Just one author's note : The mention of Guy being superstitious as to what he wore to Sir Edward's funeral, comes from a superstition at that time, that the mourners had to wear different clothing so that evil spirits would not harm them or some silly nonsense like that.

Prisoners of Circumstance Chapter 10

Marian pulled the arrow from the bedpost, and ran a finger along the tip. Robin's sign that he was here would have once filled her with so much joy. It had been almost three days since she had begged him not to go, and in that short time she felt like she inhabited another world. She was a married woman now and had lost her father. Robin would still be the same, unchanged and full of passion for his duty to the king. No, she had not lost Robin three days ago, she had lost him five years ago, the day he had left her and all of Locksley behind him to follow Richard to the crusades. Marian acknowledged with deep resignation.

Marian paced the room nervously, waiting for him to appear. She looked at her hands, glad that Guy had not gotten around to giving her a wedding ring yet, giving no outward sign of her change of status. She looked to her father's coffin, and pulled the bed curtains across the frame, hiding it from view. She did not want Robin to see him as soon as he entered the room. A knock sounded on the door and Marian braced herself. She walked across the room to open it. A soldier stood there, his head bowed for a moment before he looked up at her and gave her a huge grin. It was Robin, garbed in one of his favourite methods of moving about the castle. Briefly, Marian wondered what guard would be waking up with a sore head in the morning.

"Robin." She stated flatly.

"This is some welcome for the returning hero." He teased, as he removed his helmet.

Robin leaned into kiss her. She neatly sidestepped him and opened the door wider to allow him access. The overconfident way he strolled into the room annoyed her for some reason. She had never noticed it before now and it was as if she was seeing him clearly for the first time since his return from the Holy Land. Marian took her time closing the door, giving her precious moments to compose herself for what had to be said.

"I am glad you are back safe Robin."

Robin pulled the pact out from under his tunic and held it up proudly. "It was not easy; for once the sheriff had it guarded by a man with some skills in weaponry."

"And where is he now? Lying face down in the mud, somewhere along the North road?" she asked.

Robin frowned. "It was a fair fight, which I happened to win, of course. I could not allow the pact to reach Prince John."

"Of course." Her voice dripped with heavy irony, but her sarcasm missed its mark.

She found strength in hardening her heart and if it got her through this then she would gladly take it. He had been in the room for several moments and had not once enquired after her father. Always it was his King. If things were unchanged and his sovereign asked it of him, he would return to the Holy Land tomorrow. The loyalty she had once admired in him, only served to remind her that she would have always been second in his affection to King Richard.

In a way Guy was not so dissimilar, he gave allegiance to a man who deserved nothing, but at least he had been there when she needed him the most. He had even risked angering someone like Vasey for her safety. Guy was far from the perfect man, but at least he did not act as if otherwise. The qualities she had once said she saw in him were emerging and ones she had not sensed in him were too.

"I heard some entertaining news at an inn last night that Gisborne has taken a bride. She must be one courageous soul to take on a man like that. Who is the unfortunate woman?"

Marian could keep her anger in check, no longer. "What do you know about the kind of man Guy is?" She snapped.

"I know all I want to and ever could wish to know about Gisborne and I pity the lady who bound herself in matrimony to such as him. He is as dangerous as a coiled snake." Robin replied.

He walked over to her and put his hands either side of her face. She angrily removed them and distanced herself from him.

"Marian, what is wrong?"

"All you can do is talk of the pact and your adventures. There are other things besides glory and King Richard! There are people here, and now, suffering with real problems, in this town…in this castle."

A look of dawning comprehension spread across the young man's face. "Marian, where is Sir Edward?"

She did not answer, but looked at the floor, remaining silent. Robin walked over to the curtained bed and pulled back the hangings. His choked cry of anguish made her turn and look at him. He sank to his knees and openly wept by her father's coffin. He could weep for him, why couldn't she? A little of the ice in her demeanour melted at such abject grief. Marian stretched out a hand; it hovered for a moment over Robin's head, almost touching, but she curled up her hand and put it behind her back.

"You said it would be all right Robin. Does it look all right?" Marian asked quietly.

Robin wiped his eyes and got up from the floor.

"I am so sorry Marian." He put his arms around her.

Marian took a breath. It had to be now, while her courage did not fail her. She drew back and looked into his eyes

"I am sorry too Robin…sorry for what I have to tell you."

"What else is there my love?"

"The woman that Gisborne married…it was me." The words hung on the air.

Robin looked back at her. His eyes widening, he shook his head, laughing and pulled her back close to him.

"It is the grief talking."

"No!" Marian pushed away from him. "We have been married almost three days. I married him the morning after you left."

"It's not true."

"It is Robin. My father wanted it. He was afraid what would happen to me here at the castle, alone. The sheriff had already sold me off to one man, what would stop him doing it again? I begged you not to go. You went anyway. I was worried for my father…I did not know how ill he really was until his final moments. When I married Guy I intended to try and find a way out of it afterwards, but things have changed since then…"

"You are just making excuses. I always knew you had feelings for Gisborne. I saw it on your face that night at Locksley, when you couldn't keep your eyes off him." Robin paced the room and turned around to look at her. "Just three days, if only you had waited just those three little days."

"I have been waiting longer than three days Robin. I have waited five years for the boy I loved to return from a war I asked him not to go to. I am still waiting for him, but I think he perished in the Holy land." She said quietly, staring at the floor. "My father did not have three days Robin, he died only a few hours after I married Guy. What if you had never returned? If you had been killed retrieving the pact? Was I to be sold to every old man the sheriff wanted to please…or worse?"

He touched her face. "Instead you sold yourself to Gisborne. I will get you out of this. I promise."

She recoiled from him. "What if I do not want to get out of this? All I know is that Guy was there when I needed him most. If that makes me a selfish being, then so be it. I am a woman in the twelfth century Robin; I do not have the luxuries a man does. I am worth no more than goods and chattel." She sighed. "My father wanted your forgiveness Robin. He knew this would hurt you."

"What was the old man, thinking?" He asked. "I cannot believe this and I will not accept it!" His tone becoming angrier.

Marian felt her old anger resurfacing. "Accept it Robin, we are married in every full sense of the word." She lied.

Robin looked at her, his face twisting in disgust as he took in her full meaning. "You have made your bed, and now you must lie in it, is that it? Is it worth what Gisborne gives you in it?"

Marian's face flushed with shame. "That is none of your business."

"How long did it take you to forget me Marian? The first night you laid on your back for him?"

"If you must know, the first night of our marriage, I was….oh it doesn't matter. Just leave me be Robin. I have a father to lay to rest in the morning."

"And the first chance I get, you will have a husband to bury too." He replied.

"No, Robin, you are not to hurt him! Harm one hair on his head and you will have me to deal with." She said fiercely.

Robin laughed a humourless laugh. "You may be Lady Gisborne for now, but you will be the widow Gisborne before the month is out if I have my way."

"You think by killing Guy, you will have me? If you murder him then you are dead to me forever. I cannot love you anymore Robin. It is as if I have woken from a dream of us that I should have woken up from long ago. I will always be in love with the boy that left me all those years ago, the one whose spirit lives on in Acre, but please try to accept it. I have to build a future with my husband."

Robin walked over to Marian, lowered his head, placed his lips on hers, and attempted to kiss her. She pulled away. There was a dangerous glint in his eyes as he looked at her. "Have to or want to? While Gisborne lives, I am dead to you anyway. So what have I got to lose?"

Robin put the borrowed helmet back on and walked out of the room. Marian let out a deep sigh that seemed to come from the depths of her soul. She picked up the arrow bolt she had left on the bed, snapped it in two, and threw it in the empty fireplace. She then prostrated herself across her father's coffin and finally let out the tears she had held back for so long, crying for the parent she had lost and wishing Guy were by her side.

Guy turned over in the bed again and punched the pillow a couple of times, but he could not get comfortable. Marian had expressed a desire to be alone this one last night with her father, but concern was currently winning over his wife's wishes. She might need you. Guy wished that were true, the only thing she seemed to need from him was the protection of his name. He had read the relief in her eyes earlier when he left with Allan. She had been glad of the interruption. Had he misinterpreted her unspoken surrender when he had carried her to their bed? She had seemed to want him as much as he wanted her.

He still wanted her now. The feel of her pressed against him as he carried her to the bed and the taste of her kisses were imprinted on his mind. Guy turned over, lay on his stomach, and closed his eyes. His body ached with need and was embroiled in deep frustration, but eventually he managed to drift off to sleep, exhausted from lack of rest the night before.

Someone was pulling down the sheets; he could feel the cool air on his back. Soft hands were gliding along his skin. It felt so good. Marian must have returned from her father's room to continue where they had left off. He was surprised at her boldness. The hands slipped further under the sheet to stroke along the curves of his backside.

He tried to turn over to look at her; before he got the chance; strong arms flipped him over in the bed. Guy gazed in horror as he looked up to see the Nightwatchman climb on him and straddle his naked body. He pinioned his arms to the bed so that he could not move. Guy was aroused and disgusted at the same time. The blue eyes behind the mask watched him intently as he took one of Guy's hands and laid it against his chest. Guy's eyes widened in shock as he encountered the shape of a female breast under the leather shirt, his grip tightened on it disbelievingly.

Unable to remove his hand, he was powerless as SHE ran her hands over his chest and she leaned in closer, removing the silken scarf from around her mouth. The mask she kept on. Her lips were a hairsbreadth from his own; he could feel her breath as it blew across them like a caress. The Nightwatchman lowered her head, and with the tip of her tongue, she tasted his mouth. Guy moaned unable to take anymore of the sweet torture, he leant up and took her tongue in his mouth and he kissed her hard. She was still fully dressed, but desire took over as their kisses deepened and she ground her hips against his hardness.

He had to see her features. He had to know the face of his seducer. His hands snaked slowly upwards to her cheek; he rested his hand there for a second, his mouth curving into a smirk before cruelly tearing the mask from her face…

"Guy! Wake up!" Guy opened his eyes and looked straight into Marian's blue ones. "You were having a bad dream."

His mind was still sleep addled, but the dream although shocking had not been so very bad from his point of view. He looked at Marian again and could see that she had been crying. Her cheeks were wet with tears still. Guy pushed all thoughts of his strange dream from his mind as he sat up in bed.

"You've been weeping." He brushed a tear from her cheek with the pad of his thumb.

Marian nodded, fresh tears welling up in her eyes.

"I could weep even a while longer. Guy I feel so alone. When my mother died, I was only eight years old and barely able to understand what had happened. This is different, it is like…"

"Like a hole has opened up inside you, deeper than any blade could inflict and no matter how much you cry, it will not heal?"

Marian looked up at him. Sucking in a breath at the raw pain on his face, like an empathetic mirror of her own. He quickly masked it under her piercing gaze, looking away, not disposed to letting her in.

"You have never told me how you came to be alone in the world." She touched his face. "I know so little about your life before you showed up at a young girl's birthday banquet one night."

For a moment, their eyes locked as they shared a mutual moment of unity at the remembrance of their first meeting.

"My unhappy tale is best kept for another time. " He smiled wryly. "Come lay beside me."

Marian complied, no longer wanting to be alone in that empty room where only the husk of what had once been her father, remained. She would never feel his arms about her or see his smile again, except in the regions of her heart. She lay on her side, pressed against Guy's chest, facing away from him. He put one of his arms about her shoulders and kissed her hair.

"And remember Marian, Lady Gisborne. You will never be alone while I draw breath." He whispered against her ear.

Marian tried not to let Robin's words of earlier affect her. He was angry;surely, when he had cooled down he would not still be bent on Guy's destruction. She closed her eyes and sighed. An uneasy sleep soon came upon her.

Guy remained awake, listening to the sounds of her breathing. He ran his free hand through his hair. His dream of earlier still troubled him Why was he having dreams of the Nightwatchman as a female? Guy glanced down at the woman sleeping so trustingly in his arms. A nagging sensation on the edges of his subconscious would not go away,had the dream been an omen, trying to tell him something? One thing he did know was that he was not going to let this obsession with the Nightwatchman continue. He would catch him or her and put a stop to this. He needed to do something to lure him out into the open and next time he would be better prepared.

They sat side by side in the Gisborne carriage. She had not had reason to travel in it since the day of the sheriff's fair, many months ago. It moved at a very slow pace as it journeyed behind the cart bearing her father's coffin. Peasants threw flowers at it as it passed through Nottingham as a last mark of respect for the beloved old sheriff. Marian was glad that Vasey had not condescended to join them in the funeral cortege. It would have been in very poor taste, not that the sheriff had let things like that trouble him in the past. What did trouble Marian was that Robin might appear at Knighton Church.

Guy glanced at the profile of his wife. She looked pale and ethereal in the long black gown she wore. Only a silver-chained belt around her slender waist broke the starkness of her mourning clothes. A fine black veil partly concealed her features, so it was hard to estimate what she was thinking. Her fingers fidgeted with the garland of wildflowers grasped tightly in her hands.

Guy had left off his gloves for today and he himself was clothed in a long, soft, black leather coat, his usual attire discarded for the occasion. He was superstitious enough to not wear his working clothing when it came to the burying of the dead. Allan and four of his guard rode behind the carriage for protection. He could not help but think of his own father's death. There had been no pomp and ceremony. He had later heard that his father had been buried in an unmarked grave within the walls of the gaol, nothing to mark the noble bones it held. One day he would get back his estate and give his father the burial he deserved.

Marian seemed to have no desire to talk and he had no desire to break the silence. There was still a good two miles journey to Knighton chapel, even though the bells could be heard faintly in the distance, carried across the air. His mind chose to sink once more into the events of the past.

Vasey had let him travel to his estates in Warwick in the luxury of his private carriage, even letting him sleep in the same rooms as he, when they stopped for the night at inns along the way. Guy had started to feel as if he had found a home again and the first sting of his grief began to fade. They had finally reached their destination on a cold grey morning. He had not been in Lord Vasey's household for more than two hours, when his young mind realised he had made a grave error.

Unbeknown to the boy, instructions for young Sir Guy's education had been sent on before them. No sooner had the carriage passed under the portcullis, than the door was wrenched open and a large foul smelling guard had dragged Guy from it and threw him onto the frozen ground. Vasey had poked his head around the door of the carriage and smiled down at Guy with those empty eyes that sent chills through him.

"Very good. Take him to his quarters and remember…spare the rod, spoil the child. We will make a real hater of this one. I have big plans for him Durant and you know I do not like to be disappointed."

The guard had wrenched him up from the ground by his hair, pleased at his cries of pain. Guy could still hear the laughter coming from inside the carriage as it continued through the courtyard. What had followed was only the beginning of pain and humiliation for him. Durant had followed the sheriff's orders to the letter and had almost beaten Guy within an inch of his life.

Two weeks after slowly becoming broken in body and spirit, he had run away. Lord Vasey had sent out his men with hounds to hunt him down. He had not gotten far before they had tracked him and he had scarcely missed being torn to pieces by their greedy jaws. After that, he knew better than to try it again. Durant took pleasure in his misery. One day he had woken up and found the thickset guard towering over him in his pathetic bed. Guy had cringed into the corner, expecting to feel the blow of his huge fists at any moment, instead he had felt the foul breath of his tormentor against his cheek and his hand sliding along his body.

"There are more ways than one to hurt you, Sir Guy of Gisborne." He smiled, malevolently.

As Durant leaned in closer, Guy instinctively grabbed for the dagger around the man's wide middle and sank it deep into his ribs. He had watched in detached fascination as the man's eyes had glazed over, falling on top of him. Guy hand managed to get out from under his considerable weight. His blood soaked hands had shocked him, there was so much of it. The metallic smell reached his nostrils had instantly caused him to vomit on the straw covered floor. It had not taken long for one of the other guards to discover the death.

Guy had been dragged before Vasey, sure he was going to die. He had been put in a chair at the end of the very long table in the great hall awaiting his fate. Vasey had just continued eating his meal and drinking his wine as if Guy were not even there. Finally, he had beckoned Guy to be brought to him.

He had been forced down on his knees and Vasey had cruelly grabbed his face.

"Dear boy, what took you so long? I would have thought only a days worth of Durant's attentions would have brought you to this point I was starting to lose patience. You are something special Guy of Gisborne. I am going to train you to be my right hand man and in return for your unswerving loyalty, which I shall claim, I will help you get revenge on the people that took your lands and family, but in my own time. Do you understand?"

Guy nodded.

Lord Vasey held out his hand. "Swear loyalty only unto me Guy of Gisborne."

Guy looked at the proffered hand. He hastily kissed it and swore fealty unto his new lord, each word that passed his lips nearly choked him. He looked up at Vasey, causing the young man to smile.

"Ah yes, a real hater." He clapped his hands together in delight. "Do as I say boy and I will give you wealth and power beyond anything you could have got as Sir Guy of Gisborne Hall .Upgrade this boy to leather!"

The carriage had come to a stop as they arrived at the front of Knighton chapel. Peasants lined the way to the entrance of the church, many of the faces Marian had known all her life. She got up to exit their means of transport, but Guy put his hand on hers to stay her for a moment. She was surprised as he handed her a bag of coins.

"What is this for?" She asked.

"Alms for the poor, it is tradition Marian."

She looked at the purse. "Don't you want to do it as new lord of Knighton?"

Guy gave her a small smirk. "And ruin my hard won reputation. No, I will leave the do gooding up to you."

Marian looked at him and sighed. "Why do you work so hard at making sure how bad everyone knows you are? I have seen a different man. Why the one at Clun..."

Guy grabbed her wrist. "What do you know about my dealings at Clun yesterday?"

"Nothing...I know nothing, only servant talk, that is all."

He let go of her arm and got out of the carriage, offering Marian his hand to help her out, she gracefully accepted it.

"I have done bad things Marian, things that if you knew would make you look on your new husband with hatred. Never forget that." He told her harshly.

"Yes you have done many wrongs, but I believe you have the power to change Guy of Gisborne." She smiled sadly, before letting go of his hand and walking behind her father's coffin.

He watched her walk away. No one had believed in him for a very long time, did he dare hope that she meant what she said. Guy walked quickly to catch up to her and offered her his arm as they walked into the chapel together.

TBC