The tavern wasn't the worst one in Nottingham, but it was far from being the best. It was big enough, but the low ceilings and the heavy, smoky air made it look smaller and oppressive.
Guy looked around, glancing, disgusted, at the drunkards, asleep on the tables and on the floor. He and Allan stepped past a man who was snoring heavily on the floor, and they sat at a free table in a dimly lit corner.
"Hood could have chosen a better place," Guy whispered to Allan, glancing at the host who was approaching, and receiving in return an equally hostile glare.
Allan ordered drinks and food, and the host returned to the counter, not without glaring at Gisborne again.
"You have to admit that the girls are cute, though," Allan said, looking at the women sitting at the tables or wandering around the room, willing to offer their company in exchange for some coin.
"Another reason for not wanting to be here. If someone were to report to Marian where I am now, it would be a disaster."
"And who would tell that to her? Not me nor Robin. And if she should come to know it somehow, I'll tell her that I dragged you here with me and that you didn't do anything wrong."
Allan had just finished talking, when a girl in a gaudy dress came to their table, and sat down on Guy's knees, throwing her arms around his neck.
"Do you want company, honey?" She asked in a loud voice, then she put her finger on his lips to stop his protest, and she brought her lips to his ear to speak to him in a low tone. "It's me, play along or people will notice us.".
Guy stared at her, astonished.
"Meg?" He whispered, and the girl laughed.
"Didn't you recognize me dressed like this?"
Gisborne shook his head, blushing, and Meg smiled at herself noticing his embarrassment.
At first she had not been sure to dress and to wear make up like one of the women who usually attended that kind of ill-famed places, but now she found the whole situation quite fun.
Neither Guy nor Allan had recognized her at first sight, and Meg felt reassured, knowing that she would go unnoticed even in front of any guards.
Well, not really unnoticed, she thought, noticing the hungry looks of the men around her, but no one would ever understand that she was the same girl who fled the sheriff's prisons a few months earlier.
She leaned back on Gisborne and she played with one of the locks that curled on the man's neck.
"You could hold me tighter, you know? If you look so grave, people will know there is something strange."
The girl took his arm and guided it around her waist, so that Guy's hand was touching her back.
"If you come to sit on my legs, I'm willing to hug you as much as you want," Allan said, giving her a cheeky smile.
The girl laughed.
"The instructions are for him," she whispered.
In fact, it would have been enough to sit at the table and drink with the two men, telling Robin's instructions between a laughter and a drink, but Meg couldn't resist the temptation to tease Gisborne a bit. In the past she had insulted him, she had fought with him, and their relationships had never been friendly, but the truth was that the girl found him attractive.
If her father had proposed a man like him as a husband in the past, perhaps by now she would have been busy taking care of a home and a baby, instead of living as the member of a gang of outlaws.
Meg wasn't certain which of the two alternatives she would have preferred.
"Then hurry to report them," Guy said abruptly, and the girl gave him a resentful glance.
It was clear that Gisborne wasn't attracted by her at all, and that the situation embarrassed him, but why did he have to show it so openly?
Well, worse for him, Meg thought, deciding to embarrass him even more, as a revenge for his disinterest. She tightened her hold on him, and she approached even more, rubbing her body against Guy's while whispering Robin's instructions in his ear, then, before parting from him, she followed a sudden impulse and kissed him on his lips.
Gisborne remained motionless, without reacting to the gesture of the girl.
Meg stared at him for a moment and she blushed suddenly, as her eyes filling with tears.
What was she doing? For years she said that she hated men, she had proclaimed that she wanted to be independent, and now she was acting in such a shameful way just for the blue eyes of a man who didn't even look at her? She had gone too far, and she was perfectly aware of it.
She slid down from Guy's knees and she sat on the bench between the two men, turning to Allan and pretending to embrace him too. The outlaw held her tight, and the girl leaned her head on his shoulder, hiding her face against his neck.
Allan realized that the girl was crying and he exchanged a disconcerted look with Guy. Meg's behavior was surprising for both of them, but the outlaw was the first to recover.
He poured the wine into two cups and handed one to Gisborne, hissing at him that he should drink.
Guy obeyed, struggling to look like he was enjoying himself. He now had Robin's instructions, and he couldn't wait to leave that place and situation, but they had to be careful not to create suspicions.

Marian had wrapped herself in the cloak, keeping her face hidden under the hood. She wasn't wearing the Nightwatchman's mask, but she had chosen male clothes, hoping to go unnoticed.
That tavern wasn't a good place for noble girls, if some of the attendants of that room realized that she was a woman, she would have been in a dangerous situation.
She had come early, she had sat in the most hidden table in a dark corner and she had ordered a drink by throwing a coin on the table and gesturing to one of the barrels without speaking, then she waited, her heart beating too fast.
That place frightened her, and for sure it had been rash to come there without escort, but if Guy really betrayed her, Marian couldn't bear to show her humiliation to one of the servants.
She hoped to have come to that place unnecessarily, to be forced to wait in vain among those drunken men, and to go home disgusted by those drunkards, but with a lighter heart.
Guy, don't come to the appointment, please.
She had barely the time to formulate that thought, when she had seen Allan entering the tavern, followed by Guy just a moment later.
No.
Marian had been staring at them, making sure that she was well hidden in the shadows.
If Guy was with Allan, maybe the situation wasn't that bad, anyway, Marian thought. Who would go to the date with a lover taking a friend with him?
A woman in a fancy dress was approaching the two men's table and she sat in Guy's lap, offering him her company.
Marian winced.
Send her away, Guy.
Gisborne had grabbed the woman's waist with his arm and the girl leaned to him, giggling and whispering something to his ear.
Marian had found herself grabbing her cup of wine tight enough that her hand was shaking. She was about to stand up and pull away that woman from Guy's arms, but she forced herself to sit.
Then the girl crawled over Guy and kissed him.
Marian had closed her eyes, unable to watch. When she reopened them, the girl was no longer sitting on Guy's knees, but she was hugging Allan.
Marian stared down at her own hand, upset; she was clutching her curved dagger in her fingers, the one that she used to hide in her hair, when it was longer. She did not recall at all the moment when she had pulled it out of its sheath.
What else could she do unknowingly, if that woman hadn't separated herself from Guy?
Marian began to tremble.
She wanted to run away from that horrible place and to be free to cry without being seen by anyone, but she couldn't get up from her seat before Guy and Allan were gone or they would recognize her.
She took the cup of wine and drank a long sip. It had a tremendous flavor, but Marian didn't care, nothing could be good that night, not even the wine.

Guy faked drinking from his cup of wine, then he spilled it on the floor to empty it. He didn't have the slightest intention of touching that stuff, especially after seeing the glares of the host. It was clear that his presence was unwelcome in that place, and only God knew what they had done to his wine.
As soon as he thought it was safe to do so, he got up and took Meg for a wrist, giving her a ravenous smile.
"Come."
He dragged the girl upstairs, and he walked into the room that Robin had reserved for them. He left the door unlocked, and soon afterwards Allan joined them.
Guy bolted the door, and when he turned to look at Meg, every trace of a smile had disappeared from his face.
"What did you think you were doing?" He asked in a harsh tone, but without raising his voice.
"Hey, Giz, she was just acting," Allan said, realizing that the girl's eyes were still full of tears.
"Well, she exaggerated."
"I'm sorry, you are right." Meg said quietly, wiping her eyes with her hand.
Guy looked at her, her face flushed with tears and streaked with black for the too heavy makeup that had been washed away by her tears.
She made him think of his sister: when they were little, Isabella had tried to ride Guy's pony secretly, and obviously she ended up falling into a muddy puddle. She hadn't been hurt, but she had ruined one of the clothes she liked most and her mother had strongly scolded her. Isabella had listened to her words crying, red with shame and with tears that left muddy tracks on her face.
At that moment, Meg had little Isabella's same expression and that memory dissolved Guy's irritation: she was just an innocent little girl who had played with something bigger than her.
"It doesn't matter," Guy said, and Allan let out a sigh of relief. "But forget all of this, it doesn't suit you."
Guy made a vague gesture toward the girl's dress and Meg blushed again, hanging her head in shame.
Gisborne put a hand on her cheek to make her raise her face and he smiled at her, repeating unconsciously the same gesture he had done so many years before to console his sister.
"You are a good and brave girl, and tonight you have done your job even too well, Robin should be proud to have welcomed you in his gang."
The girl looked at him.
"Aren't you angry with me?"
"Why should I? You came to the tavern and you gave me Robin's instructions, as stated. Nothing else happened."
"Nothing at all." Allan said, smiling.
She nodded, grateful to the two men, understanding that both of them would keep silent about her inappropriate behavior.
"Now turn around, it's time for the Nightwatchman to come into action. Allan, give me my costume."
Obedient, Meg turned to the wall and closed her eyes as Guy changed his clothes. At another time, she would have been tempted to peek, but she was still too embarrassed to think about doing so.
"Now you can watch," Guy said. "Show me the passage you talked about."
Meg turned and nodded. She moved the table in the middle of the room and climbed on it, pressing her hands on the ceiling until she found a hidden trapdoor.
"Robin said that from here you can access a tunnel that crosses the attic of the tavern. If you follow it all the way, you will come to a window that opens onto the roof of another building. Walking from roof to roof, you will reach the warehouse where the sheriff has hidden all the food he took away from the villages. Robin marked the rooftops with his arrows, so you won't lose the right path."
"So I have to go into that warehouse and open the doors from the inside, right?"
"Yes. Robin and the others will be around, ready to neutralize the guards and to take away everything. Ah, I have an important message from Robin, he told me to repeat it word by word."
Guy grinned.
"Let's hear."
"Tell to that fool of Gisborne that, after opening the doors, he must go back from where he came without taking any other action. And this is an order."
"Yes, it's definitely a message from Hood," Guy said with a sarcastic snort.
"He said that you should come back here and come out of this room with me, so no one will suspect you."
"Actually, I think he just wants to protect me because he still feels guilty about hurting me, but it doesn't matter, this time I'm going to obey."
"Now go, Giz. Meg and I will wait for you here."
Guy climbed on the table, and Meg moved away to allow him to reach the trapdoor. Before he got up, he looked at the girl.
"Is everything alright?"
"I'm quite ashamed, but yes. Thank you, and sorry again."
Gisborne smiled at her.
"Next time, kiss only somebody you really like."
The girl watched him disappear into the trapdoor and she closed the panel.
She sighed, thinking of the words he had just told her.
I did it, Guy of Gisborne, I did.