Part 14

The room was soon full of noise with chattering voices. Much for one was certainly making up for the lost time while he had been dumbfounded in shock. Marian kept silent, she felt the room sway and the people within it vanish as pictures, images and voices fluttered through her mind. Her head ached as if she was beginning to have a migraine and she sank to the floor her back against the wall as the images drew closer, and closer until they were almost real……..

"He has gone," she found herself saying to an old man, whom she did not recognise.

"To the Holy Land," the aged man said.

"Yes with Much. I thought we were going to get married to live happily ever after, but now I know happily ever afters do not exist."

"Give him time, he might return home."

"Give him time?" Marian said feeling anger at Robin's departure and the cancellation of their engagement as she had thrown the ring back in his face in humiliation. She felt that she had regretted that action after she had committed it but there was no going back. Robin had left for the Holy Land and might never return……

"Marian! Marian!" said Djaq, kneeling beside her and trying to rouse her.

Through the haze Marian began to see that she was still with Will and Djaq and Robin's friends. But then the pain in her head returned and she gave in to more images floating across her brain. This time she found herself riding at break neck speed through a forest…….

"Robin! Robin!" she yelled with urgency, as she dismounted, still yelling his name and muttering under her breath about where he was. She pressed a lever in the side of a rock and a leaf roof lifted to reveal a dwelling in the core of the forest. But still there was no sight of him and she felt in her heart that she had embarked on a perilous mission.

"Marian! Marian!" Djaq' said insistently again and Marian forced herself back to the present. "Marian?" Djaq asked softly this time.

"I thought it was me who got the concussion," said Will half teasing her.

"I…." she began.

"You what?" asked Little Little John with a smile.

"I had a…my head it ached and then I remembered something." She told them with a troubled expression on her face.

"What did you remember?" asked Allan. "Tell us."

Marian sat back against the wall and brought her knees up resting her elbows on them, them and supported her face with her hands. She relived the two minor incidents that she recalled.

"Well it wasn't much was it?" Allan said, sitting back down at the table to finish his meal.

"It was a start." Cut in Much with a reassuring pat on the hand for her.

"It is the most we have had ever." Djaq declared.

"But it will not help us find Robin, will it?" Marian uttered with a sadness that surprised the newcomers but not Will and Djaq.

"No it will not. I for one knew it was my best decision to follow him out here. Look what a mess he has gotten himself into." Much said in a scolding tone to a man who was not even there.

"Yeah," said Allan slowly. "For once you were right."

"I am glad to hear you say that, eventually." He huffed back and Allan shrugged.

"A plan. We need a plan." Said Little John.

"Are you still in charge?" asked Little Little John to his father.

"You were in charge?" asked Will amused.

"Yes, someone had to keep those two from killing each other," he replied dryly of Allan and Much.

"I think we should work together, as a team, I can only think of Robin as the leader." Djaq answered.

"Except he isn't here." Allan interjected.

"No but we will find him," Much said as positively as he could muster. Adding. "Where shall we start?"

"By tracing Will's last steps with Robin," Marian suggested.

"But I told you all what happened." He protested.

"Then tell us again, with as much detail as you can remember." She replied softly and after a nod of agreement he did.