Outlaw by Michael Morpurgo Page A

“I most certainly will.” But Robin’s father could not see the smile on his face, as he picked up the child and walked away.
    The ambush proved to be a bitter disappointment. For some reason they could not understand, the convoy seemed to change its mind before it ever reached Sherwood. Frustrated and furious, the Outlaws could only watch helpless from the trees as the convoy turned and made its way back towards Nottingham. They returned to the encampment to find Robin’s father stumbling around, distraught, and calling for his grandson. The abbess was gone. The nuns were gone, and so was little Martin Hood.The other children were found some way off, playing by a stream, but Martin was not amongst them. They searched through the forest but he was nowhere to be seen.
    If Little John had not stopped him, and Much had not pinned him to the ground, Robin would have gone after him at once. “Can’t you see, Robin?” cried Little John. “That is exactly what they want you to do. It’s a trap. The whole thing is a trap.”
    “He’s right,” said Will Scarlett. “They tempted us away, all of us, and we fell for it.”
    “It was Alan Wicken who took him,” Robin’s father cried, in his grief and in his shame. “But I let him do it. It was my fault.”
    “Not so,” said Marion, wiping the tears from her face. “He is my child. It is my fault. It is a mother’s duty to care for her child, and I left him. No one will go after him, except me. It was I who broughtall this upon you, Robin. If you had killed the sheriff when you had him at your mercy, then none of this would have happened. And who more than anyone else welcomed these devilish sisters? I did. The blame is mine, all mine. So it is all mine to put right.” She turned to Will Scarlett. “Will, I need to look as they looked. Can you make me a habit by morning?” Nothing Robin nor anyone else could say would deter her. “They’ll have taken him to Nottingham,” she said. “They are expecting you to come after him, Robin. They will not be expecting me. We have surprise on our side. And haven’t you told me and told me that in war, and this is war, surprise is everything?”
    All night long, as Will Scarlett worked on her nun’s habit, Marion talked through her plan with Robin. At dawn, she gathered everyone around her and told them what she had in mind. It was left toMuch to pick the precise place, for he knew more than anyone every fold of the land around the mill. Robin listened, but found it difficult to concentrate his mind. All he could think of was little Martin and what the sheriff might do to him, might have done to him already. “It’ll work, Robin,” said Marion, taking him by the shoulder. “It’s the only way. And timing is everything. They must see no one but you. Do not move until you see me wave the silver arrow. May God help us bring him home safe.” Once on the road to Nottingham, Marion and Robin held each other close, neither wanting to let the other go, for both knew just how much depended on these next few hours. Robin tried to make light of it as he said goodbye. “I’ve never hugged a nun before,” he said. “Keep your eyes lowered in Nottingham. They must not see your eyes.”
    “If Tuck were here he’d tell us to have faith,” she said, and gathering her nun’s habit about her, she mounted her horse and rode off. “Don’t be late,” she called out. And with a wave of the silver arrow, she was gone.
    At noon that day a nun, her head lowered in prayer, rode in through the gates of Nottingham, and up through the little back streets into the market square. No one paid her the slightest attention. Everyone was far too busy buying and selling even to notice her. She dismounted and led her horse over the castle drawbridge and into the courtyard beyond. She handed the reins to one of the sheriff’s men standing by the well. “I must see the sheriff,” she said, “I have a message for him from Robin Hood.”
    She