"Who is Vaisey?" Meg asked, looked at Guy worriedly, as if that his mentioning of his former boss was a cruel and terrible thing, which it was.
Guy's eyebrows arched together. He clearly remembered stabbing him in the chest before throwing him off the parapet after they dueled with each other. Guy wanted to become Sheriff, so Prince John ordered him to kill Vaisey. Obviously, neither his becoming Sheriff nor Vaisey's demise worked out. Guy hated the man, for he took Guy under his wing after he found him in France all those years ago, corrupting his young and innocent mind and controlling his will. It would never go away, the scars and the brutality which he had grown accustomed to practice, Guy feared. Well, Meg thought otherwise. There must be some goodness in you yet, she said to him in the dungeons when he cleaned off a worm-filled piece of bread. She was smiling gracefully at him, like she was some kind of celestial angel. That lifted Guy's broken spirits a bit.
Guy wanted to spare Meg the information about Vaisey. She was ignorant about him, so why should he corrupt her innocent mind with the man's venom? Guy looked at Meg and saw curiosity in her eyes. She was so innocent; she knew absolutely nothing about the evil man. Her ignorance of him surprised Guy, because nearly everybody, even a child, at least heard about him.
So innocent and pure, Guy thought regarding Meg. "He was a bad man. You don't need to know about him. I thought I got rid of him, but here he is!" he spat. "Our last meeting did not end on good terms."
Meg was taken aback. "Oh, come on! I don't want to be ignorant about all this. How am I going to function in the world if I know nothing about badness? I won't commit them, and I surely don't approve of them, but shouldn't one know their enemy?"
As much as Guy wanted to deny it, he had to admit she was right. After all, this is basically her first time in the world. If she is so oblivious to everything around her, people would take advantage of her lack of knowledge and feed her head with terrible things. Knowledge of right and wrong was key.
"Like I said, he was the former Sheriff of Nottingham and the man I used to work with. He's bad news, but I won't keep you waiting. He oppressed the poor by taxing them heavily and punished them severely if they had no money to give him. A dirty man, and holds a low opinion on women."
"You said you used to work for him. Why?"
"I had nobody," Guy replied. Meg noticed that there was some emotion in that statement, like bitterness and sadness mingled together. Guy couldn't believe he said that. Those were the exact same words he told Marian when she asked the same thing. Now the memory of that woman and her blood on his hands appeared in his mind in a most haunting form.
Meg noticed the distress in Guy's face and at once felt sorry for him. Something terrible happened. Maybe it was due to the fire, or his father's death. Meg didn't want to push him into revealing his past. It was just not right.
She stopped Guy by touching his arm. Guy turned and faced her. Meg was rubbing his arm, like it had been strained and wounded and Meg wanted to relieve the pain by massaging it, so it could go away.
Guy had never felt this before. Some part of his anguish was disappearing. Some fire was burning up inside him, some affection, some attraction to the woman. He was sorely tempted to wrap his arms around her and kiss her, but he restrained himself. He told himself that he wouldn't love anybody after Marian. Besides, he delved so deep into darkness, all hope for redemption was lost in the Holy Land.
Meg continued gazing at Guy, massaging his arm harder but not painfully. Finally, Guy spoke up.
"I was lost and confused. I didn't know any better. I was roaming the wilderness like a vagabond when Vaisey adopted me. He taught me how to become a nobleman. He is the reason for the man that I am now. He was the father I never had. I thank him that he raised me from a beggar to a lord, but now, everything I worked so hard for is gone!"
"Why were you homeless?" Meg didn't want to push Guy any further, but she couldn't help asking that question.
"That fire. I accidentally caused it. It took my parents, and my sister and I, just young teenagers, were kicked out. We went to France, but we were dirt-poor and starving like wolves. Thornton came and offered to marry Isabella and provide for her. Not knowing his abusive nature, I gave her away to him. I thought she would have a better life. I thought I was providing for her."
Guy shook his head. Every day of his life since his parents' death, he blamed himself for it. He blamed himself for his and Isabella's suffering, that selling her to Thornton was because of his careless mistake with the fire. It still haunted him to this very day. Images of flames and people screaming at the top of their lungs as smoke filled their bodies tormented his sleep every night, along with other things.
At first Guy regretted telling Meg all this, for he never opened himself like this, not even to Marian. He was not the type to talk about his dreadful past. He was not the type to be so open about things. But his heart lightened up a bit when he told Meg. She seemed understanding; he didn't sense her judging him. In fact, a part of Guy was glad when he got this out of his system.
So this was the cause of his villainy, Meg thought. But she didn't consider him a villain, not now. She understood. Perhaps she judged him too harshly, because she didn't know the reasons behind his actions, the details about everything. From what she knew, he was indeed a broken man. This, and other things, caused and increased to his darkness.
She always knew that Guy had a heart; therefore he had feelings of his own, even if he was a bad person. His heart was black, but he had a heart nonetheless. Even the bad guys have mothers. The fact that two people created him, that someone gave birth to him, that he had a mother and a father, was incomprehensible. Everybody always thought he came from the pits of Hell, that he couldn't possibly have parents, because what would they think of him if they saw him now? They would be ashamed of him, surely, and perhaps disown him. But no one will ever know, since they are not alive.
"I won't question you any further, Guy," Meg said. The way she said his name, it sounded like she cared for him and perhaps formed an attachment to him. "If you want to tell me, then tell me when you're ready. I will not be forcing you into doing something that you don't want to do."
Something rare happened; Guy smiled. It wasn't an evil smirk or a condescending one. It was a smile of gratitude. "Thank you, Meg." The way he said her name sounded like he was growing more and more attached to her. He could not contain the emotion in his face as he continued: "You have been so kind to me, one of the few people who showed me compassion." He planned to tell her everything, because some kind of trust was forming between them. Guy could rely on her to tell her everything. Besides, Meg obviously wanted to know more and the details, but she did not say anything at the moment about it. "To thank you for this, I think it's time for another lesson. What do you want to do?"
"Uhh, start small, the basics. I want to know the alphabet by heart, so I can learn how to spell and write words and sentences."
Guy nodded. "But first we have to get away from here. Vaisey is here, and if he sees us…" His words trailed off. What would he do if Vaisey saw him and her? Guy had no weapon to defend Meg or himself.
Meg placed her hand over her eyes to take a glimpse of something in the distance. "I see…something resembling homes over there, and a lot of men carrying weapons."
Guy looked in her direction. Through the woods was a wide grassy field under the azure sky, that had some hints of orange and gold . There was a bunch of tents all scattered together, and soldiers were practicing their swordsmanship and archery. They practiced their walking in a straight line, and they did pushups and other forms of gymnastics.
"They're called tents, and instead of saying that they are carrying weapons, you can say that they are wielding them," Guy replied, remembering Meg's words about correcting her.
"What does wielding mean?" Meg glanced at Guy.
"It has the same meaning as carrying. It's another way of saying it, maybe fancier to some people."
"I find it quite fancy. Wielding," Meg repeated to herself, liking the way it sounds.
Guy didn't like being this close to the camp, where his third worst enemy (the first and second being Robin Hood and Isabella) was nearby.
"Going somewhere, Gisbourne?" Guy cursed to himself as he and Meg turned around to find a middle-aged, rather short man, dressed in a brown and grey leather suit. A sword hung on his leather belt. His grey hair was short, but he allowed his beard to grow bushy. "Missed me, Gizzy?" Vaisey asked, smirking before he chuckled.