Guy filled another bucket of water from the well and he washed his face before returning to work.
Mary had been watching his horse for a few minutes, then she finally decided to go home, she said goodbye to Guy and she walked away, disappearing into the bushes.
Gisborne smiled to himself, that child had reminded him of her namesake and, although he would never admit it, he was pleased to hear that she considered him "not so bad".
Maybe meeting that group of kids made him lose time, but at least they managed to dissuade him from his depressing thoughts.
He emptied the bucket of the horse and he filled it with fresh water. He was wondering if he should make the animal to move a little before he returned to shovel the ashes of Knighton Hall, when a stone directed at his head missed him by a few centimeters, hitting the tree behind him.
Guy looked up and saw the inhabitants of Knighton advancing towards him, menacingly. Some were holding their farm tools as if they were weapons, while others were carrying large stones and they seemed ready to throw them at him.
In a moment, Guy pulled the bow from the saddle of the horse and he nocked an arrow, pointing it towards the peasants, but those people didn't stop immediately. They surrounded him without saying anything and Guy knew they wouldn't allow him to escape.
He backed up until he was with his back to the tree, continuing to aim at them with the bow.
"What do you want?" He shouted, trying to hide the anxiety he felt.
That situation reminded him all too well of the ambush in the forest, with a crowd of people ready to slaughter him.
Guy felt the panic gripping his stomach, but he knew he couldn't afford to yield to it.
He reminded himself that those were only peasants and not killers who wanted to kill him. If they had seen him weak, they would attack him, but if he could intimidate them maybe they wouldn't dare.
The first to speak was a boy who until then had been hidden behind his father. Taking courage, he stepped forward and pointed a finger at Guy.
"Where is Mary? What have you done to her?!"
Gisborne looked at him: that boy was the brother of the little girl.
"She's gone away. And I haven't done anything to her." Guy said, without looking away from him.
A woman came forward with a cry of despair, pointing at something on the ground next to Guy's feet.
"Liar! That's my daughter's handkerchief and it's covered in blood! Murderess! You killed her!" The woman howled, then she slumped to the ground and the crowd roared, furious.
Guy realized that trying to talk to them wouldn't help at all, and he kept pointing the bow at the peasants.
"Stay back! Don't try to come closer!"
Allan turned to look back, hearing the sound of hooves of a galloping horse and he was surprised to see Robin Hood who was following him, trying to reach him.
He slowed his horse to allow Robin to join him and he asked what he wanted from him.
"Hello Allan." Robin said with a smile. "Are you going to Knighton?"
"Yeah. After what happened the other day, I prefer not to leave Giz alone for too long when he is there."
"The situation has not improved, eh?"
"No, actually it's getting worse. Before he could at least hire workers to rebuild the house and people were a little more well-disposed towards him because they could earn something."
"He's working at Knighton Hall alone?"
"When I can I help him, but Giz prefers me to give a hand to Marian and Sir Edward rather than to him."
Robin considered the idea of providing aid to Gisborne to pay the workers, but he discarded it before even proposing it: he knew that for Guy it had been difficult to force himself to accept the money for the taxes and that he would consider humiliating if Robin offered money to help him with Knighton Hall as well.
Robin had decided to go to Knighton that morning for that very reason. He had a fear he had offended Gisborne by forcing him to take the money for the taxes and he wanted to make sure there were no disagreements between them.
In addition he was concerned about Guy, he had tried to comfort him by telling him that the situation with the inhabitants of Knighton would improve over time, but, to hear Allan, instead it threatened to escalate at any moment.
When they arrived in Knighton, the village streets were deserted and Allan and Robin exchanged a worried look. Just a little girl appeared from the door of a home, hearing their horses and Robin turned to her.
"Where is everybody?"
Mary looked at them and shook his head.
"When I got home there was nobody." She said with tears in her eyes. "I thought that at least Jack would wait for me. After all, his friends made me get into trouble with Sir Guy..."
Allan had understood nothing of the speech of the child, but he was worried to hear Gisborne's name.
"Let's go to Knighton Hall, immediately."
Robin nodded and he looked at the little girl. He could not leave her there alone, he thought, and he decided that it would be better to take her with them until they found out where all the others were."
Guy saw that the arrow he was pointing at the angry mob was shaking and he knew that it was him who shivered in sheer terror. Unless something happened quickly, those people would have lynched him and they wouldn't stop to listen to any explanation or justification: they were convinced that he had killed the girl, and nothing would have convinced them otherwise.
He dared not to move because he knew that a trifle would be enough to trigger the murderous rage of the people and it would be enough that one of those people began to attack to unleash all the others.
He saw one of the farmers who pulled his arm back to throw a stone and Guy realized that he was finished. He could shoot that man down with the arrow, but it would just stain him with another murder, the others would attack him all the same.
The man threw the stone and Guy dropped the bow to shield his face with his arms.
The stone hit him in the shoulder, making him groan of pain, but that was just the beginning, Guy thought with horror. He closed his eyes and he dropped to his knees, curling up against the trunk of the tree to try to repair himself and he hoped that everything would end soon.
He felt another rock hitting him on the leg, but it wasn't followed by any others and Guy ventured to look around only when he heard the voice of Robin Hood.
"Are you all gone mad?!" Robin cried, standing in front of Gisborne with the drawn bow and Guy saw that some arrows were already stuck in the ground, a few centimeters from the feet of the peasants.
"He killed my daughter!" A man shouted, coming forward regardless of the arrow that Robin pointed at him. "Not even you can stop me from giving him what he deserves!"
"Which daughter? Maybe that one?" Robin pointed at Mary, standing next to his horse, a few dozen meters away.
The people Knighton turned en masse to look at the little girl who had been given for lost and Allan took the opportunity to get to Gisborne and to help him up. Guy leaned heavily on him and Allan helped him to limp up to the horse and to get on it, then he mounted behind him, fearing that Guy was so hurt that he could not ride alone.
Mary's mother ran to her daughter and she held her sobbing. Robin let her do it for a while, then he took her by the arm and gently, but firmly forced her to step aside.
"What did you think you were doing?" Robin asked, harshly, and for a while no one dared to answer, until one of the peasants ventured to speak.
"Jack said that Gisborne wanted to kill the child. And when we arrived she was not there, but we found her handkerchief stained with blood... How could we know he didn't hurt her?"
"And how could you be sure he did? And yet you were willing to kill an innocent man without even a fair trial... You should be ashamed!"
"He is not an innocent man, he's Gisborne!" A woman said, spitting on the ground as a sign of contempt.
Robin looked at the little girl.
"Mary, did Guy of Gisborne hurt you?"
"No, he didn't. In fact he was nice. He said he wouldn't kill Jack even though Jack hit him with the slingshot. The blood on the handkerchief is of Sir Guy."
Robin looked at them sternly.
"Think carefully about what you were going to do. Now let us pass."
The inhabitants of Knighton stepped aside, dropping their eyes and Robin looked at Allan to tell him to move the horse and bring Gisborne away from there, but Guy grabbed the reins and pulled them.
"No." He said and Robin turned to face him. Guy's voice was trembling with tension, but his expression was hard. "They have to leave. This is my home, I won't let anyone to throw me out of my lands."
Robin stared at the crowd.
"Did you hear him, right? Go back to the village." He ordered and one at a time the peasants obeyed, moving away from Knighton Hall.
Guy moved his hand to wave away from his face what seemed to be a wet rag.
"Feeling better, Giz?"
Gisborne opened his eyes and he found himself staring at the worried face of Allan.
"What happened?"
"You fainted." Robin said. "If Allan had not been quick to catch you, you'd have fallen from your horse."
"Are they gone?" Guy asked, trying to get up to look around, but Robin put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
"Stay down for a few minutes." He suggested. "And yes, they returned to the village."
"Do you still believe that they can accept me as their Lord?" Guy asked, wearily, turning to Robin.
"I'm sorry."
"They wanted to kill me. They would have done it if you had not arrived." Gisborne shuddered and Allan freshened his face again with the wet handkerchief.
"Let's go back to Locksley, Giz. If you can't ride, I can go get the wagon, it won't take long."
"No."
"Gisborne, you can't think to go back to work, now. They hit you and you have suffered a big shock, you should rest."
"It's just a couple of bruises. And if it is really necessary, I can rest here. If I went back to Locksley now, Marian would demand explanations and I don't want her to know what happened."
"Giz..."
"Leave me be. Please."
Guy crossed his arms behind his head and he lay on the grass, staring at the clouds moving through the blue sky, without another word.
Robin and Allan exchanged a worried look, then they followed suit, lying on the grass too. Perhaps Gisborne didn't want to talk, but they wouldn't leave him alone.
