LIV

"Wait… run that by me again..."

Robin had often admired Allan's ability to think outside the box, this however was so outside the box that neither he nor the others could entertain it.

"Marian has no choice yeh? She can't call the weddin' off, else Gisborne'll hand her over to the sheriff right? But what if he gets second thoughts you know?"

"He? You think that he would have second thoughts?" Much asked incredulously. Judging by the deeply sceptical look on Robin's face, he also had difficulty in picturing this scenario.

"Alright hear me out, you remember that girl we brought here?"

"Lady Francesca?" Will offered.

Allan nodded and was about to continue, but Will cut him off. "We didn't just bring her Allan, it wasn't like 'hey, do you want to come visit our camp?' We kidnapped her!"

Allan shrugged as if it was a trifling detail, which made Djaq laugh. Robin squirmed; after all, it was he who'd done the kidnapping. He coughed and signalled for Allan to continue.

"Well, she and 'im definitely had a thing, I'd put money on it…"

"So?" Little John prompted.

"So err… maybe she could talk to 'im yeh? Get 'im thinkin' you know?"

"That's ridiculous!" Much declared.

"Hang on a minute Much…" Robin addressed his oldest friend, but his eyes never strayed from the man with the plan, "get him thinking what Allan?"

"Well, you saw what they were like together – get 'im thinkin' about that."

Robin had to admit that maybe Allan was onto something. The intimacy with which Francesca had handled Gisborne, coupled with how receptive he'd been to her attentions could not be denied. It was easy to think of Gisborne as a monster, to put him in that box, but witnessing Francesca with him had shown a different side to him, one that none of them wished to contemplate.

Thinking of the enemy in absolutes made it simpler to fight them, to see them as a human being capable of tender feelings did not. They were all guilty of this, but none more so than Robin. He had memories of Gisborne, of times spent together as boys that he could not allow himself to dwell on, so he chose to forget, to ignore, to deny. Francesca's behaviour towards his enemy had forced him to remember that Guy was more than just a monster and that's why he'd been all too happy to hand her and Gisborne back to the sheriff and forget about the whole thing.

"I do not think it will work. If he had wanted her, he would've called off the engagement when she first arrived no?" Djaq mused.

"No, because she is not free to accept him. Winchester is hardly going to stand aside because Gisborne wants her and her father is firmly under his thumb so he's not about to change his mind." Robin pointed out.

"All the more reason why this isn't going to work - he can't have her, so why would her talking to him make him want to call it off?" Much had always had a knack at illuminating the holes in any plan and it was no different here.

"Because sometimes we think with our heart instead of our brain." Djaq declared, adding kindling to her own spark of interest in the scheme.

Will rolled his eyes at the suggestion that Gisborne was in possession of a heart but then recalled how the knight had meekly submitted to the girl's ministrations in their camp and wasn't so sure anymore.

"You think it could work?" Robin asked, surprised at Djaq's apparent about-face.

"If we do not try, it will not." She replied, hitting the nail on the head as she so often did.

"An' it's better than sittin' 'ere innit?" Allan added, encouraged by Djaq's support.

Much disagreed, he was happy to sit here and was about to say so, but a stern look from Robin, who'd anticipated his reaction, made him keep his mouth shut.

"Well, I don't have a better idea." Will declared, directing the beginnings of a smile at Allan.

"Me neither." Little John said, taking staff in hand.

It was decided then. They would try.


The journey to Nottingham gave Robin opportunity to dwell on how shaky the plan was.

There's too many factors out of our control…

Not least of which, they hardly knew the girl and had done little to make her receptive to any suggestion they might make: the last time they'd seen her, they'd held her hostage and now were so brazen as to ask her for help. The odds were against them and that was putting it mildly.

But she'd spoken out to help Allan hadn't she?

It was this detail that convinced him. Not to have Francesca seduce Gisborne, no, from what little he knew of her, she would not do that he was sure, but perhaps he could get her to influence the knight in another way…

If she knew how the engagement came about, how Gisborne trapped Marian into accepting him…

She had proved herself good hearted; he'd heard of what she'd done for Mary Lambert and how she'd turned to Sir Edward on Allan's behalf, surely she would speak in Marian's favour if she knew that Gisborne was forcing her into marriage…

and maybe…

he would listen to her.

Robin scoffed at the very thought. It seemed so unlikely as to be impossible. But this is where they were at now; stuck with long shots and last resorts because all else had failed.

They would do it. Not just because it was better than doing nothing, but because they owed it to Marian to try to get her out of this - no matter how desperate the plan, no matter how unlikely the chance of success.

It was with this mindset that they approached Nottingham, determined to give it their best.

A shame then that it failed.

Didn't make it past the starting gate.

Literally.

It was bitter to reflect that for God knows how long, the outlaws had been coming and going at Nottingham castle as if they owned the place and now they couldn't get in for love nor money.

Robin had to hand it to Winchester; he'd got the place locked down. None of their usual strategies for breaching the place worked. The guards they had come to rely on as incompetent were diligent and efficient this day; eagle eyed, sharp witted, quick to call alarm and much improved in their fighting skills. Not to mention extremely numerous.

Whether this was for King Richard's benefit or the shape of things to come in Nottingham one could not say, but it was strange to conclude that the outlaw life had been easier with Vaisey at the helm.

It was with a heavy heart then, that the outlaws found themselves in the unusual position of having to retreat; the risk of injury or capture was too great.

On the way back to their forest den, Allan received sympathetic smiles and consoling pats on the shoulder from his friends - he accepted them in his usual casual jokey manner, but secretly it meant a lot to him that they'd been willing to try his improbable plan, success or failure.

Little did he know that even though they had failed, the very thing they had been trying to achieve was happening anyway...

Gisborne was having thoughts about the wedding.


Guy did not know when he had come to rely on wilful ignorance as a crutch for dealing with his life.

Perhaps it had been those early days in Vaisey's service when he'd realised that much of what his master did was cruel and unjust.

It pained him to recall how meekly he'd accepted his fate, how eager he'd been to buy into Vaisey's lies, how quick he'd been to submit to his will. It's easy to come to such a conclusion in hindsight though isn't it? To forget that he had been a boy - poor, friendless, homeless and desperate. Fact is, turning a blind eye to his master's vile acts had merely been the first of many methods to live with them.

As a coping strategy, it isn't the best. To choose to ignore a problem does nothing to solve it and to delay can make things worse. Vaisey was a textbook example. The longer Guy waited to confront his own feelings about the things his master did, the more opportunity Vaisey had to brainwash him.

Marian was another case in question. The signs that all was not well were there, plain as day. How many prospective grooms can claim to have their bride ask them if they tried to assassinate the king? It doesn't bode well for a happy marriage does it? And he might have gotten away with a vague non-answer on that one, but what exactly was he planning to do when she finds out that the king is an imposter? That he knew about it and went ahead with the wedding anyway? That he'd known that Sir Edward would walk into a trap and did nothing?

These were all valid concerns he had no answers to, indeed didn't even try to address – he just blustered on with wedding arrangements regardless.

And that wasn't even touching upon the fact that his bride was repulsed by him. He wasn't a man with many greatest hits when it came to erotic moments but not even he was so ignorant as to consider it a good thing when a woman gags just before you kiss her.

Did he honestly think that standing at the altar and saying 'I do' was going to make any of this go away?

Francesca had warned him. Had all but spelt it out for him.

"You have to stop."

I know little one, I know…

He did.

He knew exactly what he had to do but he was afraid.

To stop meant to betray Vaisey and to betray Vaisey meant to lose everything.

Any backpedalling on this one involved revealing Vaisey's plot and for that he would pay dearly, most probably with his life, but most certainly with all that Vaisey had bestowed upon him and there was no way he was giving up on his home again. It was selfish and weak but he couldn't.

So he did that which he always did - wilfully ignored the storm that was coming his way and told himself that he would try to somehow make it better.

Once we are married….

Four words that had been his mantra ever since Marian had accepted him. A deeply flawed mantra based on the premise that as his wife, he could protect her from Vaisey, which was, as Francesca astutely pointed out, not true. It was a fairy tale notion at best and a gross overestimation of Vaisey's regard for him at worst.

He knew this. He knew he was living in a dream world and yet in his desperation to live something approximating the life he'd lost and longed for ever since he was prepared to delude himself.

It was this he was trying not to think about as he found himself on the verge of breaking down in Nottingham stables. He'd finally got some time to himself after riding round like an idiot all day trying to make the wedding as perfect as possible, (with the absurd idea that decorations etc. would somehow compensate for the unpleasantness surrounding the event), when he overheard Lord Cavendish lecturing his daughter in a nearby courtyard.

Nobody should ever speak to her like that. Nobody.

His anger flared, his fingernails dug deep into the flesh of his palms, but then…

the sadness came…

and it rocked him so hard he thought he would weep.

It would never be over for her would it? Even if Vaisey's plan worked and they were rid of Winchester, she would still have to put up with that pathetic excuse for a father. It seemed so bitterly unfair.

He leaned forward and silently screamed into the neck of his horse who startled and flailed, trying to tend to his master who was clinging to him like a drowning man. It took Guy a small eternity to collect himself before he let go to do something he had not done since he was a boy…

He got down on his knees and prayed.