Part 16

Two weeks later, the year was as fresh as the air, Allan shivered as he followed Robin through the forest. They paused when they came into sight of Clun and watched as Gisborne made another family homeless.

"It's the worst time of year," commented Allan.

"We will get word to Tuck, see if Eleanor can help," Robin replied.

"Don't you mean you want to see Eleanor in case she has news of Marian?"

Robin looked at Allan with a pained expression on his face and replied tersely. "I wish I knew where they had taken her. I wish someone knew something."

"Yeah well someone does know something."

"Who?"

"Gisborne."

"Gisborne," repeated Robin.

"Why don't we go to Locksley? You can threaten him or something."

"Eleanor," Robin told him.

"I don't think it would scare her, she seems quite tough to me, nice, pleasant looking, but tough in a nice good sort of way."

"But is it fair to her?"

"Is it fair that he took Marian away? Wherever she is she obviously is stuck there," he shrugged.

"Possibly, but perhaps she needs time to get a message to us."

"That is also true, so what we gonna do? Threaten Gisborne?"

"It might come to that, but if we do, it will be when he is not with Eleanor…" Robin said trailing off and looking through the bare trees.

"I don't know about you, but I am freezing, are we going back to the cave or moving on someplace else?….Robin."

Robin's attention was caught by something else entirely and Allan followed where his gaze rested, before looking back at Robin again who seemed in a trance. Shaking him he urged Robin that they should find shelter as soft flakes of snow were beginning to fall, silently like their footsteps back to the cave. Robin looked back now and then but did not see what caught his attention away from Allan again and he wondered if it was a sign.

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"What are you thinking?" asked Djaq later in the day to Robin who was deep in thought and not for the first time since Marian disappeared.

"He was like that earlier," Allan commented, as if Robin wasn't there.

"Marian," Much said unnecessarily. "Perhaps we should undertake the mission to find her ourselves."

Little John shook his head. "No."

"It was only a suggestion, have you looked at him recently?"

"Who?" asked Will.

"Robin who else are we talking about?" Much replied exasperated.

They all paused to look at their leader, who was looking tired, drawn, weary and tormented.

"It is not just Marian, it is the dreams," Djaq said.

"You know he is getting dreams too?" Much asked her.

"Yes he wakes me up with his muttering and thrashing about."

"I have not noticed," said John.

"You wouldn't" she joked. "You snore for England."

"I still say if he will not try and get Marian back we should get her back for him," Much continued.

"That is what Guy wants," Will said thoughtfully. "Robin is just playing things his way."

"Maybe…but still, it has been a fortnight since the New Year, almost three weeks since she went….I for one can not bear to see him like this, what if he goes like before?"

"Before when?" asked Will.

"You know," Much reminded them. "When he ….when we all thought she was dead, then she wasn't and was going to marry Gisborne anyway because he had killed Pitts."

"Oh then, well he hasn't left us, that is a good sign," Allan told them.

"I am still here," Robin said annoyed looking very much with them in all sense of the word.

"In body, mind I am not so sure," Much told him. "So Master what are we to do?"

Robin sighed and replied. "I thought I saw someone today….."

"Such as…" Much encouraged.

"A shadow from the past."

"Ah,"

"A ghost," said John immediately looking alarmed.

"A ghost?" snorted Allan with a shake of his head, then looked serious. "Is that what you saw outside Clun? A ghost?"

Robin smiled, "I do not believe in ghosts…but I saw a boy and he reminded me of someone….of Alex."

"Who is Alex?" asked Allan, looking round the circle, Much the only one who seemed to recognise the name in reference to Robin.

"Alexander," Much said slowly. "If you thought you saw him it was surely a ghost."

"Did you know Alexander?" asked Allan.

"No, no I never knew Alexander. I heard about him, mainly from Robin sporadically from Robert, Robin's father and on occasion Marian, but no I never met him."

"Well someone tell us who he was and what was his fate, I am dying of curiosity," announced Djaq as they all turned their attention on their leader.