Marian's reunion with her daughters was bittersweet. She remembered them though not completely, and it hurt that there were large gaps in her memory concerning their histories. Her little girls were unaware anything was wrong, only happy their Daddy had brought their Mama back to them, safe and sound.
"Do not strain to remember," a kindly nun who specialized in healing advised Marian. "Rest and pray, and when God wills it, your memory will return."
The fighter within Marian found it difficult to follow such advice, but since Robin's leg wound forced him to have to rest as well, she obeyed. Within a few days, without even trying, she found she could remember everything.
Knowing Robin would be mad with anger, Marian hid what Gisbourne had tried to do to her, choosing to forget Guy's powerful, forceful lust and her humiliation yet triumphant stop to his being able to penetrate her. Robin did indeed wonder what had happened while Marian believed herself Gisbourne's wife, yet since she appeared unscathed, he decided Gisbourne had lied to him about bedding her. He was thankful Marian showed none of the trauma she had exhibited before, the time Gisbourne had attacked her outside Bonchurch, just after Will and Djaq had brought her home from the Holy Land.
"There is one thing I'd still like to know," Marian mentioned to Robin, lacing her fingers together behind his neck as he tenderly held her around her waist as they stood facing each other. It was late evening and they were enjoying time alone after having just tucked their daughters into bed. "How do we manage to still feel so romantic, with all the practical day-to-day aspects of being married?"
Robin was happy to hear her admit feeling the same way toward him he felt toward her. "It's you, my love," he told her, gazing rapturously into her eyes. She sighed happily, then bristled when he added, "It is surprising, though, Marian, considering you laugh at me every time I say anything romantic."
"You mean your drivel about me seeing all the way into your soul?" she teased, her good nature restored. "Or were you referring to you destroying potentially lovely, romantic moments with your cheek?"
"What cheek?"
"For one, your claim you were 'half concussed,' the first time you admitted you loved me."
Robin chuckled, then smiled lovingly at her. She returned his look, and felt her pulse begin to race and that warm, delicious glow flush through her that only he could bring, and the world turned magical in his arms. But their kiss was cut short by the sound of a nun clearing her throat.
"Forgive my interruption, my lord...my lady," the nun stammered. "There is a messenger at the gates to see you, Lord Locksley, a messenger from your king."
Marian hurried with Robin to the convent gates, hoping King Richard was not commanding her husband to fight alongside him, now that Robin's wound had healed.
But the messenger brought news and a warning, not a summons. After thanking the king's servant, Robin broke open the seal and read.
"What is it?" Marian asked, reading the disturbed look on her husband's face.
"It's Gisbourne," Robin told her. "The king's warning us he's hiding somewhere in the vicinity. He has no idea we already knew that. He wouldn't understand why I didn't turn him in myself."
"But...but you said Guy was captured."
"I was wrong." He handed her the message so she could read it herself, then explained anyway. "The king writes that a woman, obviously Gisele, came to him claiming she could lead him to Gisbourne, but when he arrived at her cottage-"
"He'd escaped," Marian finished, feeling vacant inside, though with a cold sense of dread.
"I should have killed him," Robin added, and Marian did not disagree.
"Well," she said at last, returning to being practical, "what's done is done. Guy's probably far from here. We don't need to worry about him, Robin, just be aware of the possibility of him reappearing. Shall we continue to Aquitaine as planned, or do you want to go home?"
"What do you want to do?" Robin asked her, grateful for her understanding that he had wanted not to kill, but to see the king enact justice.
Marian's answer perfectly echoed his own thoughts and cheered him. "I miss our home," she admitted, "but I don't want to miss out on the adventure of visiting Aquitaine. It isn't every day the queen mother issues such an invitation."
"Maybe not to you. I have a standing invitation to visit there," Robin cockily boasted.
His attitude turned her playful. "Do you? Then you've been very lax, Locksley, not taking me there until now. You make me suspect there might be people in Aquitaine you don't want me to meet."
"Only one or two," Robin teased back, winking at her.
"Male or female?" Marian asked, challenging him.
Robin, playing along, grinned back at her, then realized he'd actually had a one night tryst with a woman at Queen Eleanor's court in Aquitaine years before on his journey home from war, whom he wouldn't like Marian to meet.
"What is it?" Marian asked again, seeing this face turn guilty. "Robin, you already told me about the woman who cornered you in Her Majesty's library."
Relieved, Robin heaved a sigh. "That's right, I did. Your memory really has returned!"
"That's right, it has. Now, are you sure there's no one else in Aquitaine you need to tell me about?"
"No one," he answered her truthfully. "I have no secrets from you, Marian." He took her in his arms and she hid her face against his chest, realizing she would take to her grave her secret of Guy molesting her and trying to force further filthy acts against her he had considered "love."
If only her memory could fail her there, she wished, and be wiped clean of Gisbourne forever!