A single candle fluttered in the draughty stable as Marian hummed to herself while she brushed her horse. The monotony helped quiet her anxieties of what tomorrow would bring and the closeness of another animal was comforting.

"Marian."

Both horse and woman jumped. She turned to see his figure shrouded in shadow. She hadn't heard him enter, but she was hearing him less and less these days. He seemed to have developed the art of appearing and vanishing; although he had always possessed something similar, particularly when there were chores to be done. How she wished she could do something similar, now.

She turned away from him, schooling herself to show no emotion. That wouldn't do. "What do you want, Robin?"

"You." The stark honesty of what he said took her breath away momentarily. She brushed the horse rather harshly and it moved away from her in discomfort.

"Don't, Robin." She said in warning.

"Marian."

"You can't say that anymore. You don't have that right, you abandoned that five years ago." She turned towards him using her resentment and her anxiety to fuel her righteous anger. "I am marrying Guy tomorrow Robin, and that is the end of it."

"You don't love him."

"I can."

"He won't let you be who you are. Who will be the nightwatchman?"

"I can still be the nightwatchman. I was helping the poor a long time before you, remember?"

He snorted derisively.

"No Robin," Marian said quietly and with finality as she walked up to him. "Just, no." She turned to leave and Robin caught her arm. "Let me go." She said over her shoulder.

He rose to his feet and sadly kissed her cheek. "I love you, Marian," he said and then he was gone.

She leaned against the wall, her hands pressed tensely behind her flat on the wood. "I know, Robin. I know." She said softly to the night.

He cornered her in the corridor the night after their wedding. His hot breath on her cheek made her stomach jump and her heart flutter in nervousness.

"I know you know where to find Hood," he said towering over her.

"Don't be silly," she tried to dismiss it and gave him a coy smile. He grabbed her shoulders, painfully and pushed her roughly into the wall. Startled, she felt for the first time traces of fear.

"I know your home has been the hotbed of suspicious outlaw activity. I know you saw Hood recently. I know you know where his hideout is. Now tell me." He hissed into her face. She closed her eyes to block out the horribleness but he merely shook her.

"No," she said quietly. She had made her promise never to betray Robin. Guy's fingers dug painfully into her flesh.

"Then your father will pay for your insolence."

"No!" her eyes flew open. Guy's eyes were dark and malevolent, focused entirely on her.

"Choose; your father or an outlaw?"

Marian bit back a sob. She would not cry before this monster; but she was about to betray a man she loved.

The outlaws were tired; although the fight had been short it had been brutal. They had had to embrace the noblest of outlaw tricks and run away to hide in the greenwood. But their number was less and they gathered now over the fresh grave to mourn their loss.

It was the first time that they had encountered death so closely. Each one knew that they had been betrayed and even who had betrayed them as they shot sympathetic sidelong glances at their expressionless leader. Their hideout had been destroyed and they were on the run in their own territory. And then to lose one of their comrades-in-arms with whom they had bickered, laughed and fought with. The forest had forged a brotherhood amongst them and they all felt it.

It was Dajq who noted Robin's disappearance first. It was the morning after the burial. The others ignored it for the first week and merely went on with surviving. It wasn't until the fourth week that John looked over at the grave and said quietly, "I don't think he's coming back."