Author's Note: Enjoy! (By the way, I'm a sucker for reviews.)

Chapter One: Olly, Olly Oxen Free!

A single man is never easy to find in a castle, especially one as large as the one in Nottingham, but when said man is the owner of the castle one would expect that it would make the expedition far easier. However, this was not the case in Sir Guy of Gisborne's search. The search had been going on for so long now that the owner of this large estate might as well have vanished from existence itself at this point!

How long had he been searching? A minute? Two? Ten? The exact measurement of time passed was irrelevant to Gisborne now since he already knew that it-judging by his dwindling tolerance for the situation-was already far too long for such an insignificant errand such as this. Sir Guy had better things to do than to fetch people, running about in what was becoming an increasingly annoying game of hide-and-go-seek. If he didn't have his own reasons for finding him, Guy would have given up long ago. That was why Guy was in such a mad rush to get to him in the first place; the Sheriff needed to handle the strange matter at hand so that Guy could present him with one of his own.

Of course, he couldn't put forward either issue yet. First he had to win this game that still had room to grow evermore noisome, but where to look next? He had already searched in the Sheriff's study, his chambers, the Great Hall, and his office. Where else in Hell could he be? Guy sighed haughtily in obvious exasperation. At this point he would hardly be surprised if the Sheriff really had chosen his hiding place in the depths of Hell itself. Everyone knew his reputation well enough to know that he would probably feel at home in the Underworld and if given the choice would probably spend most of his summers if not all of his time there, but only Guy knew him so well to know that if the Sheriff actually could enter the Fiery Gates, he would probably be plotting to overturn Satan himself.

Still these suspicions didn't help him. Early in life, Guy had quickly learned that there was no Hell and if there was, it could be no worse than the very Hell mankind lived in. He had stopped believing long ago that evil was ever punished and consequently that there could be no fabled place to home its Prince.

So, if the Sheriff was indeed here in the castle and not in Hell then why was it that Guy couldn't find him after so long?

"You!" he called to a passing servant, "The Sheriff. Where is he?"

"L-l-last I checked he was returning to his s-study, m'lord," the meager boy answered in a way that showcased his fear and surprise.

"And when was this?" Guy pressed. He was going to be very irritated if this going-on occurred too recently after he had just checked there.

"I saw him only a minute ago, m'lord," the help told him, trying his best not to cringe away in fear of Lord Gisborne's wrath. This was appropriately done for at hearing the reply to his question, Guy's temper seemed like it was about to explode in a rampage with a lust for violence. However, it turned out to be this boy's lucky day for Guy only clenched his jaw, turned on his heel, and rushed away, forgetting in his haste that the boy was even there and therefore giving his source the chance to live another day unscathed.

However, when Guy finally did come storming into the Sheriff's office to find him sitting at his desk, his head instantly began to cool. Finally! He had found him!

"What is it, Gisborne?" the Sheriff asked nonchalantly and without even so much as glancing up from his note-scribbling to look at his underling, "Make it quick. I am very busy."

"There's a woman waiting for you in the courtyard," Guy announced bluntly.

"There's a woman waiting for me in the courtyard," the Sheriff mocked rather than asked, looking up from his work with a very indifferent expression on his face, "Did you not hear me, Gisborne? I said that I'm busy. Tell her to come back another time."

So, he returned to his writing, thinking that that would be the last word about the matter, but Guy would not have it. "We can't tell her to go away," he began to explain only to be interrupted by the Sheriff.

"And why not? Is she deaf?"

"No, sir, but-"

"Is she dumb?"

"No, sir. She's-"

"Is she royalty of some sort?"

"No, but-"

"Well, if she is not deaf, dumb, or nobility then what is wrong with her?"

"She's Italian, sir."

"Italian?" the Sheriff repeated suddenly, actually standing up from his chair.

"Yes, my lord," Guy went on, "At least that's what our best guess is because she has only spoken what we assume to be Italian since she arrived. She has not said so much as a single English word, but she has repeatedly mentioned your name."

The Sheriff dropped his jaw so that his lips formed a tight 'o' as he lightly pressed his tongue to his cheek in thought, something that he did often when given news that was of interest to him. "Italian, you said?" he inquired, going over to the window to look down at the courtyard where he could see a definite feminine form below.

"Yes, sir."

"Wait here then," the Sheriff ordered as he went out and left before Guy could ask any questions.

Guy watched amazed as the Sheriff made a hastened exit. Guy hadn't expected the Sheriff to go so easily. After all he was very busy. He had made a point to convey that within moments of Guy's arrival. Then what had changed his mind?

Guy went over to the window to look out of it and down to the place where the waiting woman was. Beside the fact that she had brown hair and simple peasant garb, there wasn't much that he could see of her, but judging by her exaggerated body language she was neither happy nor calm about having to wait so long. The girl probably didn't even know that help had been sent to find the Sheriff. It was most likely that she wouldn't know of what had been done until she actually saw the man in front of her.

Then, as if on cue, the Sheriff appeared out of the castle doors and into the open space. The guards made way for him, giving the girl the chance to run up to the Sheriff and… hug him?

Guy couldn't believe his eyes! That young woman was actually hugging the Sheriff! What was more amazing was that he returned the embrace! So that was why he had left... He knew her. But how would the Sheriff know an Italian girl that he would greet so warmly?

This was a question which Guy could not configure a single possibility seeing as it seemed to be a near impossibility. In fact, he wouldn't have believed it had he not seen it with his own eyes only moments ago. So he simply gave up on it and pushed it from his mind. There was no point in lingering on a problem that didn't need to be solved. Instead he turned his attention to the room around him in order to occupy his attentions. An assortment of all sorts of collected items surrounded him and none of it was well organized. Noticing this, Guy couldn't help but wonder if his own study would be the same way if he had both a study as impressive as this one and the time to use it.

Here books had been set down wherever there was a horizontal surface, just like papers and other objects had been set down or cast aside. A few pieces of money could be spotted here and there, probably placed when the Sheriff had emptied his pockets or possibly the pockets of others. Even so out of all of these treasures the only pieces of the collection that he found memorable were also the most interesting and bizarre pieces in the collection: the several skulls that the Sheriff kept not only as decorum, but also to hold his false teeth when they were not occupying his mouth. If there was anything that Guy wouldn't want in an office of his it would be skulls to hold his replacement teeth.

Then without any warning, the Sheriff came walking back in so that he nearly made Guy jump from unsuspecting surprise. He hadn't even heard him coming down the hall! "What did she want?" he automatically asked without so much as considering why he would want to know the answer.

"That… was my ward," the Sheriff answered matter-of-factly as he sat back down at his desk and resumed his scribbling, "She is under my care now so I want proper arrangements made so that she will be safe once I present her to the public. I want to keep her as far away from the dangers of our business as possible."

With this news combined with the prior shock he had received, it took Guy a few extra moments to respond to such news. It was information that was most certainly unprecedented and very unexpected yet there the Sheriff sat, speaking of it as if it were no more abnormal than the weather! "Your ward?" Guy repeated as he took a seat, the information's impact so great that he completely ignored the orders just given to him, "I wasn't aware that you had one."

"Well, that was probably due to the fact that I wasn't aware either," the Sheriff snapped, still not even bothering to glance up at his lackey, "Not officially at least. But apparently her mother died a couple of years ago and since I am her godfather I have become her guardian because of it but, as I said, I don't want to make this knowledge known until I am sure that she will be safe from my enemies."

"But what of her father?" Guy pointed out, still paying no mind to the official business, "Surely her father could manage her on his own."

"I'm afraid that would be a little difficult, seeing as Mariella doesn't know who he is. She had only her mother to raise her."

Guy furrowed his eyebrows at hearing this. He had assumed that since the Italian girl had not come directly after her mother's death that her father had been taking care of her since. If this was in fact not so then who exactly had been caring for her? Out of pure curiosity Guy accidentally blurted out an inquiry concerning his thoughts, regretting his curiosity the second that he verbalized it.

The Sheriff seemed to pay no mind, though. "No one cared for her. She wanted to work off her family's debts before she came to me," the Sheriff answered carelessly, "She didn't want to unload them onto me simply because I would be in charge of her. That's why she waited so long to let me know that her mother had died at all."

"Debts?" Guy said in confusion, "What sort of debts did they owe, exactly?" He couldn't stop himself! The questions just kept coming out!

"To put it simply… the man that brought them to England from Italy demanded payment for his services… plus interest and additional costs as the years went on. They could repay their first arrears soon enough, but it was the interest that took them almost ten years to pay."

"Ten years?" Guy copied, his blue eyes squinting in confused astonishment at the collector's greed.

"That is what I said, Gisborne…"

"Ten years…" Guy said to mostly himself. They worked ten years, an entire decade, her mother and she and only the girl was able to reap the benefits. Ten years was a long time… One would imagine that it would be long enough to pick up the language of the country. "If she has been here for so long then why does she not know English?"

"No one has been able to teach her."

"She lives in a country where no one understands her and she doesn't understand any of them…" Gisborne noted, fascinated rather than sympathetic, "How does she manage her work?"

"I don't know, but she does…" the Sheriff sighed, obviously growing bored of the subject, "She will be working here under the pretense that she is simply another servant until security measures have been taken care of and you will take care of them, won't you, Gisborne?"

"Yes, my lord," Guy answered, finally snapping out of his curiosity, "Did you have anything specific in mind for her?"

"Just the usual will do," the Sheriff answered, "Now, on to business…"