Hi, so here is another chapter. The thing with Season 3 is that for me writing Marian as alive through it means you have to change somethings, so yeah some episodes and some characters are missing, messed around etc. I am trying to end the story as historically as possible. John did become King, a lot of the nobles of England did turn away from the King after he was captured and he was sick for the last few months of the Crusade. So when this story ends with a better happy ending than it did in the last few episodes means that I have to get into the historical research and the reality that the Outlaws don't win every fight or are just small specks of players on a big stage-but don't worry a happy ending is coming. So don't worry if right now there is more dialogue between characters than episode related action.
Prince Geffrey was the brother of Richard and John. He was the middle brother who died before Richard became King. However he did leave behind a son Arthur who died in a 'mysterious' accident at sea. Considering Arthur was a teenager when his Uncle was sick and was technically heir it's not a great strech to imagine what happened however I must warn you there is no hard evidence of this.
There is a Allan/Marian moment in there because that friendship was wonderful and wasn't explored nearly as much as it should have been. Joe and Lucy really knew how to play their characters.
Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine.
Please Read and Review.
The Growing Good Of The World
Chapter 8-It Happened Last Night
A strange woman enters the castle creating confusion for the Outlaws. Carter hears that things are developing in London and Marian's pregnancy is creating a strain on her friendship with Erin. Also Allan and Marian share a moment on a road leading to the castle.
The first report of a move, a real move by the powers that be came as Marian was nearing her fifth month of pregnancy. Her belly was gently round against the white and blue dress she had snagged and let loose around the edges. Everything about her was getting soft and though she did not allow anyone to tell her what to do with herself it was clear that she had taken a backseat in the fight to save England.
Not that there was much of a fight ahead because they didn't know what to do next. There had been no advancement from the castle, no rallying cry from the Prince. Robin was not sure what had been going on, lulled into what they all knew was a false sense of security and the impending birth of his first child.
But that changed when Carter disappeared from Luke's bed one morning to go and check the drop sight for letters coming from London. The Duke of Buckingham was to his credit quite open with them but the mood in London was changing rapidly too. Robin and Carter were constantly trying to understand the messages that were coming but there was no indication that a rebellion on either side was in the making. Actually what seemed more and more likely (though Carter didn't dare voice the opinion out loud) was that the King was going do die overseas without an heir and John was going to take over by the natural course of selection. He didn't put a single penny on the life of Geoffrey's teenage son Arthur if he stood between John and the throne and he also didn't put much money on Richard anymore. John might have the makings of a good king who knew? Certainly he had fathered a cluster of bastards along the way. And one thing you could say about John was that he was not going to run off to the Holy Lands on a crusade. Carter had met the man once when he had been waiting on his brother and a more selfish man you'd never have met. However that didn't define kingship either in his book.
The problem was the lack of fight in London. If the Duke by his notes was telling them that John was untouchable at the moment then John was untouchable at the moment. Carter didn't subscribe to blackening men's reputations. The problem was the Sherriff…John was distant and by all accounts distancing himself from the Sherriff who was getting increasingly desperate to offer his bosses…something. He had lost the Black Knights, he had lost Gisbourne, he had lost the element of surprise when he had tipped of Richard of his brother's plot and he had seen to it that the nobles around the heir to the throne were good men rather than men who would back a coup.
Reading the Duke of Buckingham's letter that told them that John was making a progress north he paused tapping his fingernail against the neat crease of the letter thinking hard. He didn't know what to make of that. Granted the practical side of a progress was to get the fuck out of London before plague hit. For the castles to be cleaned and the walls whitewashed and the smell of new rushes to permanent the place and granted most times the Royals tended to go north rather than go south but what he didn't understand was why what John got out of it. Nottingham had been safe in his pocket since he had installed the Sherriff into the shires.
Unless he was bringing his hangman along but the Duke seemed assured that he was not.
"Another letter" he said shortly passing it to Robin as he bent and kissed Luke on the top of the mass of brown hair that was still messy from where Carter had had his hands in it the night before.
"Prince John's coming North?" Marian said reading it over Robin's shoulder.
"Looks like it" was all Carter said shortly. "But he seems assured there is no danger to us. Actually if you read between the lines—"
"If you read between the lines it looks like he's asking us to behave" Robin said frowning. "I don't get it. I mean I know it's technically dicey territory to imprison the heir to the throne for treason"
"Thought you said there was a boy in the middle—the brother's son?" John asked from where he had been rolling up the bedsheets and passing the dirty ones to Erin to wash. Her blonde hair was tied up in that way that Carter knew made Allan go brain dead for a short amount of time (though if he was critical he supposed that you couldn't really tell that Allan had a brain sometimes the way he acted). He eyed them both for a second, the domestication that had fallen over the camp and not for the first time he wondered how on Earth this was supposed to end because with Marian pregnant and with the rest of them (himself included) so sickeningly in love he didn't know how long they could keep living in the forest happy with winning just one little battle and yet never winning the war. He had done that in Acre and he knew that it didn't work.
"I think he might be telling us to pack it in" Carter said softly so only Much and Robin standing side by side could hear. Marian had turned away and it was them, the three veterans of the war standing there the note in Robin's hands with the calluses and the dirty fingernails.
"Unless John promises not to kill his brother it means nothing" Robin said shaking his head. "And I don't see John stopping himself from covering the throne"
And he pushed the note at Carter before Carter could tell him that maybe the reason John had stopped coveting the throne was because he knew one way or another soon he would inherit anyway.
But he didn't push the conversation.
One way or another they would have to have it soon.
And Prince John was coming to Nottingham.
"Allan?"
"Marian why are you following me into town? I thought Robin didn't want you to do that"
Marian rolled her eyes which told Allan all that he needed to know about how that conversation had gone.
"Do you need something?" he asked gesturing to the bump that was straining against her dress. "Special food or something?"
"No…though if you could steal a couple of white rolls I couldn't say know it's just…have you noticed that Erin is avoiding me?"
Allan dithered not one hundred percent sure how to answer that because in truth he had and he didn't know how to deal with it. He suspected that he knew why Erin had been avoiding Marian when she had been so happy within the warm world that was the lull of pregnancy (according to John who had made it very clear to all of them that Marian was not to be treated differently even though she was acting like it—because they don't like that Allan and they tend to be a bit…emotional the first time and I don't need the headache and believe me neither do you).
"I didn't notice" he lied and from the look on Marian's face she'd picked up on it.
"Look" he said because he wasn't a total dick and he did feel bad. "It's not…she hasn't spoken to me of anything. She…I think it's because…Marian please don't make me betray my wife's confidence. This is something that you and her need to talk about yourselves."
Marian said nothing for a second and her face crumpled a little and Allan felt like THE WORST.
"She won't be alone in the same space as me" she confessed and Allan winced because he had been hoping against hope that she wouldn't pick up on that one and it turns out she had—which means it's probable that Robin has picked up on it as well.
"It…we…she's by the stream, she told me so last night she was going to go down and wash the sheets if you want to speak her. Just…just don't take no for an answer. She wants to talk to you…I mean she wants to talk to you…I think anyway but, you should just march down to the lake and have the conversation with her."
Marian watched him for a second and then her face broke into a smile as if Allan had given her all the answers in the world which Allan most certainly had not. Actually he wasn't sure what he had done to deserve a smile such as that but Marian had always had a way of making you feel good for even the smallest thing that you had done. Allan supposed that that was the gentry in her though it was a rare breed.
"You got any names yet for the little un?" he asked despite the fact that he wasn't sure if he wanted to know. Marian smiled softly and her eyes got that sad look that told Allan that she had considered only one name if it was a boy and Robin was a soft touch and had let her.
"We thought Edward for my father if a boy. I asked Robin if he wanted to consider his father's name but he just pulled a face and looked away. So if he is a boy Edward it is"
"Edward's a good, solid, dependable name" Allan A 'Dale said firmly. Carefully he didn't think about his brother. He would have liked to have thought he'd name his own son Tom if he'd been blessed but to be honest the thought of another Tom A' Dale running around might actually send Much into a state of such exasperation that he would simply just stop speaking all together. That might not seem like a bad thing to Allan but he knew Kate and more specifically he knew what Kate could do when she was cross.
"Thank you" Marian said her hand on her belly again. "We hadn't had much discussion for a girl. I was thinking I'd ask everyone but I'm rather afraid of the responses I'll get"
Allan nodded barely hearing her. Unbidden an image came to mind of Erin in Marian's place her hand on her own swollen stomach that was growing day by day with Allan's child. He thought of coming home to a warm house, a strong fire, some if not a lot of money in the pot and a good wife and children. Of simply living a normal life. He didn't have much in terms of a skill set but he had known from a young age how to make himself useful.
But that was not the life he had chosen. And he had chosen this life in the end. For all the talk that Robin had saved them they'd chosen to stay with him, him and Will alike. They'd both decided to come back that day when they could have taken the haul and gone and never come back. And with that decision came Erin and Allan wouldn't have it any other way.
"I should go and speak to Erin" Marian said turning slightly and moving so that she was back in the cover of the trees. "I want to speak to Erin and I…"
But before she could finish Allan was pushing her backwards into the cover of the forest gesturing at her to shut the fuck up. He dragged her back towards a tree that was big enough to hide both of them but still gave them a bit of sight to the main road and then he peered round it.
It was a cavalcade of horses all surrounding one woman. Allan got a look of dark hair and a imperial look that hadn't looked out of place on Gisbourne once and then she was gone. She was surrounded by guards that much was clear and she had another litter following her presumedly with her things. She had chosen a road that they didn't really watch all that much but if she kept on it then she was going to end up smack in the middle of the castle.
So the Sherriff was having a guest was he? Well that was interesting…that was his move…his first real move since they'd come back from the Holy Lands and looking at the men and the richness of their saddles, the horses and the overall sense of importance Allan had to hazard a guess and assume that they had come from London.
"Find Erin later" he said urgently to Marian. "We need to go and find Robin. Now"
Marian nodded her bottom lip in her teeth but she followed him at a run as the two outlaws turned on their heel and ran silently through the trees until they were no longer in sight.
And there you go, I will give you the next one sooner rather than later.
Next Chapter-Marian and Erin have a reckoning. The Outlaws learn just who the woman in the castle is and the Sherriff is on borrowed time.
