Much was so pleased to see Robin return, at first he didn't even notice the small boy his master and Marian had brought along with them. When he did notice, his eyes grew wider than ever, and he asked, "Who's this?"
Djaq asked no questions when Marian led the boy to her.
"Can you apply your magical salve to his wounds?" Marian requested of her. "It does wonders to soothe away pain."
"Of course," Djaq agreed, skillfully taking a mental check of the cuts and bruises on the child's face, arms, and legs, and guessing more of the same must be hidden under his rags. "I will get it at once. But first, we must wash his wounds in clear water."
Kate looked up from the arrows she was fletching and whined, "What's he doing here?"
"You know him?" Robin asked, surprised.
"That's Bat," she said.
At the mention of his name, Bat's gaze shot toward Kate, but he did not appear to recognize her.
"Who's Bat?" Will wanted to know. Robin was listening intently as well.
"You know him," Kate insisted. "He's Lydia's son."
Will looked embarrassed, and said, "Oh, that Bat. I thought he was dead."
"So did everyone in Locksley. But that's him alright. Missing tongue and all."
"Wait a minute," Robin said. "Lydia, from my village? I didn't know she had married."
"She didn't," Kate explained, while Will looked away. "Bat's her shame."
Suddenly, Kate found herself staring into Marian's face. "Don't you ever call him that," Marian warned her.
Kate glared back at Marian and thrust out her chin. "Why not?" she challenged. "It's what everyone calls him."
"Not any longer," Robin told her firmly, stepping between the two women. "He's to be treated with the utmost kindness, until I can find out where he needs to live and deliver him there."
"You mean we're gonna keep him here with us?" Allan asked incredulously. "Him? Bat the Rat?"
Robin's head was spinning. "What?" he asked. "Don't tell me you know him, too."
"Yeah, I know him. He used to empty chamber pots at the castle. Clean privys and such. Castle rat. You oughta recognize him, Marian."
She shook her head. The "castle rats," children so called because they performed the dirtiest jobs at the castle, were ordered to keep out of sight of the nobility, and Bat had successfully evaded the Lady Marian's vision to save himself a beating from his cruel master.
"Will one of you please tell us all you know about him?" Marian asked impatiently, returning to the boy and holding him protectively on her lap.
"I will," Will volunteered, saving everyone's ears from Kate's whiney voice.
All eyes focused on Will as he began his story.
"Surely you remember Lydia, Robin," Will said, and Robin thoughtfully nodded his head, remembering the pretty young serf who had been almost painfully serious and shy. "Well, not long after Gisbourne first took over Locksley, it became clear she was with child."
"Most say Gisbourne's the father, but nobody knows for sure," Kate added. "Lydia never told. Not even when she lay dying would she say."
Everyone looked at Bat, growing uncomfortable at his strong resemblance to Sir Guy of Gisbourne.
Marian tried to distract the child from listening to the conversation, while keeping her own ears tuned to it. The shock of him likely being Guy's son disturbed her. "Poor child," she kept thinking. "Poor motherless child." She smiled sweetly at him.
"How did Lydia die?" Robin asked, pitching his voice low so the child wouldn't hear and be distressed by the question.
Will sighed painfully. "She starved to death, just before you returned." Recalling his own mother's death, he bitterly added, "She wasn't the only one who gave most of her meager food to her son."
Robin appeared so grieved, Much rushed to his side and said, "Master! It can't be helped. Nobody's starved since we've come home. You've seen to that."
"We are Robin Hood!" Little John bellowed, trying to boost Robin's spirits.
Robin nodded his head, more determined than ever to carry on his good works. "And who took care of the lad, after his mother died?"
"I couldn't say," Will continued. "I was outlawed right after that."
Kate took over telling the story. "He just disappeared, right after the sheriff had his tongue cut out. We never knew what became of him."
"Why did that monster cut out his tongue?" Robin asked. "He wasn't one of those who suffered when the sheriff was searching for me, I hope."
"Naw," Kate told him. "The sheriff did it the next day, after you escaped, all so he could test Gisborne's loyalty. He was so angry at you for mocking him and getting away, he just had to do something. And he'd had fun the day before, cutting out tongues in Locksley, he thought he'd do it again."
"I thought I stopped that brutality," Robin seethed. "If I'd only known..."
"The sheriff didn't think you meant you'd get back for harming him," Kate said, pointing at Bat, "since he's only a child of shame."
"Kate," Robin warned, sick at heart from what he'd just learned, "you're never to call him that again, understand?"
"Do you mean to say," Djaq interrupted, "that Gisbourne stood by and watched the sheriff cut out his own child's tongue?"
"Ah, he never owned up to bein' the father, but we all knew he was," Kate explained. "Even the sheriff knew. That's why he made it a test of Gisbourne's loyalty."
"I hate the sheriff," Will fumed. "I hate Gisbourne, too."
Robin, still deeply disturbed by the boy's history, turned to Allan. "And you recognize him from the castle?"
"Yeah," Allan said coolly. "Like I said before, he was a castle rat, weren't you, Bat? Remember me? I used to bring you scraps from the kitchens. Of course, I dressed nicer in those days."
Djaq smiled at Allan, pleased to learn he had continued to do Robin's work, even while working for their enemies.
"I wonder if bringing him to work in the castle was Gisbourne's sick way of showing kindness," Much wondered. "He is revolting!"
"Some kindness," Robin scoffed. "What kind of a life is that for a lad, breathing foul air, cleaning up people's waste, being subjected to daily beatings, hardly getting enough to eat? It sounds like what the gallant Sir Guy of Gisbourne would consider kindness, if I believed he had any."
All at once, Robin strode over to Marian and the boy, and then crouched down to meet the boy at his eye level. "Well, Bat," he said kindly, "welcome to Sherwood, my home. Would you like it to be yours for awhile?"
Bat eagerly nodded his head.
Robin grinned, winked at the boy affectionately, smiled lovingly at Marian, then rose and rejoined Much. "Looks like we're taking care of another son belonging to Gisbourne," he quietly sighed. Then, lifting his voice for all to hear, he asked, "What's for dinner, Much? Can't you see our guest is hungry?"
...
Sheriff Vaisey was stroking the bonneted head of his favorite bird of prey, perched on his gloved wrist, while speaking in undertones to his evil lieutenant, Sir Guy of Gisbourne.
"Very good, Gisbourne," Vaisey said, satisfied and eager. "Hood took the bait! He's so predictable! I'm getting rather bored with our little game of cat and mouse. A clue...no."
"The runt's either been rescued by Hood, or eaten by wild animals," Gisbourne affirmed.
"Yes! Very good! It's hard to know which to hope for, hmm, Gisbourne?"
Vaisey laughed and fed his hawk a piece of offal, watching over his bird like an overprotective mother. "A very productive day, wouldn't you say, Gisbourne, hmm? I'll soon have Hood, and you'll have..."
"Marian," Gisbourne breathed, his body tensing and his loins flaming at the thought.