Robin and Marian enjoyed having their small daughters accompany them to mass, knowing they had a remedy when the girls became restless. At the point in the service when Ellen couldn't stop wriggling and wanted to talk, and Grace tried standing on the pew or climbing under it, Sister Mary Claire, a grandmotherly sort of nun the family loved, took them to a room in the back of the church where she told them Bible stories, sang songs with them, prayed with them, and let them play with a toy Noah's Ark, complete with all kinds of toy animals.
After the mass, Robin was surrounded by his people, all of them wanting to speak with him or simply to bask in his presence.
"I'll get the girls," Marian told him.
Expecting to find her daughters playing happily together with the toy animals, Marian was alarmed to find Ellen crying and Grace gasping for air. Sister Mary Claire was asleep in a chair.
"Robin!" Marian shouted, rushing into the room and pounding Grace's back with her fist.
Grace continued to choke until Robin raced in and dislodged the tiny toy cat caught in her windpipe.
Marian fought back tears and cradled her daughter, while Robin tried to comfort Ellen.
"Shh, it's alright," he soothed, smoothing back her hair. "Grace is better now."
He was angry at Sister Claire for sleeping, and even more angry she had let his daughters play with a toy small enough for Grace to choke on. He had examined the Noah's Ark before, and had never seen the cat. In fact, the set, carved by Will, already had a pair of cats, neither of which was small.
Ellen continued to cry, and Robin suspected she was picking up on his tension.
"I'm scared, Daddy," Ellen sobbed. "The Black Man's going to come back and get me."
"No, he isn't," Robin told her, a dread sense of suspicion engulfing him.
Suddenly, it all became clear to him. "I don't think Sister Claire's to blame," he told Marian.
"Because she's old?" Marian asked. "Are you saying it's our fault, for trusting her?"
Robin handed Ellen to his wife, then began pacing the room. Marian watched him approach the sleeping nun and clap his hands in her face. The nun didn't flinch, but slept soundly on.
"Is she...?" Marian asked, worried Sister Claire was dead.
"Drugged," Robin told her, as angry as Marian had ever seen him.
"Isabella," Marian whispered, grasping Robin's suspicions.
Robin got down low so his face was level with Ellen's. "Tell me, El," he said, forcing himself to sound pleasant, "was there someone else here today?"
Ellen nodded her head.
"Another nun?" Marian asked.
"Bottiful nun," Grace said, climbing off Marian's lap to play with the toy animals again, happy as if nothing had happened.
"She told me the Black Man's coming back to get me again," Ellen said, her eyes filling with tears. "She said he's the devil, and he's going to take me to the bad place, and you can't save me."
"That's impossible, dear," Marian told her, trying to conquer the overwhelming sense of fear stealing over her. "The Black Man is gone. He can't harm you, and he isn't the devil. He's only a man, and he has a name. His name is Guy."
Marian thought it would help Ellen to humanize her nightmare. Robin gazed at her, admiring her insight.
"Guy?" Ellen asked.
"It's French," Marian explained. "France is a country far away, across the water. Over there, his name is pronounced 'Gee.' "
"Gee, Gee, Gee," Grace sang. Holding up a toy cow, she called out, "Moo!"
Ellen grew calmer, and Marian asked Robin, "Hadn't we better have Djaq take a look at the Sister? Just to make certain she'll recover?"
"Good thinking." He turned and raced out of the church to find Djaq, the small toy cat still in his hand.
Marian thought it best to wait until Djaq should arrive before leading her daughters back home. To keep Ellen's mind on happy thoughts, she sat with both little girls on the floor and played with them, all the while planning to report the incident and accuse Isabella to Sheriff Wilfred. Isabella having terrified her older daughter was bad enough, but drugging a nun and willfully trying to make a toddler choke were criminal offenses.
Robin meanwhile had reached Will and Djaq's house and told them what had happened.
"I didn't carve that," Will said, after Robin showed him the toy cat Grace had nearly choked on. Will almost seemed insulted. "It's poorly done. And I'd never make a toy so small for a little child to play with."
Robin took back the cat and held it in his fist. Impatient and angry, he went back outside to wait for Will to fetch Djaq's medicine chest. And just like the previous night, he discovered Isabella of Gisbourne lurking in the shadows, waiting for him.
Isabella, dressed as a nun, laughed a low, evil laugh, causing Robin to lose control of his temper. Grabbing her, he held onto the back of her head while pushing her up against the house.
Isabella stopped laughing. Her breath came in short, quick gasps, and her eyes looked both frightened and challenging, an intoxicating combination she believed, to attract Robin.
"Hurting my children?" Robin accused. "You're even lower than I knew."
"I can go lower," Isabella told him. "I know you like it. I'm sure you haven't forgotten the time in the forest, when you thought your wife was dead and I completely surprised you," she continued, clapping her open palm over a part of him, "taking this in my mouth."
"Put this in your mouth," Robin shouted, shaking her off him while trying to shove the toy cat down her throat.
Robin held one hand behind her neck while his other hand covered her mouth to prevent her from spitting out the toy. Isabella struggled against him, and Robin released her just before Will and Djaq came tearing out of their house.
"Robin!" Djaq cried, accusingly. "I know she is wicked, but we do not kill!"
Djaq, in doctor mode, made sure Isabella was not harmed, but Will took Robin's side. Clapping a hand on Robin's upper arm, he told him, "I would kill her, too, if she hurt my children."
Robin, breathing hard to try to regain control over his emotions, shook his head. "No, Will, I was wrong to try to hurt her. We need to take her to the sheriff, so she can't harm anyone ever again."
"What are you suggesting?" Isabella asked. "Do you really think the namby-pamby Sheriff Wilfred will hang a woman?"
"Not hang," Robin snarled. "Imprison you. For life."
"But I can claim sanctuary from the church! I am a nun, after all."
"You're no nun," Robin snapped.
Reminded of the nun who needed her, Djaq left for the church, leaving Will and Robin to deal with Isabella.
Isabella ignored Robin and turned her attention to Will. "Isn't it the same trick he tried, when he first returned from war?" Isabella asked. "You, along with others," she pursued, pointing to Will, "were going to hang for stealing flour, and Robin tried to save you, by claiming you had become novices? Guy told me all about it, two years later."
"Robin did save us," Will told her.
"Yes, yes, the story's become legend. But how tarnished the legend of Robin Hood will be, for harming a nun! Guy tried that once before, I believe, but the abbess turned out to be no abbess at all."
"And you," Robin repeated, "will prove to be no nun. Come on, Will, let's tie up her wrists and take her to Nottingham. We've wasted enough time listening to her poison."
Will found a rope and bound Isabella's wrists. She submitted without a fight, believing she would not face imprisonment.
She had a plan to get revenge on Robin, and take his lands away from him again and install herself in his place. It would be sweet revenge against her brother, too, having the village for herself after Guy had lost it. And with King Richard about to depart for France, the time had come for her to strike.