Author's Notes: This is my spin on the Robin Hood legend. I know its kind of like Mulan in some ways and smells of Mists of Avalon in others. It is not very conventional but I thought it would be fun. Let me know what you think cause I am not sure whether I'm going to continue with this one.
Disclaimer: I don't own Robin Hood although I'm sure the original story has long been in the public domain. I'm not basing this on any particular book or film version of the tale.
Chapter 1: So it Begins
Many legends and tales speak of the courage and honour of Robin of Locksley. Of his captivity in Jerusalem during the crusades and of his fight against the oppressive rule of the Regent Prince John when he returned to England. Many tales have been told and from the first telling they have for the most part gotten every thing wrong. I should know for I am Moraine of Locksley and Robin was my twin brother.
My father was the Baron of Locksley, a small unimportant barony granted to my great-great grandfather as a reward for saving some Earl at one battle or another. The Earl had been some relation to the king of the day and as such my great-great grandfather had been given such a high honour. Much to the contrary of the tales told my father's lands were not near Nottinghamshire or the forest of Sherwood. It was located south of London in the summer country several days ride from Glastonbury. As it was a small barony it may seem surprising that my father would have any influence in the affairs of the King but along with the barony my great-great grandfather had been given a chair at the King's council table. As with all such titles in those days this place in the King's council was hereditary. As such my father was a member of the King's Council.
One night King Richard Plantagenet, called the Lionheart, came to Locksley to make two requests of my father. The first was my father's support in his crusade. My father, who held King Richard in the highest esteem, offered his son and heir Robin to the cause. The King's second request was for my hand in marriage for his younger brother Prince John. The agreement for my betrothal was that I was to go to the convent in the city of Canterbury to be trained in the roll of Princess of the realm for my wedding would take place upon King Richard's return or if news came that he had fallen in battle. I was to be a prize given to Prince John in payment for his stewardship of his brother's realm. My brother was to escort me to the convent with a letter from King Richard and my father given me into the guardianship of the Mother Superior to be trained as a princess. Then Robin was to continue on to London where in a month's time the army was to be marshalled.
Robin was not material for knighthood nor did he wish to be a man of arms. Many tales tell of his skill as the greatest bowman ever seen in England, like many parts of this tale this is false, my brother couldn't hit a target with an arrow if it were three paces in front of him. I was sixteen years of age and I was less material for a princess to a man fifteen years my senior then my twin was material to be a knight in the King's army. I loved to ride and hunt; I was the best hunter in my father's halls. I was proficient in the art of sword fighting and I had grown to be muscular and tall compared to other maiden's my age. I stood eye to eye with my brother in height and had a good deal more physical strength. I was not refined nor was I graceful. I often wore men's clothes to go ridding or to help with harvest and planting on our land. Horses and hounds interested me far more then fine dresses and jewels.
My father was a kind dotting man who had always allowed me to follow my rather unladylike pursuits always smiling with pride when I came back with a catch to be cooked in our kitchens. I had never been squeamish about gutting, skinning or cleaning my catches where the task made my brother nauseous. Although he showered my brother and me with love, giving us everything we wished for, however he didn't know much about us. He was often absorbed in his work making decisions to the good of his barony. He probably thought that he was doing the best he could do by his children when he made the decisions he had, yet had he spent much time with us in the ten years since our mother had passed he would have known that no decision could have been worse.
Neither Robin nor I was home during King Richard's visit; in fact the King had never met my brother or me. We had been visiting with Marion and William the King's niece and nephew, his sister's two children. Marion was a year younger then Robin and I and William a year older. In our childhood we had naively agreed that one day William and I would wed as would Marion and Robin. I remembered that pledge and still so many years later it meant something to me. I was sure that William and the other two had long ago forgotten it, however deep in my heart I knew that I love William. During our visit William announced he would be going with his uncle to the holy lands. I was devastated. The idea of his leaving on a mission that many said was surely to be a disaster caused my heart to wrench in my chest.
When Robin and I returned to my father's halls from visiting William and Marion that evening we were called to my father's study. He told us of the king's request and the decisions that they had come to. He gave Robin the letters' from the King and himself to be given to the Mother Superior and the commander of the King's forces in London. I could not believe that my father had arranged my marriage to a man near twice my age and that he was sending his only son and heir to certain death. I begged my father to change his mind but for the time in my life he refused to give in to my demands telling me that this was best for us all.
I was desperate to keep my dear twin safe and so when we left my father's chambers I dragged Robin to my room.
"Robin, we must do something!" I exclaimed passionately.
"What ever for dear Sister?" asked my ever so astute brother seemingly mystified to the reasons behind my concern.
"Robin, are you such a lack wit as that?" I asked unkindly. "When did you last win a duel with swords or any weapon at all against me?" I asked.
Robin thought for a moment before making his reply. "Well I never have." Then his eyes opened wide in realisation. "Moraine, father is sending me to war."
"Precisely," I said with a nod. "And he his sending me to become a princess. You know that would never work Robin. We have the letters Robin we can change places and no one would know until its too late, and if luck is with us no one will ever discover what we have done. You know that when we leave Father will not think to write. He never thinks about anything that is not directly beneath his nose." I said leaning towards him from my seated position on my bed.
Robin nodded slowly obviously pondering the detail in his head. He may not be quick on the uptake but my brother was a master strategist. "I will write a letter in father's hand telling the Mother Superior that he sends his son to train in Canterbury as an engineer to be sent later to the Holy Lands to join King Richards's army and you will go to London dressed as a boy."
Robin was a great student and had studied with the monks in the monastery not far from my father's hall. He was well learnt in the scholarly arts and had a rare gift for forgery. And so that night he worked at making a new letter in a hand so close to our father's that I who knew my father's writing better then any save our Chamberlain could not tell the difference.
Early the next morning as the sun just began to rise above the hills in the east my father met my brother and I in the court yard to say farewell. I was dressed in a travelling dress and a dust cloak and stood next to a small cart in which I was supposedly to ride to Canterbury. The horse whose reins Robin held was my own Chase whom I had made a scene of giving to Robin at breakfast, with a speech of my own horse carrying my brother to glory and honour. Robin wore the armour our father had given him on our last birth day. However, packed into the saddle bags on Chase's saddle were my men's cloths, a special corset that would bind my breast flat and some of my brother's clothes. In the trunks that supposedly held the clothing and things I would need at Canterbury were my brother's books and clothes. I had spent several hours the previous night burning my own dresses so that they would no raise suspicion.
"My children," my father said. "I send each of you off to do your duty to our Kingdom and to keep the honour of the House of Locksley. I send you with my love, and with these gifts." My father came to my brother and gave him my mother's wedding ring on a chain. "For you my son the ring I gave to your mother, may you one day give it to the mother of your own children."
Then walking towards me he handed me a sealed letter. "Read this when you reach your destination my sweet daughter, and know that you bring me pride." I curtseyed to my father and climbed into the driver's seat of the cart. "Go now my children with the good grace of god to light your road and know your father loves you." With this last benediction my brother and I left my father's halls, the place that we had so long called home. We left not knowing that we would never see our father nor call that hall home again.
After our first day of travel we came to a small village with a small inn. My brother entered the inn to procure lodging for ourselves and stabling for the horses, while I remained with the beasts. Several hours later we were eating a hearty meal of beef stew and coarse bread in our room, the board was plain but tasted delicious to our hungry palates. After we finished supper Robin took a pair of scissors we had purchased from the local blacksmith and cut my dirty blond hair off at the nap of my neck in the same style that he wore his own. It was sad to cut my long hair that I had from time to time cursed as a dreadful nuisance but it symbolised that we had passed the point of no return. That we were going to go through with this and disobey both our father and our King.
The next morning I put on my corset and men's clothes over which I wore my brother's armour. On my back I put my bow and to a baldric I fastened the sword of House Locksley. It was a test of sorts, could I pass as my brother among those who did not know me. My brother was going to go down to the stables by the back stair well of the inn and I was going to pay the land lord. The innkeeper could not tell the difference between my brother and I. He asked me politely if my lady-sister had had a comfortable stay and I replied that she had found everything to her complete satisfaction. The innkeeper took his payment with a beaming smile and I left feeling content that my disguise worked.
My brother and I left the small community and continued on our way. We had decided that it made no sense for us both to travel to Canterbury only for me to have to travel half the distance back again to get to the road to London. As such a sennight into our journey I turned North on my way to London where my brother continued to travel east to the city of Canterbury.