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"What about me?"

"If they offer you the sheriff's position again, would you take it?"

A week earlier, I would've answered without hesitation.

Now I wasn't so certain. "I don't know."

She studied my face. "You've wanted that position your entire life."

"I know."

"Then why wouldn't you want it back?"

I looked toward the hall. "Because I spent a long time believing that office was the most important thing about me."

Robin remained quiet.

"This morning, I walked into that room without a sword, a title, or any authority at all." I looked back at her. "And I managed to do more good in two hours than I did in three years of signing warrants."

She considered that. "That's still not an answer."

"No." I smiled faintly. "I suppose it depends on who's asking."

Robin smiled. "Well, I'm not asking you to go back to being the man who chased me through Sherwood."

"Good. I was never particularly successful at catching you."

"You caught me eventually."

"Only because you decided to let me."

She laughed. And I found that I liked hearing it more than I missed anything I'd left behind at Nottingham Castle.

We rode back into Sherwood after dark. The forest was quiet, with only the occasional sound of our horses moving along the familiar track.

For three years, I'd hunted Robin through those woods.

I'd studied her routes, collected the arrows she'd left behind, and kept every irritating note she'd sent me.

I'd told anyone willing to listen that bringing the Ghost of Sherwood to justice would be the greatest achievement of my career.

Now I couldn't imagine returning to that life. More importantly, I didn't want to. Robin brought her horse alongside mine where the track widened beneath the oaks.

She reached across and took my hand.

I looked at her. "What are you thinking?"

She smiled. "That you still haven't caught me, Sheriff."

I laughed.

Perhaps I never would.

28

ROBIN

The first time I heard my father's name spoken publicly in Nottingham, I was sixteen years old, standing among a crowd while a royal herald read the charges against him.