Hi, so here is another chapter, I am going to keep this short and sweet. There are seven more chapters to go and plenty more twists and turns even if they are not the kind that involve copious amounts of action.
Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine just this chapter and the character of Erin.
And I did use Tuck for this chapter because he is shockingly unrated both in Season 3 and admittedly in my own story.
Please Read and Review.
I will aim to do maybe another couple of updates before I move things to my Christmas schedule and that will include multiple updates.
The Growing Good Of The World
Chapter 15-On The Other Hand
We are back with the Outlaws and Robin is trying to understand why his camp is fracturing. Problem is he just can't. Tuck thinks that might be the problem.
"What do you mean you can't why I take this personally?"
And there went Robin again.
This had been the back and forth for three days. Robin verses Will and Allan.
And it was Will and Allan, everyone one else was silent and to everyone else battle lines had been drawn. Kate was still recovering and Much when he was with her was with her and not with anyone else. Tuck thought that he was keeping his opinion to himself and not saying anything that could get him into trouble. For some it might be a view of cowardice but for Much it was the only way he knew how to survive.
Not that Tuck didn't know how he felt. If it came down to a choice between Kate and Robin then the poor boy was going to be pulled one way or another, this way and that, until the end of time and inevitably he would choose the woman that he loved because it was the woman that he loved.
The problem in this whole scenario was Robin Hood.
And yes, Tuck was aware that, that was what a loaded sentence.
He was aware of the folklore that Robin Hood was becoming. But now he could see the man underneath and the man underneath was someone that he could understand and admire and also respect as being one hundred percent human.
And one hundred percent humans did not understand that other people might not see the world the way that, other people did.
He liked Robin, he did. He had not come from the Holy Lands to follow the man on a whim. He had gone from serving the King in the Holy Lands to serving him in England and Tuck had never wanted to do more than to serve his God and his King and yet here he was in direct conflict with both.
He had gone to John on that ship, had offered his services, had pulled many of them back from the brink and now here they were separating because…because Richard was a bad King.
And there it was, the words shockingly true.
Tuck wanted to believe that one day there would be a King (or a Queen) that would put the needs of their people above themselves. That would transcend the views of what a King or Queen could be. That would be there, the constant, steading presence against all odds and would be remembered as the best monarch this country would ever know. He believed this in the way that he believed that one day the Bible would be read into English, taught into English and that every man, woman and child would one day get to understand the word of the Lord the way that he did. It was simple pure belief, but simple pure belief had gotten him this far so he was quietly confident that it would help him on until the end.
And now here they were debating it. The end of the rebellion.
But had it really been a rebellion?
It had been a debate for sure, a turn in power for sure, but it had also been a power struggle between the Sherriff and Robin, between Gisbourne and Robin for Marian, between the Sherriff and Robin for land, for power and for progress.
It was all that they had.
Tuck suddenly wished Monks were allowed to get drunk.
It would make this a whole lot easier to understand.
He thought.
On the other hand there was Robin who wanted to continue fighting for King Richard despite the fact that King Richard would not continue to keep fighting for him or for any of his people. Tuck loved and admired the man as his King but he knew enough to know that as a King the man was not coming back to English shores. In hindsight Richard I was not best suited to be a King of England. King of Aquitaine perhaps, King of France perhaps, goodness knows if the rumours were true then perhaps he would be known as King Consort of France. Tuck couldn't judge (by his own admissions and by the fact that he shared a space with two men who simply could not keep their hands off each other—and goodness knows Carter was loud when he wanted to be) that kind of love but it was impractical in the King in 1193 rapidly turning into 1194. England needed…something more than what they had right now.
And what they had right now was not good enough. Not enough by half.
And so watching Allan A'Dale, Will Scarlett and Robin Hood argue it out was not the worst way to spend a day.
The problem was Tuck didn't know how to agree or disagree with them.
Because all three of them were right and he agreed with all three of them and that made him crazy.
And he hated being crazy.
The truth was someone had to compromise. The offer on the table if it was legit (which Tuck still debated because…because it would be the first real move John could make towards Kingship and he had never considered that a possibility) was a good one. If the offer was a legitimate one then there was nothing standing in the Outlaw's way but their own hard will against the Sherriff. If Isabella could guarantee that he went first then…then there would be very little to stop the men and woman of this camp from following their own desires and taking the offer that was presented to them.
And Tuck could understand why.
Problem was he didn't think Robin could.
"Because" Will was saying patiently. "If there is an offer on the table then it doesn't matter who it's from. I think to some extent Robin, Isabella is right, we don't have the power that we used to have anymore. Even in the villages and they just want enough to buy a decent piece of meat for their children. They don't care about Crusades and succession wars and who is the next King. Their lives don't register on that scale. And we've done some good Robin, we've done…we've done a lot of good. It's just…if the Sherriff is going to be the fall man for all that happened in the Holy Lands—"
"Which he should be" Allan interjected and Tuck could understand the point there completely because the Sherriff should be made the fall guy for the Holy Lands because the Holy Lands had been entirely his fault. Even though the plot had John's hallmark on it, even though Tuck was willing to bet his gold cross it had been financed from the Royal Treasury it had been the Sherriff who had gone over there, the Sherriff who had ran the entirety of the plot from Nottingham, who had used Nottingham as a base.
All of it had come down to the Sherriff of Nottingham.
And for these men that hatred went deeper.
Tuck could see that and it gave him a deeper understanding of the conflict that perhaps Robin did not get because ultimately while he was living in the forest he was also the son of gentry and he had been used to a gentry lifestyle that these other men did not understand.
For Will and Allan, for John (when he got home which Tuck was hoping would be sometime soon because they could use him as the voice of reason), for Luke, for all of the men born and bred in this shire it went a lot deeper.
For them it was family that had been on the breadline, it had been men and woman forced into poverty. They had done some good to alleviate that but until the Sherriff was gone and a newer, fairer Sherriff was in charge then there was very little that they could do.
And to be fair Tuck was a sucker for a woman in charge.
"He tried to take his brother's throne"
"Not being funny Robin mate but his brother didn't exactly race back home to defend it did he? I don't think Richard wants the throne, I think he just wants to fight a Crusade which is great if you've got a quiver of heirs at home but he hasn't has he? He knew John was taking his throne, he sent us home to defend his throne and yet what's he done? Nothing? He's not had his men reach out at all.
"Buckingham will tell us to settle" Carter said softly like the soft spoken snake that Tuck sometimes thought he was. "Buckingham will tell us to settle if it becomes a choice and it will. Richard should have come home with us, presented himself to his people, stirred up some goodwill and then gone back and he knew it. And don't say that there's work to be done over their Robin we both know it's Saladin's to lose.
Djaq who had at this moment been quiet suddenly spoke up.
"If Saladin takes Jerusalem and keeps it will he sue for peace?"
"Probably" Carter said shrugging. "Richard won't accept it"
"John might" Tuck said voicing his own opinion on the matter. "And then goes the taxation rises"
"I doubt it" Carter muttered but he did not go into details. Tuck was glad. Right now there were two certainties in life death and taxes and he was not sure where one ended these days and the other began.
"He is the King"
"Yeah and were not saying he isn't we just…we want to live our life's free of being hunted down like dogs" Will said. "We have wives now Robin, you have a baby on the way, we've stopped hundreds of the Sherriff's schemes but can't keep doing it forever. This pardon is a clear chance to regain our lives back. We can go back to being ordinary people. We've done…you've done, some extraordinary things but let's face reality you were supposed to come back to Locksley and rule. This is just a chance for you to do that. And if Richard had died while you were over there you would have done it under John no questions asked"
It was a passionate plea to a man who loved the King from a deeply passionate but ultimately pragmatic one. Tuck understood. There was so much at stake here and so much that could go wrong and Robin who was the leader was staring down a munity that was his own idol's making and Tuck, who was a vocal believer that prayer could help send one to the Good Lord to guide Robin onto the path of peace.
"We…we need to wait" Much said coming out of the little cubby hole where Kate was (listening to every word and itching to add her opinion to it if Tuck knew that woman well). "We are making decisions without the full group here. Let's table this discussion, Isabella said we had time, Erin and Marian and John will be back in a couple of days. Let us gauge the reaction of the whole group before we make this life changing decision"
"I think that is a good idea" Tuck said wisely. "It can only help in the long run Robin if we have all the opinions, and Marian I am sure will have one"
Weather or not Robin liked it was another story entirely.
Robin nodded once staring at the fire and then he turned and walked off out of the camp.
"Leave him" Much said sagely. "Only Marian could talk him out of the mood he's in right now"
"Does he get—"
"Allan he get's it"
"It's not that we don't love the King or that we support the Sherriff—"
"Will he get's it trust me, I've known the man since we were thirteen, since Marian announced her pregnancy he's thought of nothing else believe me. He knows this has got to end and he knows that's going to involve a compromise, but believing it and seeing it in action are two very different things. Give him some time and then see what Marian says"
"Marian will not want her baby to be born in the forest" Djaq said with a surety that Tuck suspected came from being very smart—or a woman—or both.
He wouldn't know.
But he did know she was right.
One way or another a decision was going to have to be made that would shape the course of their lives.
And he just hoped that they all had the strength to live with it, come what may.
And there you go, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I will do my best to bring you the next one sooner rather than later.
Next Chapter-As Erin is at the convent pondering her options the wife of the Sherrif of York arrives with a story and a chance for a happy ending.
