Hiding in a cave that would be his home until the poison from his arrow worked fully, killing King Richard, Guy of Gisbourne had time to think.
Most of his thoughts were enemies to him, and he tried to blot them out by focusing his mind on his glorious future. What titles would John bestow on him, once he learned Guy had finally succeeded in killing the king?
He thought back to the two times he had failed in the past. "It was your fault I failed before," his mind accused Vasey, whose memory haunted him. "I didn't need you with your elaborate plans. Blood does tell, and yours was never noble. I let myself be ordered about, humiliated, by a carnival trouper, a man lower than a peasant! Well, you got what you deserve, and at last, so will I!"
"Will you, Gisbourne, hmm? Will little Guy get all-"
"Shut up!" Guy steadied his nerves, banishing Vasey's image from his tortured mind.
He wasn't sure what to ask King John for. He wanted power, position, titles, land and wealth, but he feared holding responsibility under fickle, precarious King John. Guy had been Sheriff of Nottingham once before, so briefly it was over in a blink of an eye, and he'd had to escape Nottingham and Prince John's displeasure because of it. Better to have a puppet as sheriff he could command, like the current weak willed Wilfred, and himself a lord, like Locksley...an earl, like Huntington.
Guy realized he wanted those specific titles and Hood's specific house and lands, and he wanted Hood alive for a short time, just long enough to see him awarded them. But most of all, Guy realized, he wanted Marian, and he wanted Hood to know he would have her before dying his painful traitor's death.
A guilty thought struck him. Marian, Guy knew, would never love him if she learned he had killed that child today. He didn't want to think about the murder, but he couldn't put it out of his mind. It was all the girl's fault, he raged, for if he had let her live, she would have told about him shooting the king while making her brother take the blame. Her brother would go free, and Hood would hunt Guy down before John could be crowned king and have the chance to pardon him. But would he pardon him, Guy wondered? Not if Guy's role in the plot were exposed by that child telling the truth! John would pretend to weep over his brother's death and order Guy killed as a traitor.
Guy felt comforted, knowing he'd been right to kill the child. The chit's brother was no threat, Guy believed. The youth had been led before King Richard, and no amount of protesting his innocence would save him. He was believed to have shot the king, and whether he claimed he hadn't done it or if he claimed it had been accidental, Guy fully believed he would face immediate hanging.
His mind at rest, he began imagining himself wealthy and powerful again, but even more than he had been before. Marian would suffer over Hood's death, but it pleased Guy that she should suffer. She needed to pay for all her betrayals! Guy wanted her weak and sorry, compliant and helpless, so he could feel strong again with her. One of the happiest moments in his life had been just after her father had died, and she had wept against him, broken down in her grief. All his feelings toward her then, feelings he had thought gone forever after she had betrayed him by fleeing from their wedding, had flooded back at that moment, stronger than ever. Most women looked ugly when they cried, but Marian had remained beautiful. Her hair had felt so soft under his fingers, her lips so luscious as they trembled while she wept, her body so warm and shapely as he held it, that he hadn't been able to resist attempting to kiss her.
He wanted her weak and crying against him again, weeping over Hood's death. This time he would offer no apology for trying to kiss her. This time he would take her as his own, and she would be too grief stricken to fight him off as she had before, so she would know at last there was something between them, and he was a better, stronger, more powerful lover than Hood had ever been!
It would take time for her to grow to love him, but she would, living with him in Locksley Manor, as Lady Gisbourne, Countess of Huntington and mother of his children. What did it matter she had been tainted by Hood, Guy asked himself, as long as she was his, Guy of Gisbourne's wife?
...
"Well, Pierre of Caen," King Richard said, studying the teen who trembled on his knees before him, "you are either a poor, unlucky shot, or else King Philip has sunk to recruiting boys to fight against me now. Or are you a vigilante, working on your own to receive glory from your king by killing his enemy?"
"The first, my lord Duke...I mean, Your Majesty," Pierre answered, lying to protect his little sister. "I was aiming at a rab-I mean a squirrel."
King Richard's eyes sought Robin's. "I'm sure he never meant to harm Your Majesty," Robin said. "His brother, Denis of Caen, died fighting alongside you in the Holy Land."
"It wouldn't be the first time a family member unjustly blamed a brother's death on a returned Crusader," the king remarked. "Remember Carter?"
"I will never forget him, Your Majesty," Robin solemnly answered. "But I'm certain the boy never meant to harm you. I stake my honor on it."
"A high price, Robin! Well then, Pierre of Caen," the king decided, "arise. I pardon you completely, but caution you to be more careful of your bow in the future. What say you to taking a lesson, here and now, from the very finest archer England has to offer? Robin?"
Pierre was amazed that Robin of Locksley, the legendary "Robin Hood," was willing to teach him pointers on shooting. He hated to pass up such an incredible opportunity, but his concern for his sister overrode his desire. "I cannot, Your Majesty," he explained. "If it please you, I need to go home and watch over my little sister."
Robin was glad of Pierre's refusal, for he too felt concern for his family and wanted to hurry back to them. But he wanted to be sure Pierre and his sister would not go hungry. Walking away with him, he kindly asked, "Was the squirrel you missed meant to be your family's supper?"
Pierre had not shot at a squirrel, but he and Marie had been gathering nuts to eat. He nodded his head. "Yes."
With nobody looking on, Robin pulled out a coin and placed it in the youth's hand.
Pierre was amazed at its value. "My lord, I cannot accept! It is too much!"
Robin grinned. "Enough to cover archery lessons as well as food," he teased, winking.
Pierre was completely won over by Robin's kindness and charm. "I will never forget you, Robin Hood," he said before turning and running back toward the woods, where he hoped the vicious man who had really shot King Richard would be gone, and his little sister free. He little guessed he would find Gisbourne gone, but his sister's little body bloody and lifeless.
King Richard, his shoulder bandaged, joined Robin. "I hope you were right about that boy," he said. "He seems too young for Philip to employ to do his dirty work. On second thought, you weren't much older than he, when we travelled together to fight the Saracens."
"A few years older," Robin said, still grinning. Turning serious, he added," I, too, ask permission to leave Your Majesty and return to my family."
"Go to them," the king commanded. "But I wouldn't worry about Isabella of Gisbourne, Robin, but rather for her. Like myself, your wife has the heart of a lion, and with her 'cubs' to protect, I say God help Isabella."
Robin beamed with pride at the king's compliment toward his beloved Marian. "And God save Your Majesty," he added, with affectionate reverence.
He did not know he would only see the king he loved one more time, for within a few days, Richard would be dead.
...
(Note: King Richard did indeed die while in France, trying to regain his lands from King Philip that Prince John had lost. His valor during this war was as highly regarded as it was when fighting Saladin's armies, but historians at the time complained he did not have sufficient troops, claiming he was "trying to slay an eagle with sparrow hawks." He did not die in battle, but was struck in the shoulder by a crossbow arrow, which he tore out, accidentally breaking it and leaving half of it within him. He pardoned the young peasant who claimed to have shot him accidentally, but died a few days later from blood poisoning. I tried to use the facts of his actual death in this story, changing the details to suit the characters and their motivations.)