Before they could present themselves at the gates of Leicester Castle, crowds from Leicester Towne gathered to cheer Queen Eleanor.
"God save Your Grace," they called, until some of them recognized Robin.
"It's Robin Hood!" they shouted, and the throng began pushing eagerly forward for the chance to touch him. So great his legendary status had grown, the people believed just touching his clothes could protect them from illness.
Concerned for her children, Marian grew nervous at the pressing mob, but Robin enjoyed their attention. In two running steps, he propelled himself on the top of his coach to address the crowd.
"Hand up the girls to me, or get them inside the coach," he told Marian.
"Up, up," Grace cried, holding out her arms, and Marian lifted her up to Robin.
"Me, too," Ellen decided, conquering her shyness.
The crowd began shouting, "We want Maid Marian!" and Marian stopped herself just as she was about to step inside the coach.
"Maid?" she repeated. "Is that how I'm known?"
"A well deserved compliment to your virtue," Queen Eleanor told her.
"But I...!" She grew annoyed at herself for blushing.
"You held out against Robin's charms longer than anyone could expect," the queen chuckled. "At least, the people believe you did."
"She did," Robin admitted, grinning. Throwing himself onto his belly, he held out his hand and looked appealingly at Marian. "Come here, blushing maiden," he teased. "Come join your family."
"You know I don't like being stared at," Marian said, hesitating.
"Not to worry, my love," Robin boasted. "All eyes will be on me."
"Oh, will they?" With that challenge, Marian pulled herself to the top of the coach without his help. Robin leaped to his feet and his grin widened as the crowd raised a cheer.
"People of Leicester," Robin called down to them, causing the crowd to hush and hang on his every word. "My family and I thank you for your warm welcome. You call me 'Robin Hood,' but that name belongs not only to me, but to each and every one of you, who seek after righteousness and justice. Robin Hood is the spirit of England, and may it rule forever in our hearts! God save you, God save Queen Eleanor, and God save the king!"
"We are Wobbin Hood," little Grace called out.
The crowd laughed, then cheered uproariously. Hats were tossed in the air, and the inn keeper announced free ale to all.
"Now look what you've created," Marian teased her husband. "Grace will be saying it to everyone, expecting a laugh. You should have let me hide us in the coach."
"I should," Robin pretended to agree, "but where would be the fun in that?"
Smiling, Marian rolled her eyes then lowered herself down from the coach, afterwards taking each little girl from Robin. Still relishing the crowd's attention, Robin executed a perfect backflip off the side of the coach, landing effortlessly on his feet. The crowd cheered again before heading toward the inn. "God bless you, Robin Hood," they called.
"Show off," Marian teased him. "You know, I can do that move as well as you."
"Me, too!" Ellen said. "But maybe not so high up."
"Me, me," Grace added, causing her parents to be concerned she might try it.
"Come on," Robin invited, picking Grace up off the ground and holding her safely against him. "Her Majesty wants to see her daughter."
"And you, Robin?" Marian asked, lifting her brows at him in mock jealousy.
"Somehow I don't expect Joan to give us such a warm welcome as the crowd," Robin admitted.
"Oh, I don't know, Robin," the queen teased. "Johanna might just reach out and try to touch the famous Robin Hood, to cure what ails her. Locksley Fever, isn't it so called?"
Marian shot Robin an inquiring look. The queen's words caused him to lose a touch of his typical social ease, but he quickly recovered as he escorted Queen Eleanor and his family to the castle gate.
...
"Maman!" Princess Johanna, widow of the King of Sicily and current wife to Robert, Earl of Leicester, was overjoyed to greet her mother. The youngest and most beautiful of the "Devil's brood," as Henry II's and Eleanor of Aquitaine's eight children were called, she was Eleanor's favorite daughter and King Richard's favorite sister. Tall and slender, with red gold hair and glittering emerald green eyes, she was a few years older than Robin, just as Isabella of Gisbourne was, and like her, hopelessly in love with the heroic archer.
Her father the late king had made a brilliant marriage match for her, but against her will. Her two older sisters had gone obediently to their marriages, Matilda to the Duke of Saxony and Eleanor to the King of Castile, but Johanna had cried and pleaded against being sent away to marry the King of Sicily, until Richard had secretly promised he would do everything in his power to let her make her own choice in a second marriage, if she survived her royal Sicilian husband.
She had, after her husband had taken ill and died, and she had held out hope that she would make Robin of Locksley, the young Earl of Huntington fall in love with her, just as Robert, the Earl of Leicester clearly had. She had known that Robin was betrothed to the Sheriff of Nottingham's daughter, Lady Marian of Knighton, but she firmly believed he would break that promise if only she, Johanna, would offer herself to him.
She was planning to return to England and tell him so, not knowing his betrothal had already ended and he was on his way on Richard's ship, to fight in Pope Gregory's Crusade.
She had almost missed seeing him, but by a stroke of fate, had been abducted by her late husband's cousin Tancred, who now ruled Sicily. Tancred was in love with her, and was holding her captive until she would agree to become his wife. After several week's captivity, Richard's fleet of ships arrived in Sicily on their way to the Holy Land, and her brother, King of England, led the fight against the Sicilian army to free her. As always, Robin of Locksley distinguished himself in that battle, causing Johanna to fall even more deeply in love with her rescuing hero.
Freed and safely protected, Johanna did all she could to make Robin fall in love with her. Sicilian evenings were magical, with warm, ocean breezes and flowering jasmine and borgainvillia scenting the air. As her friend, Robin had sadly admitted that Marian had ended their engagement, and Johanna had high hopes she would get what she wanted. Richard was to wed Princess Berengaria of Navarre as soon as they reached Cyprus, having postponed the marriage until the season of Lent would end, and Johanna changed her plans to return to England and sailed with the princess on Richard's fleet to Cyprus, last stop on the voyage to Acre. It seemed as if Fate was giving her Robin, and everything she desired.
Robin, Johanna knew, had a very romantic nature, yet he did not readily succumb to her beauty and charms. He was still far too smitten and in love with the sheriff's daughter, and Johanna hated her, though they had never yet met. Only one starlit night did Johanna ever come close to having Robin look at her with more than friendship and respect, and Johanna held onto that memory still.
Unknown to anyone but Much, Robin had purchased a necklace of green and gold glass beads in Venice to one day give to Marian, and carried them inside his shirt like a talisman. Johanna, making her move in the moonlight, had purposely fallen against his chest and felt the necklace. Reaching playfully under his shirt, she had pulled forth the beads and put them around her neck reminding him how their green matched her eyes. Feeling his union with Marian hopeless, Robin submitted to the magic and her flirting, and had kissed Johanna's eager lips at last. But the moment was shattered when the string broke on the beads, scattering them over the moonlit Cyprian garden.
Robin had immediately apologized, explaining his heart still belonged to Marian, but Johanna never forgot their kiss, even though she tried. When Robin was not around she succeeded, and was even happy in her marriage to Leicester, a loving husband, brave knight, and trusted friend of her brother Richard. But when Robin was near, Johanna reverted to behave like a spoiled child denied a favorite plaything, resembling her younger brother John more than her usual fair natured self.
Marian did not know about the kiss, but suspected something had passed between them. She wasn't exactly jealous, being secure in her husband's character and his love, but she'd prefer it if she never had to encounter Johanna again.
Johanna listened with rapt attention as her mother related Prince John's treachery toward her, and Robin's rescue.
"I suppose I must thank you for saving Maman," she conceded. "Have you finally seen the error of your ways?"
"What error, Joan?" Robin asked kindly.
"I assume you're on your way to France, to fight alongside my brother."
"France, yes," Robin admitted, "though not to fight."
"What then?" Johanna asked, looking from Robin to Marian to their children. "My husband as you know is there. He writes my brother needs reinforcements. Is it not your duty, Locksley, to support your king?"
"Hush," Queen Eleanor said. "I am sending this lovely family on a well earned holiday in Aquitaine."
"Holiday, while Richard battles?" Johanna cried. "I would never have believed this of you, Robin! Someone," she said pointedly, looking superciliously at Marian, "must be a poor influence on your once noble nature."
"Enough, Johanna," her mother scolded. "Robin must follow his conscience, as must we all. And now, you must not be remiss, my child, by denying us nourishment. I am famished, and care to dine. And afterwards, I think, rest. On second thought, make rooms available for us. We shall stay the night, I think. That will give me time to spend with my favorite daughter, and restore her good temper."
"Certainly, Maman," Johanna said, wondering what the night might hold for her, with Robin of Locksley under her roof and her husband away.
...
(The story of Tancred capturing Johanna after her husband, the King of Sicily died, and trying to force her to marry him, along with King Richard arriving on his way to the Holy Land and fighting a battle to rescue his sister, is factual. While in the Holy Land, however, Richard used his sister as a pawn to try to gain peace, promising her in marriage to Saladin's brother, who already had several wives. Johanna was furious, but Richard knew Saladin's brother would refuse his offer when he said he could have his sister only if he first became a Christian and was baptized. He did it to prove he wanted to make peace, and it did pave the way toward the three year peace treaty they finally made.)