, setting my arrow where the golden one had lain a moment ago. The duke would know I had been in his room, and he would wake cursing the Hood yet again.

Still, he would also know that I had been in his room and hadn’t killed him. That would make him wonder. Perhaps he would realize the Hood had more honor than he had given him credit for. Maybe he would realize the Hood found no pleasure in his death, but only in the chase.

And maybe I didn’t know what he would read into my actions, considering I wasn’t even sure what I intended by it besides riling him.

I turned to go back to the window, yet halted partway across the room. From this angle, the starlight fell more fully onto the bed, outlining the duke’s sleeping form. Even in sleep, his face was craggy with weariness, as if all his guilt pressed upon him even in his attempt to rest.

I crept closer to the bed until I stood over the duke, contemplating him in his repose. From his long nose with that lump from a break to the bare muscles of his shoulders visible above the blanket he held to his chin, it was a strangely intimate glimpse of him. One I should know as his wife, yet it still felt deliciously forbidden.

If I had been in his place, I would have been appalled to discover he had been watching me while I slept. But I pushed that niggling discomfort aside, telling myself that he didn’t deserve such niceties after the murders he’d committed.

He rolled onto his back, muttering a few incoherent words, his forehead wrinkling as if he was in pain in his sleep.

I shouldn’t have done it. I know I shouldn’t have.

But an arrow and a kiss. Those were the prizes of famed archery contests, weren’t they? I had claimed the one. It was time to steal the other.

Gently, I brushed my lips against his cheek, then whispered in his ear, “Rest well, Guy, and enjoy pleasant dreams of me.”

As I tiptoed across the room and climbed out the window, I couldn’t have said which me I meant. The Hood. Lady Robin. Or the woman who was somehow both of those and yet neither one.