This chapter was hard to write. I hope it came off at least moderately well.
Marian had been taken to the dungeon where she awaited what the Sheriff had in store for her. He had been deprived of an execution that night and would be exceptionally cruel in his punishment, she was sure. Marian had nothing to do but wait. She didn't even cry. She just waited. Once, she wondered whether Robin could save her, but she pushed that out of her mind, knowing she couldn't rely on hope to see her through this.
As the light of dawn made a faint appearance in the dungeon's one window, Marian was awoken from her half-sleep by the sound of a familiar, determined step.
"Guy!" she exclaimed, in a whisper.
He was accompanied by the jailer who opened her cell.
"All right, lovely, this way, this way," the jailer poked her to walk out. She looked at Guy, puzzled, and resisted the jailer's icy grip on her elbow.
"What is this?" she demanded.
"You've been called for," the jailer answered. Guy was silent. He avoided Marian's eyes. He turned and started walking towards the stairs up to the rest of the castle.
"Well, go on, then!" The jailer poked her again.
"What?" Marian looked at the jailer and then at Gisbourne, whose back was turned to her as he walked away.
She took a few careful steps to follow. Gisbourne paused at the stairs, turned his head just slightly enough to catch out of the corner of his eye if she was coming, and then continued on.
Marian quickened her step until she was right next to him. "Guy!" He didn't respond. "Guy! What is this?" she implored again. He didn't make a single movement to acknowledge her, but kept walking down the corridor.
"Guy, please!"
He stopped at a door—the door to what had been her room in the castle since she had come there months ago with her father. He opened it, met her eyes for the first time, and nodded his head for her to enter.
Once in her room, Marian blurted out of exasperation, "Guy, I demand you tell me what is going on."
He met her gaze with one of ferocity. "You don't get to make demands," he snapped.
She was silent.
He said one word, soaked in anger: "Hood."
Marian blushed.
"You still—" he broke off. Hate gathered behind his eyes. "You still love him." Once he had said it out loud, it was as if something broke in him. Hate gave way to utter disappointment. "You have always loved him." His voice almost broke on the word always.
Marian was silent.
"Tell me!" he yelled.
Marian jumped a little. Looking into Guy's eyes frightened her. She looked at the floor.
"Yes," she finally stated, barely audible.
"And you never cared for me," he added.
"No! No," Marian started, looking up. She took a step closer to him. He held out his hand to stop her. She stood in place, but kept talking. "I did care for you, and still do, but for only part of you," she tried to explain and quickly added, "only the part you most rarely show."
Now Guy was silent.
"You hide that part, though I don't know why," Marian said earnestly and with increasing confidence. "I don't understand you. How is it that you can show affection and kindness to me, but blind yourself to everyone else? How can you make yourself deaf to pleas for compassion? Deaf to anything but the Sheriff forcing you to blot out whatever goodness there is in you! Why do you let him do it? Why do you do what he says?"
Guy hardened his expression and changed his tone. "This isn't about what the Sheriff says. You are a traitor, Marian. Hood is a traitor. He should have died tonight. And he will. You will die too for your involvement with him. No appeal to my sentiments can prevent that."
Marian summoned the courage to say what she had to. "I love Robin," she paused and watched how Guy could not conceal a wince at those words. "But even if I did not feel anything for him, I would still do whatever I could for the people of Nottingham, no matter what you or the Sheriff threatened. I am my own woman, Guy. I am here because of my own actions."
There was a silent standoff. One thought circled Marian's mind, one that had been there since Gisbourne's cold "no appeal to my sentiments" made her wish she had not been so quick to admit that she did indeed care for him. She began to voice the thought.
"So you will see me die?"
He looked her intently in the eyes and nodded.
"Well then you may rest easy because you never really loved me. You couldn't possibly love me as I truly am."
At this, Guy broke. "Couldn't I?" he countered. Suddenly the air in the room seemed very tight and hot with the passion of silent emotion being finally freed. Everything he had just said up to this point evaporated and it was clear that it was all an act, practiced over years, perfected in his time with the Sheriff, but now before Marian, Guy was stripped down to the bare, raw, frantic, lonely need for another person.
"Couldn't I, Marian?" His voice faltered.
"Don't you think I've known?" he continued. "I'm not a fool, though you may take me for one. I've known that you have been helping them. Known! And yet, I've kept silent. I've let you help them. Do you realize that? Let you. And you think I do not know you enough to love you?"
Marian did not know what to say.
Guy shook his head and started again, this time flatly, as if he was drained of that emotion that had just overtaken him, and was now returning to the better-known Gisbourne. "But I suppose I was a fool after all. I could not—would not—see that you still loved him."
"Guy—"
"No," Guy stopped her. He breathed in deeply and stood up straighter, with the resolve of someone who had just made a sudden, momentous decision which must be followed through.
He said, "I am going to do something for you. It will be the last thing I do for you and then I must never see you again."
Confused and overwhelmed, Marian tried to let Guy explain before she spoke up.
"This is a letter," he handed her a folded piece of parchment. "It was being carried by a messenger named Carter. It was meant for Hood, from King Richard himself. One of the Black Knights intercepted Carter; this note was sent here to the Sheriff. He thought he could trap Hood with a forgery."
"So, there was word from Carter?" Marian asked excitedly, shaking the paper in her hand in disbelief. Yet, she was still thrown off by the abrupt change in mood that had just taken place in the room.
"Yes," Guy replied, then, remembering his purpose, continued, gravely, "You are in possession of the King's message. I will see you safely out of the city walls whereupon you may take that message to Hood, or whomever. At that point, our relationship is severed."
Marian looked at him, bewildered. He closed his eyes to keep from looking back at her. When he opened his eyes after a few full moments of quiet, he set his gaze on the wall and said, slowly and seriously, "You may only care for part of me. If in showing you that part, I may have your love, then it is worth any risk. But once you are gone—everything's back in its box." He smiled slightly to himself at the last phrase. Surely she would remember her own words.
She remembered, but the sound of them was disappointing. Marian measured whether she could persuade Guy not to stop once this one good deed was done. He could be convinced, she thought, and yet, it was time to be fair with him. He had the generosity—and the courage—to let her be herself, she needed to allow him the same. If he could not choose to be open to love at the expense of his place with the Sheriff, then she must let him be and she must realize herself that she cannot care whole-heartedly for more than one person. She had to give him up. With a silent nod, Marian accepted his terms.
She was on the road to Sherwood before the first market stall opened that morning.
"But, Master! We just rescued you! What if you are caught again?" Much was almost hysterical.
"I have to go back for her!" Robin yelled, losing his patience. He started to gather up his bow and quiver.
"I'm not bein' funny, but maybe we should hold on a second. I mean, we did just get out of there," Allan spoke without thinking.
Robin glared at him as if to say: "You don't count, you're not even supposed to be here."
Finally Little John stepped in front of the cave entrance to block it. "Robin, think."
"I am thinking! I'm thinking, what good is it if I'm rescued if the Sheriff kills Marian!"
In the silence that followed those words they heard footsteps approaching outside.