Author's Note: The following is the first part of a series of short pieces written with a mind to 'filling in the blanks' of what happens between each episode of the BBC's production of Robin Hood. Each piece will be inspired by a particular song and in this, the first piece, we see what happened before Episode 1 of Series 1. In each of the following chapters I will provide a link to the Episode Guide at the BBC Official Website for everyone to utilise should they need it. So read, enjoy, review. 3

Song for this piece: 'Please Forgive Me' - Bryan Adams

PLEASE FORGIVE ME

Prelude

"Don't go." A pair of heartbreakingly blue eyes searched a pair of equal hue for some sort of meaning in the wake of the bad news just received. There was a long pause between the young couple standing beneath a large leafy tree on the outskirts of Knighton Hall's grounds, the taller boy looking away in anguish and the younger girl demanding he look back to her with a firm hand on his.

"I must," replied the boy, his unruly honey blonde locks ruffled in the cool autumn wind that threatened to steal their hearts. The girl was plagued by a lock of her dark brown hair that escaped its simple bindings. She paid its hindrance no mind as she kept her steady gaze fixed on his as if she could lend her dearest friend some of her unflappable strength.

"That's a lie!" she accused, her voice harsher than she had intended. She immediately softened her tone and took both of his hands in hers. A plain but beautiful betrothal ring gleamed with the echo of promise on her left hand; an unending Celtic design in pure gold that had belonged to his mother. "You don't have to go! What of England, and of Locksley?" Her line of questioning begged a third, and despite the tightness in her chest she felt that she must voice it or forever be short of breath. "What of me?"

"Its is for all three of those things that I do go," he explained in a pained tone, his eyes shining with unshed tears. "For the last most of all. If I and all of England does not support the King in this war then freedom and hope will soon be things that children only read about in fairytales." His voice trailed off as he lifted one of his hands to tuck the rebellious strand of her deep chocolate coloured hair behind her ear and a single tear was lost to his touch as his fingers lingered overlong on her plump white cheek.

"I do not wish such a fate upon our children."

At this she looked up sharply, almost ready to see that playful hint of teasing she had come to know and expect as a matter of course in her beloved's sky blue eyes and, seeing none, she dissolved. Tears now began to course steadily down her face as she broke on the inside, and had it not been for those twin telltale rivers of deep sadness one might have never suspected she suffered at all. Knowing her the way he did the boy simply stepped forward and took her into his arms, enclosing her tightly as though this one embrace may have to last him for the rest of this lifetime and most of the next.

"Marian," he said softly, regretfully letting go of her with on arm long enough to stroke the crown of her head even as his lips sought hers to seal their fates with a kiss. Her thin shoulders shook silently as she began to cry in earnest, almost able to physically feel her heart being ripped in two at the prospect of first losing her betrothed, her Robin first to the King's allegiance and second to the cruel hands of war. She shook her head with determination and pulled away from his chest, her hands sliding up between them both to provide mind numbing distance and to sweep the tears from her face. "Marian, I--"

"I know," she interrupted, fearful that he had been about to say those three little words that would damn them both to an eternity of 'what ifs'. "You have to go." She put on a brave face, her slightly dimpled chin lifting itself as though she were already steeling her heart against him, his charms and the life that might have been theirs had time not been so strictly set against them. She knew that her affections would make it harder on him to leave and she also knew instinctively what she must do. In an instant her fingers had slipped the betrothal ring from her finger whilst her eyes had kept her steady, lost in his for perhaps the last time. She took his hand and pressed the ring into his palm, regretting what must happen now.

"So go." The instant the ring left her possession she looked at Robin of Locksley with all the affection that one might feel for a very dear friend upon their quitting your company, but beyond that she did not show any other feeling. There was nothing in the lingering gaze she now directed at him to show she was a lover losing her beloved, and in that one, single glance she lied to Robin and broke both their hearts. She turned away from him when she felt he had been sufficiently convinced of everything and nothing at once; that she still loved him but not in the way that he wished, that she would wait for his return with hope and good will but that she may very well be married to another before such a happy day came to pass.

Marian turned away from Robin and stepped out from under the selfish shade of the tree and began the agonizing, long walk to Knighton Hall where she would lock herself resolutely in her room for the next two months, leaving her heart and her betrothal ring behind with her soul mate.