Page 24

The woman had sat close enough for me to smell her arousal, looked me directly in the eye while I nearly lost every sensible thought in my head, and robbed me during it.

A laugh escaped me before I could stop it.

"Little Ghost."

I looked down, and the second drawer of my desk stood open by a thumb's width. I already knew what I would find before I pulled it, and I found it anyway, because a man should confirm his disasters. The wax, the cord, and the small iron box were undisturbed.

The box was empty.

The door banged open and my lieutenant came through it with two guards at his back, all three of them breathing hard.

"Sheriff, someone breached the west wing. There's a window unsecured at the end of the…"

"I'm aware."

He stopped, taking in the open drawer and my face.

"Was it her?"

I did not answer.

"What did she take?"

I looked at the empty iron box.

"My seal."

His face lost its color.

"The royal authorization seal?"

"The very one."

He stared at me as if waiting for the rest of the sentence to improve matters.

It did not.

"What can she do with that?"

I looked toward the open window.

Anything I could.

Authorize shipments. Redirect supplies. Open storehouses. Put my name beneath orders I had never seen and make half of Nottingham obey them before anyone thought to ask whether I'd written them.

And Robin knew it.

Of course she knew it.

My lieutenant followed my gaze toward the window.

"Do you want the gates closed?"

I looked at him an then at the window.

Then at the ring she had returned to my hand. By now she would already be over the wall.

Possibly halfway to Sherwood.