Gwen yawned. She had been up all night, to run away from her father's camp, and then she had met her uncle, of all the men in the County. All those emotions, and the effort of running, made her exhausted.
"You should get some sleep, child," Matilda said, with a kind smile.
"The guest room is ready," Marian added.
The girl glanced at them, and at Guy.
"Can I really trust you? Won't you send me back to my father? I'd rather die than go back to him."
"He won't hurt you anymore," Guy said, "I won't allow that."
"What will you do if he comes and wants to take me to the castle? The Sheriff's soldiers are with him..."
Everyone looked at her, wondering what Vaisey was plotting now, but it was Sir Edward who answered.
"For now, he can't know that you are here, yet, so you can sleep peacefully. Later we'll have to decide what to do, but if Sir Guy said that he will protect you, you can trust his word."
Guy smiled at the old man, grateful for his trust.
Guinevere relented. She was really tired, and, above all, she wished with all her heart that their words were true, she longed so much to feel safe, at least for once in her life.
She nodded, and she stood up to follow Susanne to her room, but first she stopped in front of Guy.
"Uncle, you have a lot to make up for what you did to my mother. You can begin teaching me how to fight. I want to learn to use a sword, and you have to show me how can you shot so perfectly with a bow."
Allan snicker was immediately stopped by Guy's glare, then Gisborne looked at the girl, a little concerned.
"I will protect you, you don't need to use weapons..."
"Why? Because I'm a girl?!" She answered, fiercely, despite her exhaustion. "No uncle, if I learned something in my life is that it's always good to be able to defend myself, even if I have nobody to support me. If maman knew how to fight, maybe my father wouldn't have hurt her so much during all these years. You will teach me."
Gwen followed the servant out of the hall, and Allan looked at Marian with a smirk.
"Are you sure that she's Giz's relative and not yours? She talks like you. And it seems that she can wrap Giz around her finger as well."
Both Marian and Guy gave a warning glare at Allan, but it was Sir Edward who spoke next, grave.
"What will you do, Sir Guy? Her parents will want her back."
"I promised that she wouldn't go back to a father who beats her. I will keep that promise. I know that I'm putting you in a difficult situation, but if things go wrong, I'll take her away, so that the wrath of the Sheriff won't fall on Knighton."
Marian looked at him, alarmed.
"No, Guy! I don't want you to go away!" She blurted, blushing when she realized that she just gave away her feelings for the knight.
Guy looked pained.
"I don't want to leave, but I have to make up for my wrongdoings. You always said that I have to make the right thing… But if I have to go, I swear that I will come back to you."
Sir Edward cleared his voice.
"Don't be hasty in your decisions, Sir Guy. Maybe we can find a peaceful solution. After all you're the uncle of the girl, maybe her parents will agree to let her stay with you for a visit. And if not, we'll have gained some more time to take a decision."
"Do you think I should go to Nottingham and speak with them?" Guy asked, worried at the idea of seeing Isabella after so many years.
"I do. So they can't accuse you of kidnapping her."
"Go there with Allan," Matilda added. "If they won't hear any reasons, Allan can come back and warn us and I'll take her to my hut in the forest. She'll be safe, nobody will think to search for that child there."
"Would you do this for us? What if they find out?!"
Matilda patted him on the cheek.
"There's no reason to worry, now. We can't know what's going to happen, maybe everything will go well and they'll let her stay here with no fuss at all. When problems will show up, we'll sort them out. Together."
"Thank you," Guy said, deeply moved.
"That's what family is for, love. And despite blood ties, you're family to me. But now forget about all this mawkish stuff and go out to ride for a while, or to take a walk. You need to calm down, and to take your time to think about this situation. And this is an order from your healer. Go."
Guy stood up, and he gave her a little kiss on her cheek, grateful.
"I must obey, then," he said, amused, and he walked out of the hall.
Marian stared at the door, longing to go with him, but she didn't move, thinking that Guy needed to be alone. When she turned back to look at the others, she met Matilda's ironic stare.
"What are you waiting for? Go. Reach him."
"But..."
"I told him to relax and calm down, not that he needed to be alone. From what I saw, I think that you know perfectly well how to take his mind out of his problems."
Allan burst up into a laugh and Marian blushed, but she hurried to run after Guy.
She reached him in the stables. The knight was there, saddling his horse with a grave look in his eyes. He turned in hearing her steps.
"Marian..."
The girl walked to him, and she stared at his face.
"I know that Matilda said not to think about it, but I have to say this. If you have to go away..."
"I will come back. It's a promise. Whatever it takes, I'll come back."
"I won't wait."
Guy looked at her, hurt.
"Do you doubt my words?"
"I waited for five years for Robin to come back from the Holy Land and I won't do it again. It's a horrible sensation, as if you're stuck and you can't go on with your life. I waited, not knowing if the man I loved was dead or alive, if his feelings for me were still strong or if he was seeing other women..."
"I would never betray you!" Guy burst out, and Marian put a finger on his lips.
"I know. Still, I couldn't bear it. I won't wait for you if you have to go away..."
Guy hung his head, sadly.
"I see..."
Marian put a hand on his cheek and forced him to look at her.
"That's why, if you have to go, I'll come with you."
Guy's eyes widened in surprise.
"What?!"
"I'm the Nightwatchman, Guy, I won't be a burden to you. If you need to take your niece away from Nottingham, we'll leave together. We can get married before we go, or during our travel, if you want, or not at all, but you are not leaving me behind, just like I won't leave you alone."
"Really? Are you sure of this? Your father..."
"He won't be alone. Our servants are faithful and Robin won't let anything bad happen to him. I love you, Guy. My place is at your side and there's nothing you can do about this."
Guy kissed her, passionately.
"Oh, I know, nothing could make you change your mind. And besides there's nothing I'd want to do against your plan," he whispered after a while, his lips close to hers, smiling. "Maybe we are fools, but I want you at my side."
Marian hugged him tight, and she gave him another playful kiss, laughing.
"Then we have an agreement! Shall we obey Matilda's orders and go for our ride, now?"
"There's just another thing," Guy said, blushing a little.
"What?"
"Guinevere expects me to teach her some archery… I'm a terrible shot, yet she thinks that I'm better than Hood."
Marian smiled.
"And you don't want to disappoint her."
Guy nodded, and the girl thought that it was sweet to see him so worried to conquer the approval of his niece.
"I don't think that I can teach you to shoot better than Robin, but I could give you a few lessons."
"Would you do this for me?"
"Of course I would. Now let's go, you're so terrible that we must start immediately."
Guy laughed.
"Woman, you have no respect for my pride!"
"Can your pride make you shoot better?" She asked, getting on her horse.
Guy did the same, and he let out a resigned sigh.
"Guess not."
"Let it aside, then, and follow me: we'll start training as soon as we reach an isolated field where you can't kill anybody."
Looking at her, so perfectly concentrate on her task, so beautiful, and armonious in her movements and in her sweet features, it was very, very, difficult for him to find his own concentration.
After all, she had just proposed him to flee together, in case of danger.
She really loves me, then, he thought, I've never thought I would be so happy, I dreamt of it, hoped for it, but never really thought it to be now she is here, smiling at me, caring for me, loving me. I...
"Guy! Your turn! Come on now!" She said, putting an end to his reflection, more a daydreaming, truly.
Guy tried to stand in a good position for the next shot. He looked at the target, and slightly trembled on his feet, and arms. Something that never happened him with a sword in hand. He looked and looked again, uncertain. At the very last moment, he released the arrow, but completely missed the target.
"You see? I'm the world's worst archer. Ever." Guy said, resigned.
"No, my love. Only the must uncomfortable of the archers. First of all..." Marian said, but Guy was looking at her with an astonished and tender gaze now.
"How did you call me?" He asked, overwhelmed by his emotion.
"Is that so important, Guy?" She said, a mischievous smile on her lips.
"It is for me," he said, and he was so concentrated on hearing her answer that she felt overwhelmed too, now.
Marian tried to put it lightly. "Mathilda always calls you love. On a daily basis. I think I'm in my right if I call you in the same way. Am I not?"
"It's different," he said, and he was very serious, now.
"You don't want me to do it?" She said, smiling tenderly.
He reached her.
"Oh yes, I really want you to call me love. Every day, every night, love."
"You know, Guy, sometimes we will disagree, and argue, maybe fight," Marian said,looking deeply into his beautiful, tender stare.
"Uhm...yes, it could be..." he said, reproaching her gaze, looking deep inside her beautiful, bright eyes.
"In those moments, Guy, I will not call you love..."
"Yes. I know," he said.
"I probably will call you with a lot of different names, some of them not exactly pleasant. Maybe, a lot of them..."
"I remember," he said, his brows frowning at the memory of their big fight.
"And you think you'll be alright with it?" She asked.
He put his hands on her waist, gently pulling her to him.
"Then I'll find the way to make you call me love again."
He engaged her in a sweet kiss.
She added, then: "Guy, I will be not so easily placated, you know."
He sensually whispered in her right ear.
"I know, I know you. Then I will try harder," and he kissed her again, more passionately. She eagerly responded.
"You think that everything can be settled again with a kiss, with passion?" She asked, looking at him with curiosity.
"I cannot dream of a better way than this, my love," his eyes on her were dreamily, now.
"Just apologize, in case," she said, breaking his reverie.
He laughed, rich and true, and he was really fascinating. He was so beautiful to her eyes now, so lovingly. She could not believe now how long and difficult had been their road to this new step of their relationship.
"I will apologize, my love. I will, and I promise to... possibly between kisses. That's the only thing I ask of you: give me a possibility, when you think I'm wrong," he said, and he meant it.
"It seems that passion is so important for you, Guy."
"Is it not important for you, Marian? You are a passionate woman, always, in everything. So am I."
"Yes, I am, I think. I've never thought about it, truly. But, passion, Guy, is that the most important thing in a marriage, for you?" She asked.
"That was not the thing I wanted from you when I asked permission to your father to court you."
"Really? Than what was it, Guy?" She expected him to talk of wealth and heritage, again.
"Understanding," he said, very serious and visibly true.
"What?" Marian said, astonished.
"Understanding, in a marriage, is the most important thing. I wanted you to understand me. I wanted to be understood, and... secure of you. I wanted you to feel understood, and secure. Safe. Feeling me at your side, feeling you being at my side."
Marian was now completely astonished.
"And do you understand me, Guy?"
"Yes, sometimes it had been difficult, of course. I suffered for it, but, I never gave up. I'll never give up, Marian. I'll never give up on you. Sometimes it will be still difficult, I know. People change, we will be different, but believe me when I said that I will always find the way, inside my heart, to understand you. To understand what you're feeling and the meaning of your actions. Because I love you," he said, so concentrated and reverent, and it seemed to see him making his wows at the altar.
Then he added, with a lighter tone: "And... yes, my passion for you is very strong and important too."
She silently caressed his right cheek, his words gave her a completely new and unexpected wiew of their feelings, and of their destiny, in the years to come.
"I could be very angry at you, now, you know?" Marian said, serious.
"Why? What did I do wrong?" He asked, worried.
"You could have been this way from the beginning, you know. Everything could have been so different between me and you," she said.
"Still, I was on the wrong part, I was on the wrong path. I had committed crimes, heinous crimes, at Vaisey's service, for years. I knew it, I felt it inside my bones. My conscience ached for it, every night, every day. And I needed you. I knew that you, your purity of mind and heart could be my salvation. You are my salvation," he said.
"Guy, I'm not 'pure' in the way I think, and in how I act. I was the Nightwatchman. You didn't know that of me, then," she replied.
"Still you are 'pure' to me. Your conscience is clear, your intentions noble, even when you were fighting me as the Nightwatchman. You still were, and are, a much better person than I am. I had admired you, your strength and courage, your resistance, before I fell in love with you. You are my inspiration. You'll always be."
She now was at loss for words. She hugged him with all her strenght, completely losing herself into his arms. She had never thought she could find this kind of love in a man. But now she would tresaure it, somehow, inside her heart.
"I was wrong with you, Marian. I was so very wrong to you in the past. I apologize, and I'm sorry for it. So very sorry. For all of it. I swear," he said.
She looked into his eyes and found complete sincerity there.
"I forgive you, Guy."
"I will be loyal, and faithful, to you, and only to you, and your family," he added.
"And will you listen to me, Guy?" She asked.
"Yes, I will," Guy replied.
"Good, listen to me now, my love, my beloved," she said, "we really have to concentrate on our task now. Your niece, remember?"
"I will never..." he was so insecure again.
She put an hand on his lips, silencing him.
"You think too much, you wait too much. That's the problem with you. Archery is different from swordplay. You fear too much. You are tall. Archery is more difficult for tall people, less natural. Find an equilibrium on your feet. The moment you have it, just look, draw, release. The more arrows you shoot, and quickly, the more the people will be scared of you. Archery is speed, not only strength, it's just letting yourself free, using the bow as your arm, as your hand."
"Oh..." He said.
"Hush, Guy. Don't talk, just concentrate. Try to feel your own body, your feet on the ground. Close your eyes, now," Marian suggested.
He was on his feet now. A tall, imposing, elegant figure. Marian looked at him with admiration, but refrained herself from telling him that, now.
"Now open your eyes, Guy. Take your bow. Adjust your hands, your arms, your legs to it. It will be a part of you, in time."
He nocked the arrow, and drew the bow.
"Look at the target, and let it go, now."
The arrow hit very near the centre of the target. Very.
"Good. Now we exercise," she said, smiling widely.
She felt happy like she had never been before.
