Read Online Outlaw Princess of Sherwood by Nancy Springer - Free Book Online

to defeat Father, Etty sensed, to really defeat him in his heart, would be to conquer him with the weapons he had taught her. With words. The Romans, the Greeks.
    But he always wins the debates! Always!
    Not this time, Etty told herself. Not with the help of the coolness her mother had taught her and the defiance she had learned from the outlaws.
    Seated across the fire from King Solon the Red, and taking care to appear at ease, Etty helped herself to some fresh wheat bread.
    Her father aimed his forefinger at her like a spear. “You munch bread in my presence like a dairymaid? No daughter of mine is a coarse, common—”
    â€œArgumentum ad hominem,” Etty told him, reaching for some of Robin’s dark, wild honey to go with the bread.
    â€œYou overspeak yourself, ungrateful wench, just because I gave you an education. It is as Socrates said: Once woman is made equal to man, she fancies herself his superior.”
    â€œIn more honest translation, Father, Socrates declared that educated woman is superior to man.” Etty licked honey from her fingers.
    â€œHave you forgotten how Semonides compares woman to a hairy sow, a braying donkey, a vixen?”
    â€œAnd whom would you rather contemplate, Father, Semonides or Socrates? Or Plato? Have you forgotten how Plato and Xenophon argue that the soul is without gender, and woman is therefore the moral equal of man?”
    â€œBut not the legal equal!”
    â€œYes, in Plato’s Republic, the legal equal also, to be educated alongside the men, take physical training like men, and share in the responsibilities of state.”
    â€œBah. You believe in such a fairy-tale world?” King Solon the Red drew himself up and fixed his daughter with his most stern and regal stare. “Speak truth, girl: Do you consider yourself my equal?”
    Etty had learned to her bones the code of Sherwood Forest: An outlaw is the equal of anyone. Therefore, although her knees trembled under her skirt, it was not too difficult for her to placidly reply, “Absolutely, Father. And in some ways, your superior.”
    His face flushed crimson above his orange hedgehog beard. He stiffened like a barking dog. “Strumpet!” he howled. “Shameless vandal of good taste and tradition!”
    There. He had lost his temper. She had breached his fortifications, at least.
    Etty became aware that outlaws had gathered around the fire, listening, that Robin stood grinning behind King Solon, that Rowan had settled beside her with a quiet smile, and that she, Etty, was almost enjoying herself, enraging her father.
    But she had not brought him here to enjoy herself.
    Or even to defeat him in debate, really. She had broken down his defenses somewhat, but . . . how to find the man inside?
    Had he ever loved Mother? At all?
    Did he ever love me?
    Etty sighed, set her food aside and wiped her hands on her kerchief. She faced her father levelly, inwardly begging him to hear her. She looked into his hawkish eyes—had she ever dared to really look into his eyes before? They surprised her. Hard, yes, but also old and bleak.
    Etty asked quietly, “If I am such a disgrace to you, Father, why do you want me back? Why not leave me here?”
    He replied too quickly, without thought. “Because, in the proper order of things, the father should exercise authority over his family, and the king—”
    A flare of rage took Etty by surprise. “Is that what you call it?” She could not keep her face from hardening as her voice turned ice sharp. “You call it authority, to punish and humiliate your wife, who has done nothing but serve you, whom you should cherish the most—”
    â€œYou speak like a child.” Back in control, King Solon showed his teeth in a cold smile. “Have you forgotten your Thucydides? The powerful take what they can, and the weak give what they must. Woman is weak—”
    â€œOnly in the narrowest sense of the