Author's Note: Part One of the 'Between the Lines' series. This piece takes place after 1:1 of the BBC's production of Robin Hood where we see how Marian is effected after knowing that Robin has come home from the Holy Land.
Song for this piece: 'I Sold My Soul' - Kelsey Montanez
Episode 1 Backstory
I SOLD MY SOUL
Part One
The simple wooden door to Marian's bedchamber flew open with such force that the lady of Knighton Hall was startled where she sat at her vanity. The hairbrush she had been using to detangle her long chocolate curls clattered to the floor, the ivory backing saved only by the grace of the threadbare rug that served to take the chill from the evenings as autumn fell upon Nottingham once more. Her blue eyes were wide as she looked to the intruder but seeing only her maid, Penny, she relaxed and looked playfully peevish than anything more sinister.
"And what do you mean by bursting in here, Penny?" she asked the younger girl in a slightly amused tone. Marian had always been a girl beyond her years both in sense and understanding; something which her father insisted was a failing at times because it caused her to second guess her elders and speak when women ought to have remained silent. Penny took no notice of the subtle censure and puffed comically from her gallop in from the village. Marian waited with her eyebrows barely raised.
"My lady!" gasped the flustered young girl. "The village's afire with gossip! They're sayin' that the Earl of Huntingdon has returned from the war!"
Marian, who had already seen the runaway rogue since his return managed to look expressly nonplussed.
"Is that all?" she asked her servant, her tone slightly incredulous as if to suggest that she cared nothing for this monumental news. "Good heavens, Penny! I had at least expected to hear that the pigs had gotten into the garden!"
Penny, who had clearly been expecting a more exuberant answer from her mistress appeared decidedly crestfallen. "You already knew!" she accused.
"No indeed," Marian lied. "Why should I know? And what's more," she stooped to pick up her brush and returned to untangling her unruly hair, "Why should I care?"
Frowning, Penny stepped forward to take the brush from her lady's hand and usurp the task. She was evidently concerned. Everyone knew that the lady Marian had been betrothed to Robin of Locksley and that it was his going to fight in the Holy War that had broken their pledge of matrimony, therefore it was similarly assumed by the lesser citizens of Nottingham that his return might mean a renewal of those affections and promises which had seemed such a very good idea to everyone five years prior. Indeed Robin had returned, Marian remained unmarried and everything should have gone back to the way it would have been if not for a boy's fancy for adventure and a girl's stubborn refusal to let him go on good terms. Her mistress' obvious indifference to this exceptional news, however, gave penny something else to think about.
"My Lady!" yelped the maid before she remembered herself. She lowered her voice slightly and pursed her lips before continuing. "Surely he must still love you! Five years away in a horrid, foreign place with none of the comforts of 'ome and no resolve but his own to keep him warm at night!" Penny's tone grew more fanciful and a sly smile tugged at one corner of her mouth as she set aside the brush and began to braid Marian's hair. "They say he's more handsome than ever! Rugged-like," teased the maid, delivering a knowing glance into the mirror which reflected the pair in order to see if her mistress showed any signs of yielding to the gossip.
Marian remained resolute, and the artic gaze that she delivered through the mirror was mercifully softened in the refraction lest it have chilled the poor maid more than was her due. Penny wisely decided to drop the subject, busying herself with an extremely complicated braid before she deemed it safe to speak again.
"I wonder if there will be an Autumn ball," she mused. "I often wonder that they do not give more feasts at the Castle. Lord Edward certainly was never wanting for entertainment."
"The new Sheriff does not wish his hard earned tax money spent in such a frivolous manner I daresay," Marian replied absently, her mind elsewhere.
Robin certainly had looked handsome enough when he had come to the house begging for an audience with her father. She had expertly pulled the bow on him before she had even recognized him; a face she had thought she would have known forever in a crowd of thousands had taken her completely by surprise. He had changed, that much was evident. His voice was deeper, more manly, and the scruff that feathered his face was thicker and more mature than when they had parted ways those many moons ago. His eyes had been the thing she'd recognized, those brilliant blue eyes that had always managed to see straight to the heart of a problem, right into the thick of a lie and directly to the core of her soul…
"My lady?"
"Mmm?"
Penny looked amused, now, as though she knew the punch-line for the joke Marian was struggling to get.
"Nevermind."
The maid continued to braid, and the mistress continued to stare at her reflection in the mirror, wondering if robin had been able to see through her mask the day before as easily as Penny did now.
