"Come on, men!" one of Prince John's soldiers shouted. "Let's unmask this Burl and see his face!"
Laughing and shouting catcalls at the Night Watchman, the soldiers stormed the ground where Marian and Little John were performing their staged fight. Bravely, Allan, Little John, and Marian tried their best to ward them off, but were vastly outnumbered. In very little time, Marian and Allan were overtaken, and Little John after them.
"Get off me," Marian seethed through her face coverings, causing the soldiers who had heard her to call out, "Burl speaks! And surprise, men...he has a voice like melodious music!"
"Let's see his face. Must be ugly, to keep it hidden! Maybe he's as hairy as the Wild Hairy Man of the Forest!"
The soldiers raised boisterous laughter, half of them intent on unmasking Marian, while others raided Allan's purse, retrieving the money they'd wagered.
"Alright, Missy," a soldier said, slowly approaching Marian, who struggled against the soldiers holding her. "Let's see what Burl looks like."
"Come on, gents," Allan objected. "Take your money, and just let us go, oi?"
Marian's heart tightened as her thoughts plunged backward through time to the church in Locksley where the sheriff's mercenaries were storing food, and Guy was about to unmask her. Realizing this situation was far less dangerous than that time, she calmed herself, shaking off her fearful memory.
She felt anger toward the soldiers who surrounded her, anger, humiliation and embarrassment, and something worse. Her Night Watchman persona meant so much to her...independence and value in helping others, strength in her secret rebellion against evil doers, but now she'd been mocked for being a woman, and she blamed Robin for assigning her this part to play in his rescue plan.
Why hadn't he assigned Much to fight Little John, she asked herself angrily, and assigned her instead to accompany him freeing the queen? That would have made much better sense, she believed. But no. He had to have Much beside him always, leaving her apart to face mockery and shame.
By now a soldier had torn off her mask, revealing the top half of her face.
"Burl's a real beauty!" he called out to the soldiers too far away to see. "Blue eyes like you only dream of, flashing now. Let's see how the rest of his face looks." He pulled down the scarf covering Marian's mouth, and was astounded. "Lady Locksley!" he cried, stepping back.
Just then, a succession of arrows grazed the hands and upper arms of the soldiers who held Marian, causing them to release her. More arrows nicked the soldiers holding Little John and Allan, and then, the savage cries of Much and Djaq rent the air, as Robin, Much, Will, and Djaq charged in to battle the soldiers. The gang had lost none of their fighting skills, and Queen Eleanor, standing back as Robin had ordered, watched them nearly overcome impossible odds.
Robin's goal was to help Marian, Little John, and Allan escape, then flee with Queen Eleanor and the rest of his gang to safety. But it wasn't to be. There were simply too many soldiers, and before too long, they were surrounded and captured.
"Prince John warned us Robin Hood might make an appearance," the sergeant said. "Lock them all in the tower. Looks like you've got company, Your Majesty," he said to the queen.
"The finest company in all of England," she stated.
...
Robin's gang stood or sat scattered through the tower chamber where Queen Eleanor had been imprisoned, and was a prisoner again.
The queen sat on the edge of her bed, where she'd pulled Little John to sit down beside her, he in uncomfortable silence. Will and Djaq sat side by side on a bench, holding hands with their heads together. Allan leaned against a wall, looking relaxed, while Much anxiously paced back and forth. Marian stood staring out the broken window, blaming herself and Robin for their capture, while Robin stood in the center of the room, aware of Marian but trying to think of another plan of escape.
"I am sorry, Your Majesty," he told the queen. "We failed this attempt, but I think you know me well enough to know, I never give up."
"Do you have another plan?" Much asked.
"Half a plan, I think."
"Good," Much said, "because I can't die here, locked in some poxy tower, when...when..."
"No one's going to die here, Much," Robin assured him. "We've been in worse situations than this before, and we've always-"
"I know! But I didn't have Eve then, and my boys. It's easy for the rest of you...you've got Marian here with you, and Will's got Djaq, and Djaq has Will, and Little John has...well, he has you, Your Majesty."
"Oi! What about me?" Allan asked.
"You!" Much exploded. "Everyone knows who you have...tavern girls and nuns!"
"Not any more I don't. I'm a reformed man."
"Reformed! Ha! It was mostly talk anyway. Eve told me so."
"Yeah? What does she know about it?"
"More than she wants to! You kissed her!"
Robin got between the two men and calmed Much's frazzled nerves with a look. "We need to work together as a team, if we're going to get out of here," he reminded them.
Allan strode away to join Marian at the window.
"Have you really reformed?" she asked him.
"Yeah, I have. I got a...I got someone special now."
"Allan!" Marian set aside her own anger and smiled at him. "I am glad for you. Is she anyone I know?"
"Yeah. It's Annie. You know, the one we rescued years ago. Seth's mother. But don't say anything. We're keepin' it quiet for now."
Marian was surprised, but she hoped all would work out well for Allan. "I won't tell a soul," she promised.
"Not even Robin?"
"Him!" She rolled her eyes and turned her face away to stare out the window again.
"Trouble in paradise?" Allan joked.
"Imprisonment in a castle tower is not paradise," Marian reminded him. "It reminds me of the rooms where Guy placed me, after he burned down my home."
"Yeah, I remember. Robin got you outta there, the same way he tried getting the queen out today. Arrow shot through the window, with a rope attached. Guess who cleaned up the broken glass and his arrow, so Guy wouldn't know you ran off with him?"
"You?"
"Not bein' funny, but it wasn't the sheriff."
"Thank you for that. I would have expected Robin would have thought to take his arrow, rather than simply ride away with me."
"Well, you were upset and he was, too, about what happened."
"Could we not talk about it, please?" The last thing Marian wanted to think about was her father's murder and the comfort she'd felt in Robin's arms. She was angry at him and she wanted to stay angry, until he apologized.
Robin could read Marian's feelings, but he couldn't understand what caused them. He wanted to fix things between them, but he didn't want to confront her in front of everyone. Besides, he felt he needed to put his own feelings aside and think up a plan to rescue everyone from Pontefract Castle first.
Queen Eleanor had also seen the friction between Marian and Robin, and was amused by it. "I hope Big Bear doesn't mind me reminiscing," she stated out loud. "But I can't help remembering my marriage to King Henry. How we fought, like lions! That's the trouble with passionate natures. But we always mended our fights in bed. It was all so exciting! Pity there isn't a private bedchamber here, for a certain couple who haven't spoken since we were captured. I'm sure everything could be made right again, if only they could be alone."
Robin tried to hide his embarrassment. There was nothing he would like more than to rescue everyone and make things right with Marian, and then take her to bed. But Marian couldn't hide hers. She blushed to the roots of her hair, bit her lip, and stared harder out the window, and stubbornly held onto her anger.