Disclaimer: Please bear in mind I know nothing about history. Although, from the looks of it, the writers of the series don't either, so I can't be blamed too much.
Note: This fic will follow the events of the series loosely, but a lot of the situations will be changed slightly to fit the new storyline, and some events may be taken out altogether.
Continuation
Chapter One
"Master, do you ever get the feeling that you're being watched?"
Much looked around the forest that surrounded them on all sides, peering into the treetops to try and source any unwelcome company.
"Not now Much," said Robin, his concentration fully focussed on the compass and map he held before him. "Let me get this sorted out. You managed to navigate us round in circles outside Leicester. I'm amazed we found Sherwood at all."
"I was only trying to help," sniffed Much. "Wherever we are, can we start moving again soon please? I'm getting a very bad feeling about this place."
"It's only a forest, Much." Robin looked up from the map and fixed his manservant with a look of incredulity. "There isn't anything in a forest to harm you. The trees don't bite."
"I wasn't thinking of the trees," muttered Much under his breath. "I was thinking of the people who may be lurking in the trees."
"Like who?" said Robin.
"Like… I don't know!" Much looked around the treetops in exasperation and took a step back in shock when something moving caught his eye. "Like that woman up there!"
Robin looked up to where Much was pointing. A young woman was balanced precariously in a treetop, watching them.
"Hello," called Robin cheerfully. "What are you doing up there then?"
"Master!" hissed Much. "What if she's a… some sort of a… what if she's like those ruffians we had the misfortune to bump into in Berkshire?"
Robin turned his head on one side and regarded the perched woman with scrutiny.
"She doesn't look like a ruffian."
Suddenly the sound of many heavy footsteps filled the air, and snatches of incoherent shouting could be heard through the trees.
"Oh no!" said the woman in the tree. "Please don't let them find me!" she wailed down to Much and Robin.
"Whose 'they'?" asked Much, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"The Sheriff's guards. They caught me stealing bread from the castle kitchens." She cast a glance over her shoulder. "They're coming!"
"Quick!" Robin pulled Much out of the path and under the cover of some gorse bushes. The guards came into view and stopped in the clearing, looking around the trees for some sign of the person they pursued. They were on the verge of moving on when a bird crowed in one of the trees and a guard looked up in reaction to the sound.
"There!" he yelled, pointing to the woman in the highest branches.
The leader of the pack came forward and leered up into the tree.
"It seems we've got you right where we want you little miss. Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Easy way, you come down out of that tree and come with us like a good girl. Hard way…"
The guards raised their bows and aimed them at the tree.
"Put it this way," said the leader. "If you come down, all you lose is a hand. Stay up there, and you lose your life. It's your choice. Easy way, or hard way."
"How about neither?"
Robin jumped up and over the bushes, Much in hot pursuit, firing off four arrows in quick succession to knock the bows from the guards' hands. Unperturbed, they drew blades and advanced towards the ambushers, but Robin and Much were too quick. A second volley of arrows had the weapons on the floor.
"I think it's time you went back to where you came from," said Robin, bow restrung and at eye level. Much waved his sword to add menace to the threat, but the guards were already retreating.
"A job well done, I feel," said Much, putting his sword away once they were sure there was to be no late counterattack. The woman was climbing down from the tree by this time, her eyes still wide in awe at what she had just seen.
"Thank you so much," she said as Much handed her onto the floor from the last branch.
"Don't mention it. Why were you stealing bread anyway?" Robin asked, slinging his bow back over his shoulder.
"You've got to feed your family, haven't you? My mother's on her own trying to provide for me and my brother and sister, and what we make barely covers the rent and taxes." She shook her head. "The taxes here are unbelievable. The shire's in trouble, you can see it in people's faces. Death and taxes."
"If you are having trouble making ends meet you should speak to the Sheriff," said Robin. "He is usually lenient to those in dire need."
"Are you joking? The Sheriff? Lenient? Have you even met the Sheriff of Nottingham?" she asked on seeing Robin's puzzled face, plainly expecting an answer in the negative.
"Yes, I have as a matter of fact," said Robin, slightly annoyed that this anonymous girl should claim to know his prospective father-in-law better than he did. "I was once betrothed to his daughter."
It was the woman's turn to look puzzled.
"The Sheriff doesn't have a daughter. He has no family, save a sister down South."
"Yes he does," said Robin, perplexed. "Lady Marian of Knighton, daughter of Sir Edward…"
"Oh!" The woman smiled in sudden understanding. "You're talking about the old Sheriff!"
"Pardon?"
"The old Sheriff! Where've you been for the last six years, another country?"
"You could say that," said Much dryly.
"Oh, it doesn't matter. We got a new Sheriff six years ago. The old one was ailing, everyone could see that." She paused sadly. "He died not long after."
There was silence for a moment as Robin digested her words. To the speaker, they were insignificant, mere facts, tragic but unavoidable. He barely heard the woman give them her thanks again and make off in the opposite direction, back towards the outlying villages; his head was spinning with the weight of the simple words that he had just heard, a weight that Much presently spoke aloud.
"Robin, if Marian's father is no longer Sheriff, what will have happened to her and Knighton Hall?"
Robin paused and thought, long and hard.
"Once her father died his property would be returned to the Crown. The new Sheriff will have either have razed it to use the land or will have passed it on to a new master." He looked at the retreating back of the woman they had rescued and called to her.
"Wait! If Edward is no longer Sheriff, what happened to Knighton?"
The woman stopped and turned back.
"The new Sheriff turned it into a barrack town. The guards live and train in the house. The villagers pay tax directly to the Sheriff," she called before continuing on her way.
"Well, that solves one mystery."
"Yes, yes," said Much impatiently. "I wasn't quite so worried about what had happened to her home, I was more concerned with what had happened to Marian herself."
"She had no other family, no aunts, so she would have come under the Crown's protection."
"The new Sheriff, you mean."
"Yes."
Much didn't say anything in reply to that, his brow furrowed deep in thought as they made their way towards the edge of the forest and Locksley. From what little he had heard of the new Sheriff, he didn't think that he would provide Marian with adequate protection. In fact, he thought to himself darkly, she was more likely to need protection from him.
"There we are," said Robin, breaking Much's thought pattern. "Locksley Manor. Home at last."
They stood together at the edge of the trees for a while, drinking in the sight of the village that they had missed for the past six years before moving forward down the main road with purpose. The villagers didn't look up from their daily lives as they passed along the houses. No one gave any inclination of realising that their Lord had finally returned after over half a decade's absence. They looked like the woman had described. Worn down, dejected. Finally they reached the manor, but the guards crossed their pikes in front of them as they neared the door.
"We can't let you past," came a grim voice from under a helmet.
"Oh, I think you can," said Robin with a smirk. He made to go through but the guards stopped him once more.
"Who are you?"
"I am Robin of Locksley, Earl of Huntingdon and Lord of this Manor, and this is my manservant, Much."
"What's this? What's going on?"
Robin looked over his shoulder to see a figure in black making his way towards them. He stopped next to the guards and cast pale, scrutinous eyes over the home-comers.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"He says he's Robin of Locksley," said the helmet – Robin couldn't see his face – sounding completely unconvinced.
"I could ask you the same question," said Robin of the dark stranger. "Who are you, and what are you doing with my house?"
"I am Sir Guy of Gisborne, and I am living in your house."
"Not any more you're not," said Much vehemently, puffing out his chest as he prepared to defend his master's territory to the bitter end. "My master has returned to claim what is rightfully his, so you can… you can… jigger off!"
Gisborne merely raised an eyebrow and called into the house.
"Thornton!"
The old head servant appeared as quickly as his age would allow.
"Yes Sir?"
"Do you know these people?" Gisborne asked, waving towards Robin and Much with an air of boredom. Thornton squinted, then his face broke into a smile.
"Master Robin! And young Much! My, you've changed in your travels."
"And you haven't changed a bit Thornton." Robin shook the old man's hand by way of greeting. "How are you?"
As Thornton and Robin settled into deep discussion, Much smiled smugly at Gisborne. He received a dark glower in return, and watched with a sense of self-satisfaction as the other man stormed away in a sweep of black leather.
"Maybe we should go inside?" suggested Thornton. "I believe Ella happens to be making the honey cake you are so partial to, Much."
They entered the house and Much immediately headed towards the kitchen, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
"Master Robin! You're back!" George, Locksley Manor's stable-hand, came into the house at a run. He had grown at least a foot taller since Robin had last seen him. He had just been a lad then, and Robin almost struggled to recognise the tall, well-built man that now stood before him, grinning from ear to ear.
"Yes George, indeed I am." He pulled him into a warm hug of friendship. "How are you? How have you and your family been keeping?"
Thornton smiled in his fatherly way, and left them alone, murmuring something about rescuing some of the honey cake from Much.
"We're fine. Times are hard at the moment but we're coping. Our Martha's got herself wed to the smithy over in Clun. They've got two young 'uns already, and another on the way."
Just then another voice entered the room, harsh and authoritative.
"George, get the horses ready. We have to leave for the castle before sunset." Gisborne came into the house and looked at the stable-hand impatiently. George looked nervously from one man to the other, wondering if it was decorous to obey the orders of his new master when the old one was in the middle of a conversation with him. He caught Robin's eye and the older man nodded his assent. George left the building in a hurry, glad to be away from the awkwardness of the situation. Gisborne turned to Robin.
"If I had known you were coming we would have vacated the house earlier," he said. Robin picked up on the unspoken challenge behind the words.
"Well, I do like to keep people on their toes," he joked lightly. Gisborne did not laugh.
"We'll be gone before nightfall. The Council of Nobles meets in Nottingham Castle tomorrow morning. Perhaps you would like to announce your return then."
Robin nodded distantly. He had never enjoyed the Council of Nobles much, even with the old Sheriff, and he was not particularly looking forward to meeting the new one. Something in Gisborne's words struck him, and he cocked his head on one side whilst he tried to work out what it was.
We'll be gone before nightfall… We...
Did Gisborne have a wife, then? Robin looked him up and down. He didn't seem to be the familial type. Before he could ask, the answer came as footfalls on the stairs and a woman's clear voice calling through the house.
"Guy, why is George harnessing the horses? Are we going somewhere?"
"We have to leave the house," Gisborne replied. "Its rightful owner has returned to claim it."
"What?" The speaker stopped mid-question as she descended the steps, pausing before she reached the bottom when she saw who stood there. Robin looked up at Gisborne's wife, taking a step back on seeing her face.
Marian of Knighton, his former betrothed.
"Locksley, this is my wife Marian, Lady Gisborne, although I believe you already know each other."
Robin didn't acknowledge the bitterness in the words as he stood, staring in disbelief at the maiden whose hand in marriage he had left behind six long years before.
"Robin?" she said, evidently feeling a similar incredulity. "You're back?"
Note 2: "Jigger off" is officially the best interjection ever. After watching 'Sisterhood' twice in one night (god bless the lord of dvd's), I simply HAD to include that line.
And the young woman they rescued from the tree, who probably has no further part in this tale? Well, her name's Kate… *grins*
Anyhow…
I think a review at this stage would be best, don't you? *Hint.*