Isabella woke in the morning to see Robin, as good as his word, watching his idiot servant's every move preparing breakfast. Letting her gaze sweep across the camp, she saw Marian, looking surprisingly healthy, chatting with her brother's former right hand man, that fiend Allan a Dale.

Isabella realized she had clearly underestimated that woman's recuperative powers, and would need to increase the dosage she gave her.

Robin's precautions did not worry her. She knew other ways to administer poison than through food or drink. She sat up in her bunk, meeting Robin's cold angry stare with her most vicious gaze.

"Isabella eats first," Robin announced. "We'll begin our breakfast a good twenty minutes after she finishes her last bite."

"Twenty minutes?" Much objected. "Master, surely not! It's ready now! It'll get cold, if we have to wait."

"I'm hungry now," Kate complained. "It's not fair, her getting to eat first, just because you think she's pretty."

Robin took Isabella's breakfast to her himself. "Enjoy," he said, smugly.

She decided to toy with him, knowing the food was not poisoned. "I'm never hungry in the morning. I couldn't possibly swallow a single morsel."

"I'm not giving you a choice," Robin told her. "We need to know if it's safe for us to eat. And with you refusing..."

"Skipping breakfast is the best way I know to keep my figure trim," Isabella said. "Having surveyed my naked body late last night, would you agree that my policy of only two meals a day is worth it?"

"Naked body?" Marian asked. "Robin, what does she mean?"

Isabella was only too happy to answer instead. "The next time your husband wants to search me, may I suggest he ask one of you women to do the searching? It really is quite humiliating, having to strip down to complete nakedness while he stands there ogling me with his eyes."

"Not bein' funny, but I'll put on a dress and talk in a high voice, if you let me do it," Allan volunteered.

"Robin?" Marian asked, bewildered, walking over to him.

"I wanted to learn where she hid her poison," he explained. "She took her dress off, before I could object."

Marian punched him in his stomach, making him double over while the gang uttered a collective groan. "Don't you ever look at her again, do you hear me?" Marian threatened. She lowered her voice, for Robin's ears only, but Isabella took in every word. "No wonder you couldn't wait for me to try to seduce you," she continued quietly, though still furious. "You were already keyed up, with her image in your mind."

"I wasn't!" he cried, defending himself. "It was you, Marian! I just have to think of you, and I'm already seduced! And I told you last night, she tried to seduce me."

She realized he had, but she hadn't guessed Isabella had been so blatant in her attempt. Not ready to apologize, she turned and ran from the camp.

"I would like to bathe," Isabella announced.

"Eat!" Robin commanded, shoving a spoon through her lips.

"I would prefer this with strawberries on top," she said, taking the spoon and nibbling at the porridge. "You brought me strawberries once, when you still liked me." She ate every bite in the bowl and licked her spoon clean. "There!" she said, handing Robin the empty bowl and spoon. "Do you still think I poisoned the food?"

He answered her with a savage sneer.

Much tried to make him see reason. "Master, really, how could she put in poison, when she was asleep? And, as much as I enjoyed having you with me, you were a bit underfoot while I was preparing breakfast."

"What about supper, Much?" Robin asked. "Who was 'underfoot' then? Did she help you?"

"Twenty minutes, you said," Isabella interrupted, not wanting Much to answer. "That gives me time for a quick bath at the pond. Since you won't allow me to go alone, Robin, would you care to accompany me?"

"I'll take her," Kate whined. "It's better than waiting around here, listening to your stomachs rumbling."

Robin made sure Kate was armed. "Watch her, Kate. Don't let her out of your sight. She'll find a patch of poison mushrooms, and injure us all."

"You really are obsessed with the idea I want to poison you," Isabella said. "I'm really much more versatile than that, Robin Hood."

She appeared to let Kate lead her to the pond, but once away from the camp, Kate turned and faced her. "I want you gone," Kate said. "I'll lead you out of the forest so you won't get caught in any of our traps. I just want you away from here."

"Perhaps I don't wish to go," Isabella told her. "Perhaps I want to have a little fun here first."

"What sorta fun?"

"The same as you want. Marian gone, and Robin all to myself."

Kate swung at her with her fist, but Isabella ducked. They began hitting one another, slapping and pulling hair. Isabella pushed Kate into a thorny bush and ran to the pond alone.

She was pleased to find Marian there, not bathing, but sitting on the bank, dangling her feet in the water.

"Are you alright?" Isabella asked Marian, feigning kindness. "I didn't mean to upset you earlier. But it was upsetting, being stripped naked and stared at by a man, even if he was just looking for poison I don't have."

"Robin is certain you poisoned me," Marian told her, "but it was only that stew we ate last night. I told him, but he's overly protective of me sometimes."

"That stew made me ill, too," Isabella lied. "I had such cramps! They've all gone away this morning."

"I had cramps as well."

"What happened to your hand?" Isabella asked. "You didn't do that, hitting Robin?"

"I scraped it on his belt buckle. That ought to teach me not to hit him."

"It's bleeding! You ought to let me tend to it."

"It's nothing, really, only a scratch."

"All the same, you don't want it to become infected."

"Alright," Marian agreed, reluctantly. "I'll wash it."

Marian bent down and dipped her hand in the water. While she was not looking, Isabella applied poison to the hem of her nightdress.

Isabella then took Marian's hand in her own, pretended to examine it, then pressed the hem of her dress to the scrape. "Just drying you off," she said, pleasantly.

Kate appeared at last, covered in scrapes from the thorns, but Isabella showed no concern for her.

She knew, with the poison going directly into Marian's bloodstream, it would take only a few minutes before sickness took hold. Carefully, she hid her poison in the folds of her nightdress as she stepped out of it, saying, "You see? This is what your husband looked at in the middle of the night, while you were feeling ill. Now, I ask you, where could I hide anything? Robin is no fool. You and I both know, he only wanted to look at me. I wonder what else he really had in mind?"