THE FIELD
When Isabella arrived at the massive camp Vaisey's army had set up she immediately was overtaken by the size of the trebuchets.
They towered above everyone and everything, and if you stood in the right place they seemed to block out the sun.
Vaisey was sat just outside the largest tent in the field, one that as filed with his necessities. These contained a bunk, map, and table with large maps of the forest on it.
Her brother was stood close by, clad in black as always, glaring at the scene around him.
She dismounted her horse and handed to reigns to a nearby guard.
She approached them somewhat curiously, and almost apprehensively.
Her brother lifted cold eyes to look at her.
They displayed no warmth, even towards her, his sister…
Vaisey was reclining beside the table, eating from a large bowl of cherries.
"Oh look, if it isn't lady Gizzy herself…" He cast his eyes on her, "I am waiting, um, for you to apologise, did you really think I would leave you completely alone with no one to keep an eye on you?"
Her eyes flittered from where she had her head bowed to see Blamire stood with some guards a few metres away in the densely packed camp, giving orders.
"No my lord." She said with respect to Vaisey, "I did not think you trusted me."
"I do not trust anyone." Vaisey spat as he ate more cherries, "and no one trusts me…"
There was silence in the tent, for none of them spoke.
It was simply filled with the sound of the hundreds of guards around them, and the towering trebuchets, which could be heard almost silently creaking in the wind.
Isabella felt small next to them.
She realised that Vaisey was perhaps still waiting for her to apologise for her behaviour.
"Forgive me, my lord, for the way I acted when you were away." She dipped her head.
"Yes." Vaisey sighed shortly, "Your incompetence of dealing with my peasants means that half of the men are now in the forest with hood… and I fear not many of them will see their homes again…"
If Isabella did not know Vaisey, she may have been fooled by his sarcastic charade that he genuinely felt bad for this.
But his words made her eyes narrow.
"My lord?"
"As a black knight your brother has managed to gain me quite a few hundred men at my disposal… despite his obvious stupidity at times…" Vaisey chuckled and Guy's eyes darkened.
"And with these men," Vaisey continued, "I am going to…"
"OUTLAWS!"
Vaisey stood bolt upright at the shout of Blamire and some guards outside.
He and Guisborne raced from the tent to stand in the sun, looking at the tree line that was the forest.
There were two figures, on a white horse and brown one, riding towards them.
There were only two, and Vaisey and Guy recognised them immediately.
"Hood." Vaisey's eyes danced in sick delight.
"Marian." Guy sneered.
"Prepare to shoot!" Blamire's voice thundered.
Several archers drew their bows on his command, but Vaisey held one hand up.
"Wait."
Blamire did as he obliged and held his hand up to stop the archers who were aiming at Robin and Marian.
"Why are they not riding any further?" Vaisey looked to Guy, "mm? And why are there only two of them."
Guy straightened but said nothing as Vaisey laughed.
"A meeting in the middle, a good distance from either army," He scoffed at the thought of Hoods men, "I like it, this is god, this is good…"
He clinked his fingers at a guard.
"My horse, and Guisborne's, we have meeting to attend."
The horses were brought over, and Isabella watched as Vaisey put on his leather gloves.
"Oh and you." He barked at her ad flicked his fingers at another guard.
"Take Lady Gizzy here to her tent and see that she stays there." He turned away just as Isabella cried out in protest.
"My lord!"
She was dragged past Blamire towards her tent by two guards, who did not look her way twice.
Vaisey and Guy mounted their horses, and set off at a steady gallop towards where Robin and Marian waited.
Guy stared at her the entire time they rode towards them.
She sat erect in her saddle, holding the same pride and stance that a noblewoman should have.
She was everything she ever had been, but now she was his.
Tainted and ruined, when she should have been his… lady Guisborne, in his bed at Locksley, not some bunk in the forest…
Could she not she what she had become?
A common woman, devoted to him, an outlaw, his whore…
It left a bitter sensation in Guisborne's chest, one that could had mistakenly be thought of as jealousy as what they had.
Love…
But Guy did not need love.
He knew it was possession, possession and revenge that drove him towards her and her husband still.
He would break her, and then he would let her have her release.
When she had nothing else to give, then she would be his.
Over her and her husband, it would be his final victory.
But Marian did not even look his way as they rode up.
All she had once cared for Guy, all she had once felt because she thought that it was the sheriffs evil that had made him bad… all of that had gone.
There may have still been goodness in him, but Marian could not see it now.
And she knew that it would never be shown towards her again.
If he would not release it, if he could not be the better man, then it would destroy him.
She had done all she could for him, and she had the scars to show how he had repaid her…
She sat beside Robin, her husband and rightful lord…
And she would follow him anywhere.
Guisborne had made his own bed, now he had to lie in it.
She looked to Vaisey, who was grinning, his eyes dark and cold, light or love in any corner of them.
Part of her was sure; she knew where this battle was going.
A dark sense of doubt was in the pit of her stomach.
She tried to ignore it.
Part of her brain was certain she knew where this was leading…
She glanced to Robin who was glaring forwards at Vaisey and Guisborne who stopped their horses a few metres from theirs.
Her stomach rolled.
