Part 3
Marian shivered and it had nothing to do with the temperature and chill of the night. They were camping again as they headed north. They each sat on opposite sides of the small fire which burned brightly, a half eaten and well cooked rabbit still hanging over the fire, soon to be burnt to a cinder. She looked into the flames and tried to summon up an image of Robin, but all she could imagine was Nottingham being razed to the ground and the screams of the people they left behind to perish. Part of her wished now she had remained and died, but the other part wanted to live, for Robin. There was no telling whether he survived either; she had no way of knowing, except in her heart, he still remained alive.
Gisborne touched her arm and she flinched. "It's alright, I won't take you here. I promised you that last night that when we consummate the marriage it will be in a bed, not on the forest floor or in some dirty cramped Inn."
"Thank you," she told him, still not welcoming his touch and he drew his hand away.
"You should get some sleep, we will be riding all day tomorrow," he added almost as an after thought.
"Where are we going?" she asked tiredly.
"Durham. I need to speak to the Earl."
"About what?" she asked feigning innocence.
He gave her a pointed look across the fire and she showed no knowledge of the Pact in her expression, but he knew better. He was sure she knew something. What exactly, he was not quite sure and perhaps, Hood had kidnapped her in the first place because she was useful to him. Not that mattered now. Marian was his. He had won his prize and whatever occurred she would always be his, never Hood's. Guy was looking forward to the day he could laugh in Robin's face with his wife upon his arm and jeer at everything the outlaw stood for and believed in.
He eventually replied and said. "Nothing to concern yourself with."
"Then why don't I stay here….or at Locksley?" she asked him, to gently cajole information.
"Because Hood might visit you there. He might hurt you. It was not so long ago he held you hostage in a tree, or have you forgotten so readily? Do you feel for him?" he asked his eyes dark, and boring into her, like a knife cutting out her heart.
She swallowed at the tone of his reply and his question and shut her eyes in a brief plea that Robin would forgive her, her next words. "I have committed my life to you."
"Yes," he said with an underling passion. "You have, there is no turning back now Marian."
She was grateful he did not attempt to touch her again and he settled down for the night, leaving her sitting and staring into the flames.
Will's voice echoed through her mind '…Wherever you go. Robin will move heaven and earth and he will find you, just stay alive.'
She wondered if he would find her, find her before it was too late. Leaving Gisborne didn't seem an option right now, not when she didn't know if any of the outlaws had survived. And what could she say in her defence if Guy caught up with her to bring her back.
It was as if he had been reading her thoughts, even though he lay there with his eyes closed for he said in a low tone which broke no argument. "Marian if you leave me, if you run away and flee, I will find you and you will not like me when I do. You stay with me or die."
Marian shuddered and pulled her cloak more tightly about her frame. Making sure Guy was not looking reached down the front of her dress and took out the ring; Robin's ring. She slipped off her wedding ring from Guy and in its place secured the engagement ring from Robin, she twirled it round her finger several times before slipping it off and into its hiding place once more, replacing it with the ring from Guy. She had a fragment of hope but now that was dying like the fire before her and she wondered if she would ever be free of Sir Guy of Gisborne again.
0o0
Some yards away through the trees the man watched them closely and wanted to warm himself too by a fire. But he was too near, he had to stay hidden, he could not risk being caught. He sat and yearned as he ate berries of the forest which did not calm his aching hunger for the remainder of the rabbit Sir Guy had left roasting on the fire.
His horse made a small noise but it went unnoticed by the two he was watching. He reasoned Gisborne was sleeping now. Marian clearly wasn't, obviously tormented about what she had done. What he now felt he had forced her to do. Had he forced her? Had Will Scarlett forced Marian to marry Guy? He used to think that no one forced Marian to do something she did not want to, but Guy had forced her before to consider marrying him.
There was consolation, the whole thing wasn't as cut and dried as Guy liked to believe it was. Which was why, Will needed to get Marian away from Gisborne, before anything else occurred.
He thought back to Robin's last words to him. 'But whatever happens you need to look after Marian….Will I am relying on you, she has to live even if every one else dies.'
Well she was certainly alive, he had kept his word there, but one thing Will knew was that Marian was beginning to die inside and it was down to him to prevent it and get her back to Robin where she belonged.