Disclaimer: I do not hold any ownership over the BBC's version of Robin Hood, nor do I benefit financially from this story.
Author's Note: I can't believe this is over. Thanks again to musical-penguins for beta'ing/putting up with me. Seriously. And thank you all for reading, and a special thanks to those kind enough to leave a review. I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I'm already plotting spin offs. You have been warned.
"Many years have passed since those summer days,
Among the fields of barley.
See the children run as the sun goes down,
Among the fields of gold.
You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky,
When we walked in the fields of gold." ~Sting "Fields of Gold"
o0O0o
A year and a day passed:
They buried Little John and mourned him. Marian and Robin were wed properly, Tuck again preforming the ceremony before retiring to his cell. He said he planned to put their adventures to the convent's Records. Much was made Sheriff of Nottingham, (and granted his Bonchurch) and immediately appointed Allan as the Master at Arms. Djaq moved into Will's childhood home with him, and Eve married Much. Suddenly, Much was not too upset they were splitting into couples.
While their personal lives were quite settled, they all continued to work tirelessly for the good of the Shire. Robin and Marian took turns at playing the Nightwatchman. Much repealed Vaisey's unjust taxes. Djaq offered her services as a healer. Will rebuilt much of the Shire. Gradually, things in Nottingham would become prosperous again.
And one day in early September, Robin and Marian got one small wish. A tiny baby girl was left on their doorstep. Marian took the infant from Bridget Thornton and sent her immediately to Nottingham to look for a wet-nurse.
"What should we name her?" asked Robin looking at Marian with a dazed expression on his face.
Marian was trying to calm the squalling newborn until the wet-nurse arrived. "I do not know," said Marian. "Do you have any ideas? Shh, little one. Shhhh…."
"Eleanor?" tried Robin. "After the Queen?"
"No, not Eleanor," Marian said. She sang softly to the baby a lullaby from her own childhood, one Edward would sing to her, "Lullay lullow, lullay lully,
Beway bewy, lullay lullow,
Lullay lully,
Baw me bairne, sleep softly now.
"I saw a sweet and seemly sight,
A blissful bird, a blossom bright,
That morning made and mirth among."
The baby cried herself to sleep, snuggled up tight to Marian's (empty) breasts. Marian felt herself wink back tears. "A maiden mother, meek and mild,
In cradle keep, a knavë's child,
That softly sleep; she sat and sang.
"Baw me bairne, sleep softly now.
"Lullay lullow, lullay lully,
Beway bewy, lullay lullow,
Lullay lully,
Baw me bairne, sleep softly now." Marian finished the song, and slowly let out a breath. "Do you want to hold her?"
Robin looked a bit hesitant (the couple had not even broken their fasts, and there was much to be done today, the harvests to be brought in from the field, they should really be going, actually…). But he held his arms out and Marian passed the dozing baby.
Robin took her gracefully and settled down on a bench, rearranging the coarse blanket she was wrapped in. "Hello, sweeting," he greeted her softly.
"Katherine," said Marian, sitting down next to him. She rested her chin on his shoulder, all the better to watch the baby.
"Yes," he agreed.
So Katherine joined their tiny family, and Marian was content to play with her has the weather grew colder, promising all sorts of adventures for her daughter. The baby's hair grew out to a soft amber color. Her laughing brown eyes followed her adoptive parents around the room. And she grew fat on her nurse, Hilda's milk.
Being a mother to baby Katherine must have awoken something in Marian's womb. (Or regular meals and regular hours had agreed with her.) For at Christmastide, when Robin was keeping more promises (showering Marian with useless trinkets, including matching gold wedding bands for each of them), she whispered in his ear on Epiphany that his present would be a few months late.
"Are you sure?" he asked, his eyes alight.
"Yes," she said with a slow smile, cuddling Katherine closer to her (tender) breasts.
"Worth the wait, then." Robin lounged back on their bed, looking pleased with himself.
In mid-June, a few weeks after the fields were planted, Marian delivered a son, whom they called Geoffrey, for Robin's father.
And now it was late August. A full year and a day had gone by in a blink, moments became memories, and Marian and Robin were taking their children into Sherwood for the first time. To the tallest oak they went, where Marian and Robin had first vowed love and loyalty, where they carved their names into the bark.
Marian settled the children on a blanket and unpacked a basket of food. Robin gathered a bit of kindling for a small fire. Katherine practiced a few hesitating steps (watched carefully by Marian and Robin, lest she get too close to the flames).
"I like us like this," said Robin sitting down next to Marian and tickling Geoffrey's tummy. The infant giggled in her arms.
"Like what?"
Robin kissed Marian's temple and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Like we were this past year and a day. Home. Open. Building something. I like it."
"I am quite pleased with how things turned out myself," she agreed, listening to his words, but following Katherine with her eyes.
"Much has made a good sheriff," Robin observed with pride.
"And Allan a good lieutenant," Marian added.
"Djaq is a pillar of the community."
"And so is Will."
"I like us like this. Settled in and getting ready for old age," Robin said.
"As long as you retain your boyish good looks," teased Marian.
"I intend to… God willing."
Marian laughed. "You know, I was thinking. You know the verse from 'Revelations?'"
"Can you be more specific?" Robin asked.
"Behold; I make all things new!" she declared in a thunderous voice. Pitching her voice back to normal, she said, "Last year, I felt as though it were the end of the world. Like we were all going to die. This past year... we were all made new."
Robin looked a little pleased at her analysis. "Renewal. Redemption. Such things do exist," he said forcefully.
Katherine took it upon herself to break the conversation, and handed them a stick, ginning triumphantly.
"She looks like you when she does that," Marian told him.
"Thank you, sweeting," Robin said, ignoring Marian and gently taking the stick from Katherine. "Perhaps we can ask Will to make your first bow with it?"
"No," said Marian with a small kiss to Katherine's hand. "Not yet. I do not want her baby skin torn to ribbons by her string yet.
"You are right."
"Just so." Her eyes were laughing at him.
"Honestly, Marian. We have lived through the worst. I am happy now we get to live through the best," he said, leaning over Geoffrey to kiss Marian.
So they lived and loved in the shades of Sherwood, surrounded by their friends, friends who had become family, raising their two children, and creating a happy life. Naturally, one where things did not always go according to plan….
o0O0o