It was another bright, sunny Saturday morning in Locksley. The birds were singing, the smell of fresh bread and spring flowers lingered in the air, and Marian of Locksley was dangerously close to murdering her husband.
"Robin!" she called for the tenth time over the screams of their newborn son.
"Busy!" his voice drifted down from upstairs.
Marian, who was up to her elbows in soapy, warm bathwater attempting to wash the sticky sap from four-year-old Katherine's hair after her latest tree-climbing escapade, took a deep breath.
"Get down here and take care of your son or you can sleep in the forest for the next week!" she threatened.
Almost immediately, stomping sounds could be heard from upstairs. She knew he was doing it on purpose, but she also knew it meant he was coming down. She could deal with him not being happy about doing so. He came down the stairs, avoiding eye contact with her, and moved to the table where tiny baby Wesley was lying on a blanket, vocalizing his protests at being neglected.
"Hey, baby," Robin said, feigning sternness. "Are you making Mama mad?" He lifted the infant to his shoulder, bouncing him, and the baby quieted. "There, see? You're just fine."
Marian sighed at the sudden quiet. "Thank you," she said, unable to keep a note of her earlier irritation out of her voice.
In a very audible whisper Robin told little Wes, "Mama is still mad, baby."
"Are you really mad, Mama?" Katherine asked in a similar "whisper."
Marian smiled at her, rubbing the last of the sap from her daughter's hair. "Not anymore, love."
The little girl nodded sagely. "It's baby Wesley's fault. He shouldn't cry so much."
Robin laughed and came over to sit on the ground next to the washtub. "Maybe we should take him back to the market?" he asked Katherine.
The little girl nodded eagerly, turning to her father, her eyes alight. "Yeah, we should. Or trade him for baby Dan!"
Robin winced, knowing Marian would take that personally. It was true that Will and Djaq's baby, who was just a few weeks older than Wesley, was much quieter, but Robin suspected that had something to do with the nature of the babies' respective parents. He and Marian had never been quiet in their lives, and it was probably too much to expect quiet children, but he knew Marian sometimes wished temperamental little Wes would be more like placid baby Dan.
"I was only joking, love," he said, tweaking Katherine's nose. "Baby Wesley is here to stay, and we like him just the way he is, don't we?"
He glanced at his wife, and she smiled. He grinned back, knowing he was already forgiven.
Katherine wrinkled her nose. "Can I go live at baby Dan's house?"
"Katherine!" Marian said.
Robin stifled a laugh. He stood with Wesley in his arms and kissed Marian's hair. "She's kidding, love," he said in her ear.
She looked up and tugged his beard. "Stop giving her ideas."
He kissed her then danced out of range before she could get a hold of his beard again. "She's just like you, you know."
Marian was about to argue, but she remembered the many times her nursemaid had had to work the tree sap out of her own hair and just sighed instead.
