Astride his horse with Grace strapped to him, Robin smiled across at Marian seated on her horse with Ellen riding before her. The sun shone pleasantly hot, and Grace wore a hat tied under her chin to protect her still sparsely covered head from burning.
The family was enjoying a day away from the castle, but it wasn't only a pleasure outing for Robin and Marian. They first visited the most prosperous village in the region to try to gain new knowledge and ideas to help the people of Locksley, only to find Locksley far ahead of any village in Aquitaine. And now, since the day was so warm, they were riding toward the coast to give their daughters the treat of wading and splashing in the sea.
"Look, Marian," Robin called out, reining his horse and looking up into the branches of a tree. "Do you recognize that?"
"It looks like figs," she answered, remembering fig trees in the Holy Land.
Robin grinned at their daughters. "Is anybody hungry?" Nocking an arrow to his bowstring, he aimed and brought down several figs with a single shot, then leaped to the ground and freed Grace. Tasting the fruit to be certain, he grinned up at Marian. "It's figs alright," he confirmed, lifting Ellen to the ground. Crouching down to be eye level with his little girls, he asked them invitingly, "Who wants a taste of the Holy Land?"
"Me! Me!" Grace shouted, jumping up and down.
"Me, too," Ellen agreed, holding out her hands.
Marian slid down from her horse and quietly warned her husband, "Don't give them much. Grace is still in diapers, remember."
Robin's answering expression made Marian laugh.
"Just a taste then," he said, biting into a fig then popping what was left into Marian's open mouth.
Marian stopped laughing. Sputtering then swallowing, she scowled at her husband. "I don't like figs," she told him. "At least not fresh ones. Dried, they're delicious."
"But they're so juicy this way," Robin teased her, stopping Grace from biting into a second helping. "What do you think, girls?" he asked.
"Yummy," Ellen said, then began laughing at the brown juice on Grace's chin. "Gracie has a beard!"
"So do you." Grinning, Robin wiped Ellen's face clean while Marian cleaned Grace.
Knowing it was good to let the girls run about and the horses rest, Marian took Robin's hand in hers and confessed, "Visiting that village today made me homesick."
Robin, wanting to go home himself because he felt he was neglecting his duty to his people, was pleased to hear her say it. Yet all the same, he wanted this trip to be special for Marian. "You're not having fun?" he asked.
"I am. I love it here...with you. But I don't want to stay too long. I miss Locksley."
Robin smiled appreciatively at her, looking deeply into her eyes. "It'll be chilly back home, you know. It's probably raining there now."
"A perfect time to sit by the fire then. I wonder how any married couple can stand to have two chairs by the fire, when one is so much nicer."
"We have two," Robin reminded her, though they rarely used them both.
He kissed her, then called the girls. "Same riding arrangement, or would you like to switch?"
"Take turns, please," Ellen decided.
Marian mounted her horse and Robin lifted Grace up to her. Next, he lifted Ellen onto his saddle and leaped up after her.
"Ready?" he asked. "Next stop, the coast."
It wasn't long before the reached the ocean. The beach was sand, not pebbles as it was in England, and after securing the horses, Robin and Marian helped the children remove their shoes and stockings, and watched them stand amazed and excited as the waves washed over their ankles and then wash back out again.
"The ground moves!" Ellen cried delightedly.
"That should help wash the purple stain off their feet," Robin told his wife. "Come on," he invited, pulling off his boots and socks.
The beach was empty except for them, so Marian sat on a boulder and removed her shoes and stockings as well. Where, she asked herself, borrowing her husband's philosophy, would be the fun in merely watching?
The sand was warm under her feet, the waves cold and white foamed, their swell gentle today, which was perfect to prevent Grace from being knocked off her feet. The children were surprised to taste salt when they licked their lips after being splashed, and were soon chasing waves then being doused when others rushed to meet them. They chased tiny crabs as well, wondering where they went when they disappeared under the sand, and collected sea shells on the beach, but mostly they enjoyed splashing each other and taking turns riding "piggyback" on their father, who could take them deeper into the water than they could go on their own.
The family had a wonderful time, and all too soon it was time to put their shoes back on and begin heading back to the castle. Robin strapped Grace to him again, and she soon fell asleep as they rode back along the sunny road.
Along the way, they stopped at a farmhouse and paid the farmer's wife generously to water their horses and feed themselves. The horses grazed while the family feasted upon thick slices of creamy cheese, crusty loaves of bread, grapes and figs.
Winking at Marian and unseen by the farmer's wife, Robin threatened to toss a fig in Marian's mouth, then was courtesy itself when asking their hostess about the farm.
The woman was smitten by the entire family, and kept pushing milk on Marian, making veiled references to her condition. The children she found adorable and well mannered, the wife beautiful and kind, the husband...well, the husband was beautiful in a manly way and charming yet sincere. She felt weak in the knees just from looking at him.
But when she realized he was the legendary Robin Hood, her manner changed. "Out, out," she shooed them making them leave before they had finished their dinner. "Go away from here, and never come back!"
Her manner was so severe, Ellen seemed about to cry. "It's alright," Robin assured her, confused though trying to laugh at the situation, to lighten it. "This is France, after all, and it seems Robin Hood is not as popular here as he is back home."
"They have a legend here," Marian mentioned, "about a robin bringing bad luck." She did not want to upset her daughters by explaining the legend claiming a robin would bring death to a home if it flew in through a window, but she suspected the farmwife believed the ridiculous tale, or perhaps other stories originally fostered by Sheriff Vasey, claiming Robin consorted with Satan.
"It's a good bird," Ellen sniffed, "and my daddy is a hero."
They couldn't know that Alain's songs against Robin were already spreading through Aquitaine and were believed on the farm, but they were soon to hear the songs themselves sung, and be mocked as they had never been mocked before.