needle in you again?'
'I still haven't forgiven you for the last time.' He laughed softly and took hold of her hand.
Mary looked down and squeezed it. 'Come on, there's still lots to do – and it looks like it might rain anytime. Let's go home.' Now she tugged on the hand, and for a moment or two he held fast. Then he relented, turning, walking with her out of the clearing, back towards their jeeps on the outskirts of Sherwood.
There was a noise behind them, something in the undergrowth. Robert looked over his shoulder quickly and caught a glimpse – or was it his imagination? A flash of antlers against the green. Then it was gone.
'What is it?' Mary said craning her neck to see.
'Nothing,' he told her. 'Nothing at all.'
As they walked, Mary chatted, but he wasn't really listening to her. He was taking in the trees, remembering the first time he came here. The reason why he'd hidden away…
Suddenly he recalled what Stevie had said the first time he'd finished reading him his favourite storybook.
'Is that it? Is that the end of the adventure, Dad? What happens to them all afterwards?'
Robert couldn't answer him, nor the many times after that he'd asked, because he didn't know. Robert still didn't know. What did come after the end? Peace? Love? Or would they find themselves having to deal with another threat one day? What came afterwards?
What came next?
With his free hand, Robert reached up and pulled his hood over his head.
Then, falling in step with Mary, he walked to the edge of the forest without looking back.
Knowing that there was one – and only one – sure way to find out…
