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The remaining soldiers were positioned around the burial ground with their weapons close at hand.
Whoever commanded them had taken precautions.
Then I noticed the second headstone in the nearest row.
It was lying facedown in the grass.
I knew that stone.
It belonged to my great-grandfather, and there was a hunting horn carved into one corner. When I was little, I'd always stopped to touch it because it was the only grave marker with a picture.
Someone had knocked it over to dig beneath it.
I reached for an arrow before I realized what I was doing.
Guy caught my wrist.
"Robin."
"Take your hand off me."
"Look at how many men are down there."
"They're digging up my family."
"I know."
"Then let go."
"We'll stop them," he said quietly. "I'm not saying you're wrong to be angry. But there are twenty-three soldiers down there and nine of us. The moment you fire an arrow, they'll know where we are and why we've come."
I glared at him. "And if they find what your father hid before we do, Fitzwalter will have it by noon."
I hated that he was right. I lowered the arrow and returned it to my quiver. Merry crawled up beside us and studied the burial ground.
"The old garden wall," she whispered, pointing toward the orchard. "There's a gap near the trees. The wall runs all the way behind the chapel, and nobody down there can see over it."
"Will it hold my weight?"
"It held yours when you were nine."
I looked at her and she grinned.
Of course she remembered.
My grandmother's garden was almost unrecognizable.
The flowerbeds had disappeared beneath weeds, and the paths were completely overgrown. Dock and nettles reached my waist in places, making it difficult to move without disturbing the plants.
But the lavender was still there.
Nobody had pruned it in years. The stems had grown thick and woody, spreading across the remains of the old pathway.
Guy brushed against one of the bushes as we passed.
The scent rose around us, and I stopped walking.
For a moment, I was a little girl again, following my grandmother through the garden while she explained which plants were useful and which ones I wasn't allowed to touch.