The last time Robin sat alone on the hilltop overlooking his village, his heart was breaking. It had been a rare, almost one-time instance in his life, when he had no plan. He felt stuck, "doing the right thing," as Edward had instructed, by giving Marian up. Gisbourne was stealing his life, and there was nothing he could do but watch and wait, clinging to hope that Marian would not go through with the wedding.
Sitting on the hilltop now, remembering, Robin reached into his shirt, pulled out the ring he wore on a string around his neck, and kissed it, blinking back tears.
The pretty amethyst ring was the only thing of hers he had left, other than memories. He remembered her giving it to him months ago, along with several other pieces of jewelry. "For the poor," she had told him, looking beautifully earnest as she pressed them into his hand.
He'd done as she'd wanted, selling everything to provide for the poor...everything except for the ring. That he had secretly worn around his neck, hidden beneath his shirt, being a fool in love. And he could only grin back sheepishly at her the day she discovered it, one wonderful, exciting evening when he'd snuck into the castle to enjoy a few precious moments alone with her. Hurrying to undress just as she was, he'd forgotten his usual attempts to hide her ring, and when she saw it she chided him, her shining eyes revealing how secretly pleased and touched she was.
Remembering, Robin uttered an anguished cry. The woman he loved, his beautiful wife, was dead, murdered by Gisbourne. And even though Robin could not spy his enemy in Locksley, he knew the man still lived.
The people of Locksley still hid within their homes while Gisbourne's black and yellow clad soldiers held sway over the village. Proof that Gisbourne lived. Proof that Robin had failed to kill him.
He had to finish what he'd come here to do. He needed to find and kill the murdering traitor, and a concussion and dislocated shoulder were mere details.
The sound of someone walking through the high grass made Robin glance up to discover Kate, the blond Locksley lass, staring at him. Without warning, she uttered a shrill cry, hurtling herself against his injured body.
The impact slammed Robin's back to the ground, painfully knocking his dislocated shoulder back into its socket.
"You're alive!" Kate shrieked, lying on top of him, clinging to his shoulders, and hurting him even more.
In a flash, Robin recalled lifting a linen hanging on a Nottingham clothesline and coming face-to-face with Marian, whose tear-streaked face lit up in a smile just before she threw herself into his arms.
The contrast between that instance and this tore at Robin's heart, and he tossed the blond from him before rising angrily to his feet.
Undeterred, Kate stood up as well, exclaiming, "We thought you were dead, but you came back! And then, we watched Gisbourne kill you! But you're here! You're here!"
She tried throwing herself against him again, but Robin barely noticed. Her words only made him think of Marian.
"We thought you were dead..." Marian, lying motionless on the stone slab in the cave, while Robin sobbed aloud, finally voicing his love for her, full of self-reproach that he'd never told her before.
"...but you came back!" The gang, standing beside him, fresh from a battle that only partially eased their grief, while Robin tried to be brave, barely able to force out the words, "I need you to make a coffin." And Allan saying, "Not bein' funny, but she's breathing."
"And then, we watched Gisbourne kill you!" He did, or rather caught the devastating scene just after, with Gisbourne trying to hold Marian up, his sword jutting out of her on the sands of Acre. Himself arriving too late, too late, always too late. Crying out her name, rushing to her, barely aware of Gisbourne running away to join the sheriff, who called out, as if it mattered, "It's not over, Hood! I will still have England!"
Take it. England's nothing to me anymore.
"But you're here! You're here!"
But she wasn't. Was she? The nagging feeling that Marian hadn't died returned, tugging at Robin's soul.
Stop it. She's dead. We buried her.
He had to find Gisbourne and kill him. Now! Kate, he realized, was still snivelling against his chest, babbling on and on about him.
"Where's Gisbourne?" he snarled, pushing her away.
"Nottingham," she answering sniffling. "He's been searching for your body, down in the gorge. But he went back to the castle, to question your men before their execution."
"Execution?"
"Yeah. Didn't you know? Your men are in the dungeon. The sheriff's planning a triple execution tomorrow, and Gisbourne wants to get some back on them, especially Allan, before they die."
