Title: How Knighton Got its Hall Back
Rating: T
Summary: Marian decides to rebuild Knighton Hall. Set two years after "Husbanding England," but not necessary to read that first. Marian/Robin, baby fluff.
Disclaimer: I do not hold any ownership over the BBC's version of Robin Hood.
Author's Note: Unbeta'd. This was written as a brief break from "The Great Charter," which is coming along, I promise. Enjoy, friends, and please drop me a line to tell me how it went- I can only improve!
o0O0o
Marian was tired. No, actually, she was exhausted. And it was all Robin's fault. How else would she have gotten pregnant? It was so soon after Katherine's birth. And Katherine, at five months, was not quite sleeping the entire way through the night, much to her mother's chagrin. As it was Marian's job to feed the infant. She had not yet told Robin she was with child again, but would do so soon.
Perhaps she would tell him today, after telling him that she planned to rebuild Knighton Hall after June. Marian missed her childhood home. She missed living on her lands- not that she minded living in Locksley, but she wanted to be fair to her serfs, and spend a few months a year with them. But Robin was out surveying the lands and villages for the coming spring's planting, and determining which land was confiscable for the manor.
And Marian was playing with Katherine in the hall. As usual.
Marian loved her daughter, very much, but was also very much bored with things the way they were. She still went to the council of nobles, representing the lands and interests of Knighton, but apart from that, the winter and the baby kept her in the house more often than not. She hated admitting it, but she almost missed the political intrigues of living in the castle and being courted by men she did not love. It had given her power, and she missed that. Perhaps it was because she was now too much in control of her life. Too much contentment, children notwithstanding. Perhaps when summer came, things would be different….
Marian glanced down at the wooden animal shapes in her hands, whittled by Will Scarlet's expert hand and perfectly detailed. She marched the bear, with appropriate bear sounds, towards her daughter, then tickled her. Katherine squealed with laughter, and Marian smiled. She could not wait for her daughter to grow so they could have rational conversations. Marian sometimes felt silly talking to her daughter, but found herself doing it often. Babies were strange.
Marian heard horses approach the manor and knew her husband was home. Katherine, smart as she was, knew it too. She looked and smiled around the wooden fish that was in her mouth. And sure enough, Robin swung into the hall with his usual cocky grin, crowing for his girls. He picked up Katherine and tickled her, then pulled Marian from the floor and into an embrace. He smelled like mud and rain.
"How were the fields, Robin?"
"Well enough. I shall leave the decisions of when to plant to the experts, however. I know little of farming. How was your day?"
She tipped her head back to look into his eyes. "I have come to a decision today," she began.
Katherine was squirming, so Robin set the baby back down on the blanket to rejoin her menagerie.
"About what?"
"I would like to rebuild Knighton Hall this summer, after the planting."
Robin looked pensive. It was one of the things she loved about him, he always heard out her ideas. Even the time she was convinced that she wanted to join the church with the Abbess-That-Wasn't, he was always ready to listen and discuss with her. Not something that many other people were willing to do.
"Can we afford it?"
"I can," she said. "I went through the ledgers today while Katherine slept. Knighton has gone nearly three years without a manor house to support. I have saved up enough money to begin the project."
Robin nodded, then asked delicately, "Marian, do not take this the wrong way, but what do you know of building a manor?"
"Enough to enlist Will Scarlet to help me."
"Can I ask why you suddenly want to rebuild the manor?"
Marian's eyes sparked with angry tears, "Do you not want me to?" she demanded.
"That is not it. I was just curious, why now?"
She calmed herself, then said, "I wish to be more accessible to my village. As it is now, I feel as though I am never there. I represent their interests in Nottingham, but I have been so busy with the baby that I never seem to be there. If we build the Hall, we can at least spend time there so I can know the needs of the village."
Marian paused here, and Robin was about to say this was a sound plan, but she interrupted him with a sudden torrent of words.
"And I am with child again and I want to see my childhood home before I have another child, who knows what may happen, but I was happy there and-"
He stopped the flow with a kiss. Feeling tears on his cheek, he pulled back and met her gaze.
"Pray, do not cry, Marian. We will build Knighton Hall if I have to build it myself."
She sniffled, ashamed of her sudden outburst. What was it about carrying a child that toyed with her emotions so? He wiped a tear away. She chanced a look at Katherine who was still playing with her blocks, oblivious to the discussion.
"How long have you known, my love?"
"About the baby? I have suspected for a few days. My courses are late. And I have almost no energy."
"And yet you want to rebuild Knighton?"
"I do not think that it will be me wielding the tools."
Robin laughed, but then his voice showed concern, "Do you ever sleep, my love?"
"Only when your daughter stops requiring my attention," she sighed and buried her face in his neck.
"Perhaps I shall stay home tomorrow and play with her while you sleep. How does that sound?"
She hummed in contentment at the very idea.
"Blissful."
"Then it is settled," he told her with a kiss to her forehead. "And soon it will be summer, and we can take her outside to play."
"Yes, and all my roses will be blooming…" Marian planned.
Katherine suddenly squawked, demanding attention. Robin gently pushed Marian in to a chair, then strode over and picked up his daughter. After a few moments of trying to figure out what could be wrong, Marian took pity on him.
"She is likely hungry, Robin."
"Well I cannot help her, then."
"Bring her here, you fool," she laughed. Robin obeyed, and soon Marian and Katherine had settled into their routine.
Robin watched in amazement. The breastfeeding at first had embarrassed him, but now he was quite comfortable with it. But it still astonished him. Marian, he determined, was a far better parent than he would ever be.
She sighed, "Only another month of this, and it is a good thing, too."
"Why is that good?"
"Well, the milk will likely lessen as the new baby grows, and anyway, Katherine will soon begin on solid food."
"Oh," was his response. It was a good thing she knew these things. Then he had a thought, "How do you know these things?"
"By asking other women who have had children."
He could never decide whether or not he wanted her to always have the ability to make him feel like the most foolish man in existence.
o0O0o
Over the summer, he watched as his wife's stomach grew and his wife's property was rebuilt. They were rather opposite each other, however. The exterior walls of Knighton were put up relatively quickly. It soon looked like a complete home, save for the inside, which was going a bit slower. Marian on the other hand, took her time to show she was carrying a child, but once she did, she grew quickly. Robin was careful not to report these observations to her. One day in July she suddenly had loads of energy and tried to ride out to Knighton to see the progress herself. Djaq caught her leaving the village and flew into a rage.
Marian's meager protests that she was riding side saddle would not qualm the storm she had kicked up in Djaq. However Djaq's warnings soon scared Marian off the horse and into Locksley Hall again. When Robin came home, he found the two talking rationally again. He too almost flew into a rage when he heard that his pregnant wife had been riding.
"Women have ridden pregnant before, you realize," she pointed out later.
He looked at her with wide eyes, then crushed her to him. "Please do not. I cannot bear it if the horse threw you or…."
Marian squeezed him back. "I will not, you have my word."
So instead she filled the carriage with pillows and cushions and blankets and still rode out nearly every day to Knighton Hall, leaving Bridget Thornton to mind Katherine. She often brought bread and beef and ale to those hard at work, hoping being well fed would convince them to work harder and faster, for Marian intended the new baby to be born there.
She got her wish. The family moved in to the new Hall in September, where Katherine took her very first hesitant steps. And Marian woke Robin up one morning in October, telling him she had a secret, and that he had better get Djaq in a hurry.
Robin sent a page after the physician and stayed by her side.
In all his life, he had never seen anyone braver or stronger than his wife struggling through labor pains. Djaq was a great comfort to him, but he suspected that Marian was beyond any definition of comfort. He tried to whisper soothing words into her ears, but she ignored them. Instead he wiped her brow and held her hand and tried to anchor her. Katherine was being watched by some woman in the village that Marian knew, and Bridget was being run ragged by Djaq, being sent for water and rags and a knife to cut the cord. But Marian was doing all the work, the rest of them were superfluous. And Robin was immensely proud, but also terrified for her life, and for the life of the child. He could not help it.
After an immeasurably amount of time, Robin had no way of knowing exactly how long, an infant's cries joined the cacophony of noise in the room, and Marian fell back, exhausted from her labors.
"It is a boy!" Djaq announced.
Marian laughed weakly. Robin settled her so she was more comfortable, and Djaq handed her their son. Robin could not move. Marian was alive! They had a son! His happiness was complete as Djaq and Bridget finished cleaning the room and left them to it. Bridget would go fetch Katherine, and then they would begin their life as a family.
"We forgot to tell them the name again," said Marian with a grin. After Katherine was born, the party had left before hearing her name. They did the same this time.
"We will tell Katherine."
"Who will not be able to say it."
"She will learn," Robin said, gently passing a hand over the faint baby hair.
"Welcome, Geoffrey," said Marian softly.
Robin kissed her cheek as a knock came to the door.
"Come in," Marian answered. The infant squirmed. She passed the baby to Robin as Bridget came in, leading Katherine. Marian smiled and called her daughter to her.
"Would you like to meet your brother?"
Katherine could only say a few words, but they had been talking of the coming baby for some time, getting her used to the idea. Robin was not entirely sure what the results would be, but showed her the infant.
"This is Geoffrey," he said solemnly.
Katherine looked as if she did not know what to make of her brother, and Marian could not keep from laughing.
"Give him a kiss," she encouraged her daughter.
Instead, Katherine burrowed into her mother's breast, so she did not have to look at the small, red wrinkled thing her father was holding.
"Aw, poor Geoffrey," said Robin, winking at where Katherine was hiding her eyes. "Katherine," he said softly. She turned to look at her father, and he softly kissed the baby on the forehead. Marian leaned down to do the same. Katherine watched closely, then, finally, she kissed the baby on the head too, then quickly hid her eyes again.
Robin and Marian laughed, the infant cried, and all was sweet chaos again.