"You're late, Locksley."
Robin was used to hearing those words, though not from McClellan. It galled him to take orders from a man he considered inferior, but as it was his lot at this situation in his life, he accepted his scolding with forbearance. It made no difference, after all. What mattered was that Marian was working at the Trip, gorgeous in her serving girl costume, but food for every man's most perverted fantasies.
"It won't happen again," Robin told McClellan, while Evan stood silently by, sweating.
"It won't happen again, what," McClellan corrected him.
"It won't happen again, Captain," Robin amended.
McClellan glared at him triumphantly. "See that it doesn't. Your partner returned barely in time, and he's never been late before. You're a bad influence, Locksley. I'm docking your pay, all of today's, for the time you missed. Maybe that will teach you respect."
"Respect," Robin couldn't stop himself saying, "has to be earned."
"I could fire you for that, Locksley," McClellan warned him, "but I won't...not yet. It's too satisfying, having you serve under my authority."
"Enjoy it while you can," Robin told him smugly. "Queen Eleanor's probably already received the letter I sent, and after she straightens out the mess Prince John has caused, I'll be turning in my resignation, while you'll be busy drafting Help Wanted posters."
McClellan looked angry for a moment, then recovered himself and said, "Queen Eleanor? As Sir Guy of Gisbourne used to say, and you mockingly copied him, 'I wouldn't hold my breath, if I were you.' "
McClellan turned and walked away, leaving Robin trying to guess his meaning.
"I wouldn't anger him any more," Evan warned. "Be on time, from here on out. And no more backtalk."
"We have a long standing feud," Robin explained. Then, thinking out loud, he asked, "What did he mean, about the Queen Mother?"
"I don't know. But it sent shivers down my spine, hearing him mention Gisbourne."
"Did someone speak my name?" a woman's voice asked.
Dressed alluringly in black velvet, Isabella stepped into view. Robin balled his fists in anger when he saw she was wearing some of Marian's jewels.
"Give me that necklace," he ordered.
Isabella laughed provocatively. "Again, Robin? Have you forgotten what transpired between us, the last time you stole a necklace from me? Trying to rekindle the fire that blazed hotter than the one that burnt your village church? I mean, my village church."
"That fire burnt out long ago. The jewels you're wearing belong to my wife."
"Not anymore they don't! And neither, may I remind you, does anything else in Locksley, including the two horses I discovered missing from my stables this morning. Imagine my surprise when I discovered them tethered behind the Trip Inn! Of course I had them returned to Locksley, so I guess you'll be walking back to Bonchurch tonight. Oh, and speaking of the Trip, I hear your friend Allan a Dale's hired a new serving wench. Who, may I ask, Robin, between myself and your precious pregnant wife, is the whore now? Don't forget...I'm a nun."
Robin was speechless with anger, and Isabella was delighted to have bested him. But she wasn't finished with him yet.
"Look at you, in that uniform," she purred, running her fingers down his chest. "Very nice, but really, I prefer you out of it! Shall I test your resolve? Guards are forced to stand perfectly and silently still, no matter what happens around them. Stand still, Robin, and don't move, while I attempt to distract you."
"If you lay one hand on me, Isabella," Robin threatened.
"It isn't my hand I am planning to use," Isabella said, laughing under her breath, then made quite a show looking at him through half closed lids while slowly running her tongue over her lips. "Mmm, tasty."
At that moment, the sheriff walked by, and Isabella disappeared, not wanting him to see her out of her nun's habit.
Alone with his partner, Robin stared straight ahead, his mind turning over and over in thought.
Evan looked at him, blinking his eyes. "Things certainly do pick up, when you're around," he said. "I can't help liking you, Robin, but you do make things happen! Watching you's as good as a circus!"
"I don't go looking for trouble," Robin told him, apologetically.
"Sure you don't," Evan said, disbelieving it.
...
Later, when his eight hour shift was over, Robin went to the Trip to find Marian and take her back to Bonchurch.
He found her sitting outside the inn on a bench, wearing her normal clothes, waiting for him.
"Fauvel and Charlemagne are gone," she told him.
"I know, my love," he said softly, unhappy to see her looking so sad. "But they're safe, back home in Locksley. Isabella discovered we took them, and returned them to our stable. Looks like we'll be walking back tonight."
"Not if we borrow some other horses."
"Who from?"
"Who knows? I'm not suggesting we ask...just 'borrow' them, the way we used to."
He began to grin. "You mean steal them."
"No. Stealing implies we mean to keep them. I suggest we ride them several miles, and then, when we almost reach Bonchurch, dismount and shoo them back the way they came."
"You," Robin said, dropping to his haunches in front of her, so as to face her at eye level, "look deceptively innocent, for one with such a clever mind."
"That's why I was such a successful spy, much better than being a serving girl. But I never stole, until you became an outlaw, and showed me how."
"You're wrong, Marian. You stole my heart long before I was Robin Hood."
"Drivel, Robin?"
"Fact. But anyway, we're not outlaws any more," he reminded her, taking her hand, turning it over and kissing its palm. "Just good, honest, working people."
He leaned in to kiss her mouth, but she quickly turned her face away.
"Marian," he said, rising then sitting beside her on the bench, "I'm sorry about today. I don't like you having to work, least of all at the Trip. But if it's what you really want to do, then I accept-"
"I was fired," she told him.
"Fired?"
"Allan fired me. I'm a failure, it seems, as a serving girl. Of course, it didn't help that you knocked him out cold, giving him a headache and putting him in a foul mood."
"What happened, Marian?"
Marian paused a moment before explaining. "I suppose he didn't like it, when I threw drinks in his customers' faces. It was better than dumping stew in their laps! What some men will say and try to do, just because you bring them food and drink! The men who frequent the Trip, Robin, are not gentlemen."
Robin couldn't help but be pleased, and especially amused by picturing in his mind what Marian had done to the customers at the Trip. "Well, they don't know how to treat a lady, that's for sure," he said, lifting her hand again and this time, placing a kiss on its top. "Did Allan pay you, for the hours you worked today?"
"He's taking it off what you owe him, so yes. But it feels like I worked all day for nothing."
"At least you earned more than I did today. McClellan's docking my pay, to teach me respect."
Marian gazed at him in loving sympathy. How dare McClellan demand respect out of Robin, she thought, her noble heroic Robin, who outranked, out everythinged him! "Robin, let's go home...I mean, let's find some horses and ride to Bonchurch. I miss our girls."
"Alright," he agreed, gazing at her fondly. "I miss them, too."
Marian welcomed his kiss now, and then, walking hand-in-hand, they looked about them to find horses to carry them back to their family.