chasing the merry men through the depths of Sherwood. I lost everything I held dear in the years that
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I knew then what I know now.”
“Merry men,” Tuck sneered. “That’s what you
think, isn’t it? That’s what your retainers and sycophants whispered in your ear at court? The men
who came to Sherwood were anything but merry.
They were debtors and vagabonds, the starving
dregs of England following the last shadow of hope.
Some had to be killed the day they arrived, so far
had they fallen. It took years to meld them together
into something that bore the semblance of a brotherhood, and even then, it was a hideous mockery.
When Robin died, they scattered. The shepherd was
stricken down, and the sheep were lost!”
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future—all of it was at risk! Change was coming to
England, and I knew that I would have been swept
aside in its wake otherwise.”
“You could have left us be,” Tuck said softly. His
face was human again. He sat down again, and
struck the palm of his hand against the dirt in
frustration. “That was all we ever wanted, to be left
to ourselves. Just us and Sherwood, us and the deer,
us and a few sacks of gold liberated from passing
nobles who had never earned anything by the sweat
of their brow.”
Tuck glanced up. “That is all I want now too, SherQٺ1_IV\\WJMTMN\PMZMITWVM1XMZNWZU\PMTI[\
rites for the local village—I, the crazy hermit who
spends his days fasting and meditating.”
“What happened to you?” The words were out of
the friar’s mouth before he could stop them.
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sins.”
“Without judgement?”
Tuck smiled sadly. “We all must eventually face our
faults before the Lord. When that hour comes, I will
embrace it. I will not have it said that Friar Tuck
drank