Little John & The Stolen Dress (Isabella)

[Little John]

Little John sighed as he broke into the room. Isobella's things were everywhere. How was he meant to find anything in this mess? He wasn't sure. He looked through everything on the bed, but he couldn't find it. His eyes caught the wardrobe and he started searching through the clothes, pulling out a dress.

"Halt!" a guard shouted, all holding their swords against Little John. He turned around and held his hands up in surrender,still holding the dress in his hands. The guards eyes fell on the dress and they chuckled.

"What? Oh, the dress? Yes, I came in here to steal Isabella's dress!" Little John replied, looking serious.

[Isabella]

Isabella frowned as she saw a cluster of guards surrounding the door to her chamber. She had just been on her way to tidy it up (she didn't like the servants seeing quite how messy she was), and hadn't expected anyone but herself to be in the room with her, either. She hurried towards the guards at once.
"What is going on?" she demanded as she swept along the corridor.
As soon as she reached the door she saw the answer to her question - Little John was standing in the middle of the room, with her dress in his hands! She raised one eyebrow quizzically at the tall man.
What are you doing? she mouthed to him, staring at the outlaw in bewilderment.

[Little John]

Little John let out a sigh as Isabella walked in. This was just great. Now she could see him holding her dress and looked confused. Well, he may as well go along with it. "Well...you see. You have such beautiful dresses, I thought I could take one...to wear...out..." Little John replied, smiling brightly. "Don't you think it suits me? I do."

Inside, Little John groaned. If he ever got away with this, he would never tell the others. This was a story to keep in his head. Between him and Isabella, apparently.

[Isabella]

Isabella's eyebrow somehow shot up even further, though that didn't seem humanly possible to any onlookers at the time. She was almost as surprised at what Little John had said as she was at the fact that he had said something. He was a man of few words, and she had never heard him put more than three words together in a sentence before, let alone twenty-five.
You really do learn something new every day, Isabella thought as she registered what was happening.
"I don't think my dresses would fit you, somehow," she began, "Though I admit, if there's anyone who can pull it off, it's you."

[Little John]

Little John shrugged. "Maybe a little too small," Little John replied, glancing at the dress. "So, Isabella. Could you give me some tips? Maybe away from the swords?" Little John shot her a pleading look. If she didn't go along with this, everything would be ruined. She had to agree with him. It was very important that she did. Then he could explain why he was really here. That Robin had left money in her room somehow and he was the one that had to get it back.

[Isabella]

Isabella's stare intensified.
What the hell are you thinking? she mouthed angrily at Little John.
She turned to the guards.
"This man is mad," she told them, with genuine conviction, "I want you to - oh, what's that?"
She turned around, as if she had just heard a noise.
"Didn't you hear that?" she cried, turning to the guards, "That's the Sheriff, isn't it? Well, go to him, then! I'd hate to think what would happen to you if you didn't!"
She pointed the guards down the end of the corridor.
God, this is ridiculous, she thought, They'll never believe me.

[Little John]

The guards looked at each other, then ran off in the direction that Isabella pointed at. Little John let out a sigh of relief and chucked the dress on the bed. He walked over to the window and glanced down. A little too high for him to jump out of, it seemed. At the very least he would break his leg. At the very worst he would die. So not a good idea.

He turned back to Isabella with a frown. "So...seems we have a...misunderstanding," Little John replied, gesturing at the dress on the bed. "I didn't come to steal your dress."

[Isabella]

Isabella stared in astonishment as the guards made a swift exit.
Wow, they did believe me, then, she thought, surprised.
Then another thought occured to her:
Am I a good liar or are they just stupid?
She was snapped out of her trance when Little John threw her dress onto the bed.
"Careful with that!" she cried, picking it up and brushing the dust off it, which had no great effect.
Once the guards were out of earshot, and Little John started talking, Isabella's bewildered state of mind continued. She couldn't raise her eyebrow any further, so instead she raised the other one as well.
"You're sure you didn't come for the dress?" she asked, a serious note to her voice.
There was a pause as Little John continued to frown sternly at Isabella.
"Then what did you come for?" she quizzed.

[Little John]

Little John just rolled his eyes at her comment about the dress. It was just a dress. She had plenty of dresses by the looks of it. Did it really matter if the dress was just a little dusty? Not really. She had plenty. "It's just a dress."

Little John raised an eyebrow at her. "No I don't want your dress. Although Allan I can't speak for," Little John replied, shaking his head and glancing on her side. He picked up the small drawstring bag and looked inside. "This is what I am looking for. Robin left this here. Don't know how or why."

[Isabella]

At Little John's comment about her dress being unimportant, Isabella continued to brush the dust off it, regardless of what he had just said.
"It's a dress I paid good money for," she told him, with the experience of a woman.
She noticed him pick up a small bag out of the corner of her eye and turned to look, dropping the dress onto her bed as she did so.
"Robin left that money here?" she said in confusion, "But... that makes no sense."
Isabella searched her mind for any reason Robin would have done such a thing, but could find nothing.
When was Robin last here? she wondered, hoping that would give her a clue.
Then something came to her - the night she had found him and Much inside the castle.
"Of course," she breathed, starting to explain what had happened, "Much was making a racket in the kitchens - it must have been about midnight - and I went down to find out what was going on and found him, trying to steal some food. He said he'd been separated from Robin, so we split up to find him. But as soon as we did, the alarm sounded. I suppose Robin must have had to drop some of the stolen goods in order to get away in time. He could have told me, though."

[Little John]

"It is still a dress," Little John replied, shaking his head in disbelief as she carried on dusting off her dress. He couldn't understand the fascination with a dress. However, it would make all the others laugh if he took it and gave it to Allan. It would lighten up the atmosphere a bit. Isabella wouldn't be amused, nor would Allan, but everyone else would.

"Much is always making a racket," Little John replied, running a hand through his hair as he looked at all the money. How could Robin just leave it here and make him go all the way out to get it? "He didn't tell me where it was. I had to just look."

[Isabella]

Isabella's frown deepened as Little John told her about Robin.
"Then I really don't know why he put the money here," she muttered, "And didn't mention it 'til now."
She shrugged, picking up her dress again.
"So now you've got it, how are you going to get out of here?" she asked, casually going about her task as if there wasn't a giant of a man standing in her bedchamber.

[Little John]

"Neither do I," Little John replied, shrugging and attaching the bag to his belt. He stuck his head out of the window and sighed. He pulled a rope off of his bag and tied it to the top, lowering it to the floor.

"Climbing, it looks like," Little John replied, standing on the window sill. He paused, grabbed the dress out of her hand and smiled. "Pleasure doing business, but this is just Allan's shade." He lowered himself down to the ground.

[Isabella]

"Hey! You can't take that!" Isabella cried indignantly as Little John snatched the dress.
But by then, it was too late. As she surged angrily towards him, he leapt (with surprising agility) out of the window, and by the time she had reached it, he had shinned down his rope and was already at the bottom of the wall.
"Don't tear it!" she called down to him.
Swearing far too loudly for a noblewoman, Isabella turned away from the window in frustration. It was just at that moment when she saw three guards looking at her bewilderedly. The same guards she had told to run to the other side of the castle at once to protect the possibly-dying Sheriff.
"Oh f-" she began, but bit her tongue just in time.
What do I do now? she thought wildly.
Then an idea came to her.
"That madman ran off with my dress!" she cried, "Quickly! He went that way!"
And she pointed in the opposite direction to Little John.

[Little John]

"I believe I can!" Little John shouted back to her, pulling the rope down and tying it around his shouder. He grabbed a bag off of a nearby stall and put the dress in the bag, putting it over his shoulder. He just smiled as she called down to him about not tearing the dress. He didn't care really, about what would happen to the dress.

The guards nodded and ran in the direction she pointed at, not giving it a seconds thought. Little John cursed under his breath as he saw three other guards heading for him. Now he was in deep trouble.