"Marian." Robin spoke gently, feeling especially tender as Marian lay resting on their bed.

She smiled sleepily back at him, comfortable and contented. "Robin."

"I wanted to tell you I'm walking Matilda home now, and I'm taking Isabella with me."

Marian, fully awake at his news, pulled herself up to a sitting position. "She told you where the king is?" she asked, hopefully.

He breathed out a defeated sigh. "No."

"Then why take her away? We haven't finished yet!"

Robin smiled, reminded again how much he adored his wife. "I feel the same, my love, but we can't keep her here. She almost killed you."

"Rubbish. I'm fine."

"Thanks to Djaq's care, and Matilda's knowledge. I almost lost you again! You were right when you warned me about Isabella. She's dangerous."

"We can handle her. She won't try the same thing twice, surely! Robin, we were so close!"

"She can't stay any longer. That's final, Marian."

Marian's face showed her frustration.

Robin sat facing her on the bed. Stroking her cheek with his thumb, he assured her, "It's alright. I'm taking Much with me, so I won't be alone with her once Matilda's home. And I won't stop questioning her all the way back to Nottingham."

"Let me have one more try, before you leave. Please, Robin."

He loved her determination, for it mirrored his own. "Alright. But I'll be right here, watching her every move."

He kissed her and left to bring back Isabella. Marian tried to assemble her thoughts, not really sure what she would say.

When she saw Robin lead Isabella back inside their home, she was glad she was his love and not his enemy. Her husband's face was hard, his eyes cold and steely.

Isabella, her wrists bound once again, sneered at her. "You wanted a word?" she asked, not at all remorseful for her attempt upon Marian's life.

"Why did you try to kill me? I thought we could be friends."

"My brother was right about you. You're a liar. You didn't want to be my friend any more than you wished to be his. You only wanted information from us."

"That's not true. I did want information, but I also wanted to be kind, to both of you. I know you were taught differently growing up, but not everyone wants to harm you. There are kind people who want to help you learn to trust, and to be kind yourself."

"How touching! You're an animal lover, aren't you? You consider Guy and me no different from poor, pathetic animals who've been abused. It gives you satisfaction to win their trust, so you can feel puffed up in your goodness, exerting power and control over them. Well, we Gisbournes are not dumb beasts, lacking the ability to reason. You will never win us over. I admit, Guy was more susceptible, being a man unable to resist your charms, but he would never truly change. I think you knew that, in your heart. Why else did you run from him at your wedding?"

"I was marrying him to save my father. At the ceremony, I learned my father was in danger, and Guy did nothing to stop it. And...and I was reminded that my heart belonged elsewhere." She remembered Much's cries as he was being forced away to be dunked in Locksley Pond. She'd known her heart belonged to Robin, but it was Much's cry that Robin needed her that had truly convinced her to run from Gisbourne.

Isabella grew jealous at the loving looks passing between husband and wife. "And what did you expect my brother to do to you, after you'd rejected and humiliated him?"

"I did not know what he would do."

"And Robin did not know what I would do, after he rejected and humiliated me. If I had succeeded in killing you, think how much greater he would suffer than if I'd simply killed him, not that I haven't ruled that out yet. Guy merely burned down your house. You know what they say...'The female is deadlier than the male.' "

Marian realized she had let Isabella control this interview. She needed to take back control, for she longed to be the one who broke the other woman's resolve and learn the king's whereabouts. And, believing in the power of goodness, she truly hoped to help Isabella change. At least she could plant a seed in her heart, as she'd tried to do in Guy's, so that eventually sister and brother might be redeemed.

"I do not regard you or your brother as animals. I do believe your upbringing harmed both of you...made you feel you must be cruel to feel strong, so that you would not feel hurt and powerless again. But there is another way to live...a better way. What is it you truly want from life, Isabella?"

"You enjoy feeling yourselves so superior, you and Robin. You make excuses for me and Guy, so that you can sympathize rather than hate us. For hatred would make you evil in a sense, and you mustn't be evil, must you? Oh, no! That would destroy your concepts of yourselves as spreaders of goodness and light."

Robin had heard enough, knowing this interview was leading nowhere. "You're wrong, Isabella. I make no excuses for you or for Gisbourne. In fact, I have no trouble hating those I know are my enemies. My wife is a better person than I am, but she's tired. It's time for you to go."

But Marian refused to give up just yet. "There is a grain of truth in what you say," she admitted, "but is it so wrong, to try to be good? Everything is a choice. We choose to be good or to be evil, in everything we do."

"It is all so black and white with you and Robin. King Richard is good...Prince John is evil. I would call the pair of you simpletons if I didn't know how complicated you really are. Ask Robin about the king slaughtering thousands of prisoners in Acre, just because he couldn't afford to feed them. Was that good, or evil?" She looked directly into Robin's eyes. "You took part in that slaughter, didn't you? Is that when you lost your taste for bloodshed?"

Robin flinched, proving her words true.

Satisfied at hurting him, Isabella continued. "And what of when the king tied you and your men to poles in the desert? Was that good or evil, letting 'the desert decide?' Your servant Lot has a big mouth. He told me how all of you suffered with the sun beating mercilessly down on you."

"Goodbye, Marian," Robin said, needing to stop Isabella's words. He could not think about Acre. "You tried, my love, but she is beyond understanding true goodness."

"Don't give up," Marian told him. "She knows where King Richard is. Whatever it takes, Robin, you must find out, for England."