Chapter 7

Guy crumbled the piece of parchment in his hands. He should have known that this wouldn't lead anywhere.

Nobody has seen her. Going to keep looking.

That had been the whole content of the message he had received via his housekeeper from Locksley Manor. Guy threw the wad aside, regretting at this very moment that he had let the outlaw go. He stormed out of his chamber at the castle, the door falling shut with a resounding noise that Guy even dampened out with his shouts. "Allan!" He marched along the passageway with long strides. "Allan!"

He turned around a corner and almost walked into a man, but it wasn't the one he was looking for.

"Your lap-dog isn't here," the sheriff told him with a smirk. "Maybe he has run back to his previous owner."

Guy felt like having been punched in the face for a moment and subconsciously touched the wound on his cheek that was the result of the fight in the barn in Locksley. The sting that the contact with the wound caused also cleared his head. As little as it had resulted in so far, he could not give up on the reluctant cooperation with the outlaw now, or he would give up on one of his only leads. The other lead was standing before him.

Guy looked at the sheriff who was waving a hand in front of Guy's eyes now.

"Anyone there?" Vaysey asked amusedly. "Or has your mind followed the leper into nothingness?"

Guy clenched his fists at his sides.

"What has happened to you anyway?" the sheriff went on with a closer look at Guy's face. "Been beat up by a new girly?"

Guy was silent, his mind pondering the question as to how on earth he could ask the sheriff what he needed to ask. The man shooed him aside and moved on, Guy following behind. They were going to the sheriff's quarters and when he turned to close the door of these, the sheriff's face showed a mocking surprise about Guy's continuing presence.

"What now, Gisborne?"

"Sir."

The other man had already turned away uncaring, moving towards the cage with his birds now.

Guy watched him, struggling to find the right words. "Sir, have you heard anything about Lady Marian?"

The sheriff didn't answer at first. He had opened the cage and caught a small bird. "Ah, the disappointment, Gisborne." He stroked the bird, looking down at it.

Guy just stared wordlessly at the man, waiting for another answer, but also wondering how else he could ask. This was his part of the search plan after all, but he knew how difficult it was to extract from the man what he wanted to know if Vaysey was unwilling to give it to him.

The sheriff closed the bird cage. "Have you ever thought about the possibility, Gisborne, that your boy Allan helped in making her disappear? He is in the castle... He is Hood's hand in the castle, as I've been telling you." The last part was said with rising anger in the sheriff's voice and he turned back to his right-hand man.

"I do not believe so, my lord."

No, Guy did not believe it, but still he felt cold at the implication, as it would explain the question that had been pressing on his mind. It would explain how Hood could have managed to take Marian away from the castle... If Allan was his man still... The traitor... Maybe Guy had been on the right track when he had been looking for the man before he ran into the sheriff.

But then Vaysey had also wanted Guy to force Allan to tell them where the outlaw's camp was, or alternatively, what Robin's sore point was. Guy had thought those ideas vain and had wasted only little time questioning Allan about them, before returning to more important tasks. Allan hadn't answered him either of the sheriff's queries, but Guy nevertheless didn't believe he was still working for Robin. Maybe not for lack of wanting, but he understood that Hood had thrown him out. Gisborne smiled, an emotion that was wiped from his face a moment later.

"Not that anyone misses her," the sheriff was still talking. "Save for the love-sick puppy that is you, Gisborne!" his voice rose. "I'm surrounded by dogs!" He gave the bird cage a violent swing and the birds inside panicked, making a racket. When the sheriff turned to Gisborne the next time, the man was gone.

The servants at Locksley Manor breathed a sigh of relief when he had left. They knew Gisborne's temper well enough by now, but today it had been especially bad. In the morning someone had broken into the house and Guy had been furious. In the evening the man had arrived back on an exhausted horse and had immediately demanded to see Thornton. The conversation with the man had apparently not dampened Guy's wrath. Luckily, the man had soon left, taking another horse to ride off. Many of the servants knew that Robin had been at the house earlier that day. They could only assume that Guy's anger was connected to the visit.

Robin had in the meantime ridden on to Knighton and Nettlestone. Nobody had been able to answer his questions the way he had hoped there either, although some of the reactions he had witnessed in Knighton had made him suspicious. He had asked after Marian there and had received some strange looks. Likely it was because some of the people knew Marian well from the time she had lived there and were now wondering what was wrong. It didn't have to mean that they were hiding anything from Robin.

After looking in Nettlestone without success, Robin rode back to Knighton in rising anguish. Nobody had seen her in Nottingham, at least according to Gisborne. There had been no trace of her in any of the villages around the town.

Robin worried. He had been confident that he would learn something in the villages, that people would tell him that they had seen the Nightwatchman. Allan had told him that Marian had gone off disguised. This was information Gisborne could never learn, but Robin, knowing about it, had been fairly sure that he would be able to discover where Marian was.

He had told himself again and again that she could take care of herself. Still, this didn't mean that nothing could happen, especially as she was basically living in the clutches of the sheriff.

Robin didn't know what to do. He always came up with something he could do. But now he was running out of ideas where to even look. If he knew where she was, held captive somewhere, he could go on a rescue mission like he had done so many times for any of the outlaws and like the gang had done for him as well. But he had no idea what had happened.

He reached Knighton still lost in thought. He didn't plan on asking around again; little time had passed since he had first done so before riding off to Nettlestone. He had to go back to camp instead. Maybe one of the lads had any idea what else he could do. Robin dismounted the horse outside of Knighton and sent it into the direction of the village then, guessing that someone would pick it up, and walked off into the forest. He had not gotten far, when he heard the sound of hooves again. They were coming from the road leading to Knighton. Robin stepped to the side of it and saw Gisborne approaching on horseback, several guards following behind him. He wasn't sure if he could trust the man again, but Robin knew they needed to speak. He had to know if the man had discovered anything new. Robin walked to the middle of the road and Gisborne slowed down, allowing the guards to catch up.

"Hood," Gisborne greeted him, if one wanted to name the way he said and the tone he used with this friendly word. Robin realized immediately that Guy was fuming. The guards charged forward and Robin pulled up his bow in frustration, stopping them in their tracks.

"Haven't we been through this already?" Robin sighed. He couldn't believe Guy was already throwing their plan away. Neither did he feel like discussing the matter over and over again. If Gisborne wasn't ready to cooperate even to this little extent, Robin had to find Marian on his own. "Have you asked Vaysey?" he wanted to know nevertheless, having little hope for a satisfying answer.

Guy narrowed his eyes and after a moment of hesitation he signaled his guards and Robin lowered his bow, frowning and hoping that this type of cooperation could be ended rather sooner than later.

"He didn't tell me anything," Guy said finally. He smiled a humorless smile. "Well, he told me that your traitor Allan-a-Dale is in league with you again and that is how you took Marian from the castle. What do you say to that?" His tone told Robin all too clearly that he didn't expect an earnest answer.

Robin shook his head, pushing away the anger that was coming up on the mentioning of Allan and the suggestion that the traitor was still working for him.

"You haven't learned anything, have you? For once I had thought you were smarter than that, but you still let Vaysey play with your mind."

He knew that Guy had no reason to trust him, rather expected the worst of him. This sentiment was what Robin had after all exploited when he had pretended to hold Marian hostage. Well, Marian had exploited it. Robin had not liked the idea at all, expecting the worst of Gisborne just as well.

He had to be straightforward. "We go to Nottingham. I want to see with my own eyes."

Gisborne let out a gruff snort. "And you think that you will see something different than I?"

"My men and I always do," Robin pointed out.

There was a moment of silence, before Guy nodded. "Agreed."

He looked at the outlaw pointedly and Robin looked back at him and the guards, grimacing. A nice walk together to Nottingham wasn't really a cheery prospect or even an option for either of them, as being seen together would promise to be fateful for either one. It would simplify things in Nottingham though, if he didn't have to take care to keep the guards from his back.

Finally Robin shrugged and moved to walk past Gisborne's guards to lead the way to Nottingham, if it was necessary. He took the risk that Gisborne would order to apprehend him again, but bet on the chance that Guy had for once and all realized that only Robin could help him. In a way it was a test. Robin could have just as well disappeared into the forest, but he probed Gisborne, taking the first step on what would surely be his last try to work with the man.

Robin was almost past the guards, who were watching him suspiciously, when one of them suddenly collapsed and fell from his horse after something had collided with him. The something actually turned out to be a someone, a small figure clad in a brown cloak and wearing a mask, moving quickly, hitting more guards, before they could even react to the surprise in a proper manner.

Guy bellowed orders, but the Nightwatchman skirted away and grabbed Robin's arm, pulling him off the road, into the forest.

He could barely keep up, the surprise so sudden that the archer found himself tripping over his own feet. But he kept himself upright, hurrying along with her, both confusion and relief intermingling with one another. Behind him he could hear Gisborne yelling, shouting out orders, but by then the two were well enough off the path that the others would not be able to find them easily. That was what Robin wanted and Marian, too, for she knew as well as he did that to be caught in such a manner was a death sentence. The happy reunion would be short lived, replaced by a much more dreary outcome. They turned one last corner, moving behind another tree, and sliding into a thick and short brush. It gave them solid cover.

"Marian!" he finally managed to breathe once he knew that they were safe from prying ears.

"What are you doing?" she cried, pulling down her mask, her voice low.

"What are you doing?" Robin returned, almost laughing.

"Rescuing you! I leave for a day and you fall into the hands of Guy. You have any idea of what he would do to you?"

"Yeah, I guess I have. But this wasn't necessary," Robin shrugged it off, perplexed by her stance. Here it was they who had been set out to find and rescue her, but instead the opposite had happened, or so she believed.

"You were surrounded by guards," Marian pointed out angrily.

"Well, not exactly surrounded," Robin grinned. "We've been looking for you! Where have you been all this time?" Sobering up, he added quietly, "I was worried."

"We have to get away from here," she said fiercely.

Robin still smiled in relief at seeing her, despite her lack of wanting to answer. There would be time to explain later, he knew. He wanted to hug her, but couldn't risk any of Gisborne's men, who were still somewhere close, getting a glance of him taking the Nightwatchman into his arms. Even if the guards wouldn't be able to put two and two together, Guy might become suspicious.

Before he could say anything else, they heard Guy's voice closer to them than before. "Hood? Do not think you can just leave like this! We don't have any time for you and your outlaw-friends to go off together."

"What is going on here?" Marian asked in a vehement whisper. Robin knew that she couldn't risk Guy recognizing her voice.

"Gisborne and I have been looking for you," he explained quietly, as they could still hear Guy calling for him. Robin grimaced. The man seemed suddenly very eager to have Robin help in the search. Maybe he was actually worried that Robin would go off with the Nightwatchman and leave Guy to his own futile attempts at a search. Robin could easily do this now. Marian was here and he pretty much felt like simply vanishing with her into the forest, but knew it would look suspicious, if he suddenly abandoned the search for her at the sight of the Nightwatchman, and Marian appeared shortly after, safe and sound.

Marian seemed confused at his explanation and he could very well understand it.

"You and Guy-"

"Do you want to go back to Nottingham?" he interrupted her.

Marian nodded as expected. They had led this discussion before and Robin wouldn't try now to change her mind.

"You have to go quickly, before Gisborne finds us." He took her hand for a moment and gave it a squeeze. "I'll come and see you later."

With a nod, Marian set the mask back in place, turned and hurried off through the forest, Robin soon losing her sight between the trees. Smiling, feeling relieved that he knew she was well, although he still did now know what had happened, Robin turned on his heel, slipping out from the brush, making his way back to Gisborne, careful to hide his emotions once he approached the man.

Guy looked at him darkly. "What was that about?"

"Naturally the Nightwatchman thought I was in danger and took liberty to rescue me. We cleared things up, and I chose to ask him if he has seen Marian anywhere," Robin said lightly. "He's getting around after all." He was rewarded by some quietly muttered insults from Gisborne that for once were mostly not directed at him, but at the disguised person that had vanished into the woods.

"What are we waiting for?" Robin wondered. "We need to get to Nottingham."