Izzi Creo

"Shattered"

When Marian entered the stables in Nottingham castle with Allan it was to find two stable workers stood in aggressive stances holding thick, leather whips and swinging them at a horse who was rearing back on its hind legs and kicking out at them, the main stable hand went to lash the whip against the horse but was forced to stop when Marian furiously grabbed hold of the whip as it passed her. Ignoring the pain in her hand and the warm wetness of blood, Marian tugged the whip hard so the stable hand stumbled back until he sat on the dirty hay strewn floor and she held the leather crop.

"What do you honestly think you are doing to this horse?" She shouted at them terrifyingly, horses were her biggest passion along with helping the poor and when she saw a horse being abused like the populace of Nottingham were, she knew she had to help.

"'E's a menace M'Lady," the stable hand's helper was bowed low and only raised his head slightly to reply meekly. "Disobedient and aggressive, it's our job to train 'im to be good. 'Orses like this 'ave the devil within 'em, M'Lady, so we strike the devil out."

"What rubbish," she scolded, disgusted. "Go, leave these stables and do not return whilst I am here, d'you understand me?"

"Now see 'ere, this 'ere is my stables." The stable hand argued as he stood, rubbing his rear end from where he'd been thrown down.

"Now!" she shouted before the two stable hands ran out, mumbling curses and insults about women with power.

Allan grinned at her once they were gone; "Remind me to never cross you."

"Why's that?" She asked, breathing deeply to calm herself down.

"'Cause you're so bloody formidable!" He laughed, he motioned to her hand. "And fearless, how's your hand."

She shrugged; "It'll be fine."

Rather than waiting for Allan to argue about her injury, Marian dropped the offending crop to the floor and slowly approached the horse that was stamping the floor nervously and backing away. Marian held her hands up in front of her to show friendship as she approached slowly, as the horse reared on to its hind legs she quickly grabbed the reins in her injured hand and pulled the horse down so she could press her palm gently on its muscular neck and stroke the silky black coat as she whispered soothing into its ear.

Surprised and impressed, Allan watched as the horse calmed down as Marian soothed it, he was about to praise her when the light vanished and a large, dark figure stood in the doorway. Alan stumbled towards the shuttered windows and pushed them open to let the light stream in, showing Guy in the doorway looking furious.

"Why are the stable hands complaining to me about being thrown out of their own stables?" He demanded. "On whose authority was it for them to leave?"

"Mine." Marian snapped angrily as she spun around to face him.

"Oh really?" Guy asked, folding his arms across his chest and clearly still annoyed from their earlier encounter.

Marian found all thoughts of apologising to him for the earlier disrespect Allan had pointed out to her slip from her mind as she narrowed her eyes on him. "Yes, and whilst talking about 'authority', who told those foul men to beat this steed? I'm presuming they were going to kill him the amount of force they had."

"I did." Guy said, his angry expression faltering slightly. "But only because that horse was suppose to be the one taking the Sherriff to London but this morning threw him off and injured him so he took the carriage instead, costing him more money as he had to pay for footmen. The Sherriff said he never wanted to see that 'disobedient creature' again so I was following orders, orders which, one again, you've come in the way of."

Marian flinched, stung by his words before carrying quietly. "I suppose this horse and I have much in common then. Good day Sir Guy, if you don't mind I am going to attend to this horse myself."

Guy sighed and looked at Allan, acknowledging him for the first time as he jerked his head towards the door motioning for Allan to leave, which he did only too happily. Guy breathed deeply; "I did not mean that."

"It sounded like you meant it." Marian bit.

"I ..." he hesitated before swallowing his proud for just this once. "I apologise."

Marian looked around with a delicate eyebrow raised. "Pardon?"

Guy coughed, realising she was going to make this easy for him. "I said I apologise for my words and also for my actions."

"I accept your apology." She told him as she turned back to the horse and stroked its inky black muzzle with the backs of her fingers, a smile gracing her lips.

"You're injured," he suddenly announced in surprise.

Marian looked down at her other hand, the blood was drying in large clumps whilst the wound was still bleeding freely.

"Come on," Guy took her arm and steered her around the stables until she was sat on a small, wooden stool. She watched him as he walked around the stable and found a pail of water as well as a grimy rag which he dipped in the cool water before bringing it to her hand. Marian wrinkled her nose briefly in distaste before realising as Guy had swallowed his pride earlier, it was her turn now. Sighing slightly as he knelt on the ground before her, she held her hand out and allowed him to tend to her wound. His attempt to be gentle was in vain for it made him clumsy as he scrubbed at the drying blood and compared to her own small hand, his oversized rough one often grazed over the wound causing Marian to suppress a wince.

Marian realised he'd never had to act with gentleness before, he was usually so forward and he used his power and strength to his advantage, she realised that Guy must have thought care and gentleness was a weakness. Sighing, she wondered what kind of man he'd been like before the Sherriff had entered his life, she also wondered what kind of man he would have been like now had there been no Sherriff. But alas, there was and Guy was, without a doubt, comfortably under his control.

Once he'd finished washing the wound, Guy didn't hesitate as he unclasped his leather jacket before pulling his grey woollen tunic taut and ripping a strip off of the bottom. Marian averted her eyes as the muscles of his abdomen came into sight, despite seeing his entire chest recently, she still felt a flush rise from her neck and spread across her cheeks. When she peered up through her eyelashes it was to find Guy smirking at her reactions.

"Men," she muttered and his smirk grew into an amused grin.

He securely wrapped the material around her wound before tightly tying it in place, he frowned lightly as he finished; "You haven't said yet, how did you do this?"

"Oh, I grabbed the whip as the stable hand went to lash the horse." She admitted.

Guy rolled his eyes, still smiling; "An incredibly smart move."

Marian shrugged. "If I had to choose between a horse being hurt and I, I would choose myself every time."

"You really do like horses, don't you?" Guy asked.

"Yes." She smiled at the thought of them.

"Why is that?" Guy asked and when Marian looked at him she could see genuine interest on his face.

"When I'm riding a fast horse it's like there's nothing else in the world to keep me down, I suppose it's because they offer me freedom."

"Freedom means a lot to you doesn't it?" Guy asked rhetorically. "Is that why you haven't married yet?"

Marian looked away, talking about marriage was always a tense subject, especially as everyone her age had been married for many years by now and most had at least one child. "I'll admit I'm not overjoyed at the thought of marriage. I don't want to be locked in a cage like a bird, that's not me. But I doubt I'll get a choice in who I marry, it'll probably be someone I do not love and who does not really love me so I'm trapped."

Marian bit her bottom lip and looked at her lap, believing she'd divulged too much of her private thoughts. "I'm sorry, I've said too much."

"No, it's fine. Your views ... they're quite strong ... I find, well, they fascinate me." It wasn't a lie; Guy had found himself watching her lips as she spoke about her fears of marriage. He wondered whether the fears stemmed from when Robin, the former master of Locksley, left her a few years ago to fight for King Richard in the Crusades before being killed but thought better than to ask her and remind her of her former betrothed, why invite her feelings for Robin back when it appeared to be going so well for him?

Marian, who had also been lost in her thoughts, realised that what she was staring absentmindedly at was the entangle of their hands which were still knotted together from where Guy had attended her small wound. She pulled her hand away and Guy immediately missed the contact, standing and stepping away from their rather close contact she began making excuses for why her body suddenly wanted to leave. "Sorry, I best be going, I was only planning on spending time with the horses for a short while before going to see my father for I haven't seen him today yet. Thank you for your help."

"You're –" At the speed she was moving Marian was already gone before Guy had finished his sentence, yet he still carried on quietly. "Welcome."

Guy looked at his hand, a hand that had dealt murderous blows to many people whose faces still haunted him now, yet Marian's touch had made his feel human for the brief time she'd been holding it. Now she was gone, her touch with her, the faces seemed to be edging closer and closer towards him ready to pull him back into his nightmarish life and the anguish made him want to find his leather gloves and put them back on just so he didn't have to look at his offending hands. Whenever he was given the opportunity to touch a part of Marian's innocent skin, he made the conscious effort to always take his glove off in the hope her innocence and purity would literally rub off on him, he knew that it would take many touches to rub off on him though.

With a sigh, he walked through the stables and passed the steed which was now resting on the ground and watching him with beady, cautious eyes.

'Imagine', Guy thought. 'Even a horse can see how much of a black soul I have.'


I apologse for the long wait, each time I tried to upload the document an error message came up preventing me from doing so
But hopefully the happy Guy/Marian moment here will make up for it :)