"Goodnight, Isabella," Robin said, preparing to leave Locksley while ignoring Isabella's suggestion he remove her nightdress...or more truthfully, Marian's nightdress Isabella was wearing.

Isabella blocked his passage through his office doorway with her body. "Not so fast, Robin," she ordered, trying not to tremble with the excitement she felt in his presence. "Why hurry away, when we could be enjoying, as you like to say, 'So much fun?' You do still like having fun, don't you? You were, after all, so very good at it."

"Step aside, unless you want me to remove you myself."

"Do it. Put your hands on me, and see what happens."

"Since you insist..." Robin grabbed Isabella around her waist and easily lifted her aside. But he couldn't place her on the ground because she had seized hold of him around his neck and was holding on, threatening to choke him.

If she were a man, he could easily extract himself. But since she was a woman, even a vile, vicious one, he would not allow himself to hurt her. Instead, he tried to throw her off but only succeeded in losing his balance. Together, they dropped to the floor.

Isabella, lying over him, was breathless with desire. "Yes!" she cried, kneading his back with her hands while pouring out hot, quick kisses on his throat. "You don't know how I have longed for this!"

Robin pulled himself out from under her and leaped to his feet, then held out a hand to help her rise. "Are you alright?" he asked.

Isabella, furious he had rejected her yet again, scowled up at him. "What makes you think I want to get up?" she asked.

Robin would have chuckled, had she been Marian. But as she was Isabella, he only wanted to go. "Because I appear to hold power, standing over you," he answered. "And that is one thing you cannot tolerate."

Isabella took his offered hand to stand and face him. "Why do you find me so poisonous, Robin?" she asked, desperately. "You loved me once, I know you did! We could have had so much together. We can have it still! Leave her, and live with me here, in your house! I'll bring all your people back, and you can be their lord again, and I your lady!"

Now that she was being honest with him, he could only feel sorry for her. "I am sorry for what I led to believe before," he told her. "I truly am. But you see, I love my wife."

"And I was only a substitute for her, wasn't I?" Isabella asked with bitterness. "How very noble and chivalrous of you, Robin. Using a helpless woman for your own body's needs!"

"It wasn't my body as much as my...you would not understand. And you were not helpless. You fostered the pretense, doing everything possible to make me believe you were like Marian."

"A moment ago you were apologizing, but now you shift the blame on me?"

"We share the blame, I think."

"Blame isn't all we shared, Robin."

"A hatred for your brother," he added.

"That, but I was referring to something deeper."

"I'm sorry," he said again, realizing she had returned to her original point. "Isabella, I told you I love my wife. I can't explain how much. Marian is...Marian means everything to me. And now that we're a family...I can't make clear how much my heart holds. Right now, we're four, with another on the way. Four separate people, yet..." He clasped his hands together, lacing his fingers. "Yet united as one family. I love my children. I love my wife, more and more. I have no desire to undo that."

"No!" Isabella shouted, staring at him as if crazed. "You love me! Don't deny it, Robin! There was so much between us, until she returned from the dead!"

"There never was," he told her. "And it was over long before Marian returned."

"NO!"

"Goodbye, Isabella."

He turned and left her alone, while angry tears streamed from her eyes.

Why, he wondered, couldn't either Gisbourne accept neither he nor Marian loved them? Why couldn't they get over their obsessions?

But he didn't waste too many thoughts on them. He had plans to make, to free Queen Eleanor and save England once again from wicked Prince John.

...

Returning to Bonchurch in the dark of night, Robin snuck silently inside, hoping for a few good hours sleep before beginning the Queen's rescue the following day.

He was surprised that Marian was not in bed, for she had been asleep when he had left her. Quietly, he walked to the door separating his room from the one where his daughters slept, and found Marian sitting beside Ellen's bed. Grace slept soundly, curled up in a round little ball, but both Ellen and Marian were awake, though sleepy.

Robin guessed correctly that Ellen had suffered another nightmare, and Marian was there to comfort her.

"Where have you been?" Marian whispered, as Robin joined them.

"You'll learn soon enough," he answered, annoying her. "Everything better now?"

"Daddy," Ellen piped up, "Mama's a wren. Remember? You said we had to think up an animal for her to be."

"That's right," Robin said, smiling as he bent and kissed his daughter's cheek. "Now, why didn't I think of it myself? Of course she's a wren."

"You can't get around me by recalling my childhood nickname, you know," Marian scolded him, partly teasing. "You've been gone awhile, without so much as leaving me a note as to your wherabouts."

"I've been on a mission," Robin told her.

"Successfully, I hope?"

"Judge for yourself." Robin dropped her necklace and hairpins onto her lap, then placed a few small toys on Ellen's bed.

"Daddy!" Ellen cried delightedly, then remembered to be quiet and not wake her sister.

Marian was both pleased and annoyed at the same time. Trust Robin to succeed where she had failed, she realized, after stealing her idea! All the same, she thought him a dear to have stolen back the pieces of her jewelry that meant the most to her.

"You might have included me," she said, her anger melting away in the beauty of his loving smile.

"I wanted to surprise you," he said, kissing her cheek as he'd kissed their daughter's, though differently. "And these trinkets aren't the only thing I brought back."

"Daddy," Ellen interrupted, yawning. "Did it hurt when your arm fell off?"

"What, Ellie?" he asked.

"Mama told me she sewed your arm back on, like she did my poppet's."

"Oh, no, Precious," Marian clarified. "Daddy's arm didn't come off, it was only wounded, and I sewed the wound closed."

Ellen yawned again, then rolled onto her side and closed her eyes, clutching her beloved doll to her heart.

"She's asleep," Marian said. "She had another nightmare." She paused, then added, "About Gisbourne."

Robin nodded his head, as angry as Marian toward his enemy. "Marian," he told her, as they headed to their bed, "I tried to say before. I need to leave tomorrow, with any of my men who want to help me, and rescue the Queen."

"The Queen?" Marian repeated, alarmed. "Queen Berengaria's in danger?"

"Queen Eleanor," he clarified. "Prince John's locked her again in Pontefract Castle, to seize control while the king's away."

"That's why we've been removed from Locksley, isn't it?"

"I knew it wasn't Richard! I need to sleep, so I can be ready tomorrow."

"We need to sleep," Marian told him. "You did say, 'any of your men.' Well, neither Djaq nor I are men, but I for one can't wait to help."