Marian held the reins of her horse, and she led him carefully through the snow, headed to Locksley.
The apprentice of the castle's falconer was following her on a wagon, with the cage of Vaisey's falcon well sheltered in the back of the vehicle.
The girl hesitated, afraid to find Guy distressed and broken and Robin still willing to die. She had been shocked when Robin had disappeared in the forest, unable to believe that he had really chosen to give up, to take his own life in the winter cold.
This wasn't the Robin she knew, and it was her fault if he had changed so much.
Life can be so cruel and sad, Marian thought, dispirited.
It was still early in the morning, but she had left the castle as soon as she could, too worried for the two men to wait any longer.
Marian looked at the manor, ruined and barely habitable, but with many men from the village working on it, to restore it to its old glory.
It's like us. We are broken, but one day we might be whole again…
She was still trying to find the courage to go inside, when she heard the sound of hooves coming from the road.
Guy of Gisborne arrived on his white horse, coming from the village, and he looked at her in surprise.
Marian smiled, relieved to see that he seemed to be fine.
"Guy!"
Gisborne glanced at her.
"Marian! I didn't expect to see you here… It's very early..."
"Aren't you happy to see me?"
"Of course I am! Just surprised."
The girl grinned, amused to see how worried he looked at the idea that she could misunderstand his words.
"I'm happy to hear that, even because I have a present for you."
"A present?" Guy stopped the horse at the side of Marian's one.
"Yes, a present. Is it so strange?"
"Actually it is. Nobody gave me any since a very long time."
Marian thought of all the gifts that Guy had given to her in the past, and she wondered if he liked so much to give her pretty things because he never got presents from anyone.
"Here," Marian said, handling him a small bundle wrapped in cloth, and Guy took it with a shy smile. "Open it."
Guy obeyed, and he looked at the new falconer's glove she had given him.
"I brought Vaisey's falcon to you. You wanted to learn hunting with it, didn't you? The boy on the wagon is the falconer's apprentice, he has agreed to stay at Locksley to take care of the falcon and to teach you how to handle him."
Guy nodded at the boy.
"Take the falcon in the stable or wherever you think it should be kept. Thornton will find you a room for you in one of the huts," he said, then he turned to Marian, smiling. "Thank you, I really appreciate it."
The girl glanced at him as soon as they were alone.
"Guy? How are you?"
Gisborne looked at her, moved.
"Were you worried for me?"
Marian nodded.
"When you galloped away like that, yesterday, I was afraid that you could get hurt too."
Guy blushed a little, remembering his reaction.
"I am alright, really." He paused for a moment, then he shyly looked at her. "Do you want to go for a ride? I have to check the traps I set at the edge of the forest."
Marian eagerly accepted, and they rode side to side at a slow pace.
"I was surprised to find out you have a sister..."
"I was surprised to find her at the manor. I hadn't seen her in years."
"She seemed to be mad at you, yesterday."
Guy nodded.
"She had every right to be. I hadn't been a good brother for her. But I hope things will change now, I'll try to make up for my wrongs."
"I'm sure you will. Is she at the manor, now?"
"Yes, I asked her if she wanted to ride with me, but she preferred to stay at home to rest. She is still recovering after escaping from her husband. That man… he used to beat her… And it's my fault because I gave her to him, just to have the money to become a knight..."
"She told me that her husband made her life a living hell. But she's free now. Will you protect her?"
"I'm almost seventeen years late, but I will. I owe that to her."
Marian glanced at him.
"I didn't know that you and Robin knew each other when you were little."
"Maybe it would have been better if we didn't."
"Why?"
Guy pulled the reins of the horse, and he dismounted, holding a hand to Marian.
"Let's walk for a while."
They tied the horses to a tree and they took the path going up the hill, until they reached a grave, covered in snow. Guy pushed aside the branches of a bush, and Marian saw another cross shaped tombstone, half hidden by the undergrowth.
"Whose tombs are those?" Marian asked, surprised.
"Didn't Robin show them to you?"
The girl shook her head.
"No, we never went up here together."
"These are his parent's graves. Actually it's only his mother's tomb, his father's is empty."
"How do you know that?"
"Because it's my fault if his father, and my own parents, died."
Guy looked away, keeping his gaze on the village downhill, and Marian held her breath.
"But… It can't be, Guy… What happened?"
Gisborne sighed, and he brushed away the snow from the trunk of a fallen tree so that they could sit on it.
"There is a reason if there was bad blood between us..." he began, and he continued talking, to tell her the events of so many years ago.
Isabella pushed the curtain aside, looking at Robin, who was lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
Robin didn't move.
"Nothing."
"Very well!"
Her tone induced him to turn his gaze on Isabella.
"What?"
"If you have nothing to do, you can help me."
"Help you to do what?" he asked, then his eyes widened when Isabella turned her back to him, revealing that her dress was half opened.
"Could you tie it? Thornton's daughter cleaned it, but it seems that it's too difficult to tie it without a maid. And you and Guy don't have many servants here."
Robin got up from the bed, uncertain on what to do. It was an embarrassing situation, but Gisborne's sister looked so innocent, that he didn't know how to refuse his help without looking like a perverted miscreant.
He awkwardly tied the laces, and when he was finished, Isabella handed a brush to him.
"Now do my hair, please."
Robin stared at her, blankly.
"I have no idea of how to do that!"
The woman giggled.
"I know! I was just teasing you. I didn't expect that you would actually tie the laces of my dress. I thought that you would be too embarrassed to do it, but you are a naughty boy, aren't you, Robin?"
She took the brush back and she began brushing her hair, leaving it loose on her shoulders. She had dark, curly locks, similar to her brother's, but much longer.
"I'll just wait for Guy for this."
"To fix your hair?"
"He was good at it. He had to learn when we were alone."
Robin remembered how his own life had been sad and lonely when his father died, and for the first time he realized that for Guy and Isabella it had to be much worse, because they didn't have a whole village to support them. He had always thought that Gisborne had deserved whatever happened to him, but he had never thought much about Isabella.
She had been just a child, innocent and without any fault.
"Was it very hard for you when you left the village?"
"When they sent us away, you mean. It was." She answered, in a harsh tone. "For Guy it was even harder, I guess. I was just a child, heartbroken after our parent's death. He loved them as much as I did, but he had to take care of me, of both of us. I think I have been cruel to him then, I used to tell him that it was his fault and that I hated him for that, but now I realize that he was just a boy too."
Robin had never thought about that, he had never felt pity for Gisborne, and he still found difficult to do it.
"He killed my father, I can't forget it."
"It was an accident! And it was your fault too."
Robin looked at her, resentfully.
"My fault? Are you out of your mind?!"
"Our father came back to talk to our mother! Maybe he would have taken us back to France to live together as a family until his death, but you saw him, and you called the people of the village! I was little, but I wasn't stupid, I heard people saying that it was you who alerted everyone!"
"He was a leper! He couldn't go back to the village! He was a danger for all of us!"
"He was our father!" Isabella began weeping. "You say that Guy killed our parents, but you killed them too! Mon frère just wanted to send your father away, but that fire would never have been started if your father wasn't there."
Robin stared at her, shocked by her words. He had always held Gisborne responsible for the fire, but now Isabella's words made him feel guilty as well.
"I was a child and the leper scared me..." He began, but Isabella interrupted him, crying even harder.
"So was Guy! And me too! We were all children, but only Guy was blamed for it."
Robin shut up, unable to find the words to reply. What she said sounded true, but he wasn't ready to accept her words, he couldn't take the burden of another fault.
Gisborne carried it for almost twenty years…
He was still standing there, almost petrified, when Isabella came closer, and she hid her face against his shoulder, searching for comfort. Robin awkwardly encircled her with his arms, holding her close, and hoping that she would stop weeping.
He felt his eyes wet with tears too, but he didn't want her to see them, so he kept holding her, hugging her close to hide his face from her gaze.
The pain was overwhelming, as usual, but Isabella was warm and soft, and she needed to be comforted as well. Their closeness seemed to soothe her sorrow a little, maybe, so Robin kept holding her. He was surprised to find out that that hug felt good for him too, that a little warmth was finding its way into his ice cold heart.
"It's funny, don't you think?" Guy said, and Marian frowned: there was nothing funny in the story of his family.
"What do you mean, Guy?"
"Robin, Isabella and me. Living all together in the same house. If Robin's father and our mother had been able to wed, it would have happened many years ago. We would have grown up in the same house, as if we were siblings. Sometimes fate has twisted ways to make things happen."
Marian had been staring at the ground, but now she lifted her eyes to glance at him. Guy's expression was melancholic, and she instinctively caressed his face with a hand. She wanted to comfort him, but she couldn't help noticing how nice it felt touching his skin, soft and rough at the same time for the stubble that covered his cheek. Guy turned, surprised by her touch, and a moment after, Marian removed the hand to press her lips in the same place.
Guy pulled her closer and he tentatively moved his head a little to kiss her.
Her lips were cold and soft, and they opened slightly to return the kiss and to deepen it.
Guy closed his eyes, his heart probably beating too fast, and he felt that he could lose himself completely in her, that just holding her could make him forget everything else. And a kiss could become his whole world.
Robin sat at the table, and he looked at the puzzled expression of Isabella while she listened to Allan's usual nonsense.
The young man and Djaq arrived a short while ago, curious to meet Gisborne's sister, while Little John didn't enter and waited outside, still feeling too ashamed and guilty to show his face at the manor.
Robin mentally sighed, knowing that it was his fault, that John felt responsible for letting him escape. He didn't dare to think how John would feel if he had succeeded in his attempt to go and die in the forest.
I'm sorry, my friend. I don't deserve your devotion.
He forced himself to bring his attention back on Allan and Isabella.
Allan was brushing the woman's face with his fingers, happily chattering.
"So you are Giz's sister… He never told me about you!"
"It seems he never talked about me to anyone." Isabella commented, bitterly.
"Oh, you must understand him, he never talked much about anything. If you worked for Vaisey, it was better that way. The former sheriff was capable to use any simple word to hurt you. If he knew Giz had a sister, it wouldn't have been good for neither of you."
Isabella wondered how difficult Guy's life had been after leaving her with Thornton. She had always imagined him happy and free without her, and she had hated him for that, but she was beginning to realize that Guy's life hadn't been much easier than hers.
"Are you prettier than him?" Allan asked, still touching her face, and Isabella smiled at his cheeky questions. "I think you are, and I bet you have blue eyes too."
"You guessed right. And I think we have some resemblance, now that you make me think about it."
"Not the nose! Yours is prettier!" Allan said, touching it and making her laugh.
Robin was grateful for Allan's silly chatter, he was glad to see her laughing because he had seen the fear and the pain in her eyes, and then if Allan was talking, maybe nobody would ask him about his attempt to get lost in the snow.
This hope vanished when Djaq went to sit at his side.
"You are not chained, I see." The girl said, looking at him. "I thought that Gisborne would lock you in that room, and throw away the key..."
"I gave him my word that I won't try it again."
Djaq looked at him for a moment.
"And he trusted you," she said with a light smile.
"He did."
"John trusted you too."
"I'm sorry," Robin sighed, and the girl nodded.
"I know. I'm glad you met her," she said, glancing at Isabella, "for both of you. And for all of us too."
"Why does Gisborne care so much if I live?"
"Was he very upset, yesterday?" The girl gave him a sad smile. "He's a good man, after all, very different from what I thought. He's not heartless, you know? Not at all. Will you keep your word to him?"
Robin nodded.
"I will."
"Good."
They sat in silence, listening to Allan, who had just finished talking and had grabbed his lute, eager to sing his ballads to Isabella.
Guy closed his eyes, and he wished that that moment could last forever. Marian was in his arms, leaning on him and relaxed in his embrace, and he could still feel the warmth of her kisses on his lips.
I know that she isn't mine, but my heart belongs to her. It always will.
If only he could stay like that forever, with the girl in his arms, so trustful and tender…
He felt her trembling, and he looked at her.
"Are you cold?"
The girl nodded and she stood up, drawing back from Guy's embrace. Gisborne realized that she was lying, that she just wanted to end that tender moment for some reason, probably because she remembered that she was in love with Robin.
He let her go, saddened, but grateful for having at least that moment.
"I should check the traps and the snares," he said, trying to ignore the sudden distance she had put between them, "We need all the meat we can get."
Marian glanced at him, grateful to hear that he had chosen to talk about a common subject instead of their kisses. She felt ashamed, knowing that what had just happened had to be very important for Guy, but she really didn't want to think about feelings, she was already struggling enough to go on, to keep living even if most of the people despised her.
"You are working a lot to take care of Locksley, even after what they did to you..."
"I'm trying to do my best. The past is in the past, now this village is under my responsibility and for once I want to do well, I want to be proud of what I do."
Marian smiled, sincerely glad to see him so resolute.
He has been broken, but he's healing, and I think he's getting stronger than he was before.
"Let me help you, where did you place the traps?"
"Along that path," he said, pointing at the trees.
Marian didn't know well that part of the forest, but she nodded.
"Is it a good place? Do you usually get many prey?"
"There's the river down there, so the animals often follow the path to reach the water. I rarely come home empty-handed now. And when I'll learn using the falcon, it will be even better."
"That poor bird has been lucky to be found by you."
"Do you really think so?"
"I'm sure you will be kind to him. We paid a terrible price for it, but without the sheriff we are all better. We are free."