Chapter 5: The Ring

'The Nightwatchman?' Robin asked Marian.

She calmed herself and turned around. 'The time for childish games is over. It is time to grow up and we must both accept our lot in life.'

'Okay.' He turned away from the fire and walked past her.

'What?' she asked.

'You said "grow up", I'm growing up.'

He walked out. She closed her eyes, feeling the tears stinging.

'He's hurting, you know.' Penny came down the stairs.

Marian sat in the chair by the fire. 'I know. But I can't do anything about it.'

'You do still love my brother,' Penny stated.

'I hope I do not give that impression,' Marian evaded.

'You hide it fairly well, Marian,' Penny told her. 'But I know you as I know Robin. I spied on you, as you will remember. You still have the same look in your eyes when you gaze at the other's face as you did back then. You two still love each other.'

'He left me,' Marian murmured. 'He left me for war.'

'And he has admitted it was a mistake,' Penny agreed. 'That he should never have gone. You are older than me, Marian, more experienced. Tell me that I do not really have to explain it to you, do I?'

'Explain what?' Marian asked, looking at her, completely confused.

'It appears I do.' Penny sighed. 'If history has taught us anything, it is that many men ruin their own lives by searching for the glory of war. Never finding it, but returning afterwards to find they have ruined their own lives perfectly. Very few ever fix the relationships they shatter in the name of battlefield glory. It is helpful, however, if the people hurt by their departure understand why they left in the first place. Myra helped me understand. I hope you will too.'

Penny watched as Marian paused following her speech and then nodded.

'I still have to marry Guy,' she stated. 'Wait.'

Penny waited as Marian ran up the stairs and into her room and returned a few moments later. A ring hung on a cord around her neck; a ring with a pure gold band and a sapphire in front. It was a ring that Penny recognised.

'Isn't that…?' she began.

'The engagement ring that Robin gave me,' Marian agreed. 'I want you to do something for me. Tell him I will be wearing it around my neck for the rest of my life and that I still love him and I always will. And give him this.'

She handed Penny yet another ring on a cord. This ring had a silver band and an opal in front.

'That was my mother's favourite ring,' Marian explained. 'I was wearing it around my neck the day Robin and I first met. He knows how important it is to me.'

Penny nodded and ran out the door, looking for her brother.

Robin sat up again. He heard a lighter set of feet coming.

'That was not nice, Robin,' Penny reprimanded, sitting next to him. 'Much was only trying to help take your mind off it.'

He didn't answer, trying to ignore her.

'You won't get rid of me, big brother,' Penny told him. 'I have waited five—almost six—years to see you again and the only way I will ever let you go is if Marian's dead and you are following.'

Robin finally looked over at her, knowing she was serious. She was fiddling with something small.

'Incidentally, Marian wanted me to give you this.' She raised her hand and waited until he held his hand out, then dropped it into his palm.

He looked at it and stared for a moment. Then he looked up at Penny.

'She said she's going to wear your engagement ring around her neck for the rest of her life when she gave me that,' Penny explained. 'She also told me to tell you she still loves you and that she will for the rest of her life.'

Robin stared down at the ring and felt the tears welling up, but he had no desire to suppress them. Beside him Penny stood up and squeezed his shoulder reassuringly.

'I'll leave you be for a bit, Robin,' She told him. 'Do not try to leave me. Myra can find anyone. Even you.' She turned and left him.

Myra caught Penny just outside of Loxley. 'The King is not the King!' She didn't waste any time. 'He is an impostor!'

'What?' Penny asked, her face creasing in disbelief.

'I was on horseback!' Myra panted. 'They knocked Much out of the way. Robin was trusted by the King, was he not? So would they not know who his manservant was?'

'Make sure my brother is within earshot, Myra,' Penny told her as she saw Much sprinting towards the church. 'I've a wedding to stop.'

'So, Gisborne, why exactly did the Sheriff organise an impostor King?'

Marian looked and saw Penny standing to the side of the church, leaning casually against the wall, having slipped in when they dragged Much out.

'You're Hood's sister,' he stated, confirming her statement and making Marian's gut drop. 'Why should I tell you?'

All present stared at Penny. Some in recognition, some in awe, some in both.

'Is that a confession?' Penny asked, raising her eyebrows. Then she shifted her gaze to the guards. 'Is forcefully removing one from a church for voicing a statement of fact not immoral?' she asked pointedly, 'Especially where women are concerned?'

The guards backed off.

'No matter.' Penny shrugged. 'The answer is obvious: the Sheriff wants to seek out all his opposers and rid himself of them.' She looked right at Marian. 'I thought you had the right to know the truth. The way I understood it, this wedding was not to happen until the King returned. The King has not returned yet. Good day.'

She turned and walked out. Marian looked down at the ring Gisborne was placing on her finger.

'You won't regret your decision, I assure you,' he told her.

Marian felt Robin's ring against her chest and realised that she had a choice and it didn't matter anymore. Her heart belonged to Robin. It had ever since they'd met. She removed the ring from her left hand and placed it on her right.

'No,' the priest told her. 'Left. The ring must go on the left hand.'

'No.' Marian tore the veil off. 'The right is better.'

That said, she punched Gisborne in the face, throwing all her weight behind it. He hit the floor and she ran, dropping the ring as she went. She ran out of the church and saw Robin, riding towards her.

'Do you take this man and this horse as your route out of here?' he called to her.

'I do!' she called back, beaming.

Myra rode around and Penny had helped Much out of the river and they both mounted their own horses.

'Robin, the King in Nottingham is an impostor!' Penny called to him. 'That's what Gisborne knew!'

'A trap,' Robin realised. 'I knew it!'

'Robin, my father…' Marian gripped his hand. 'He leads the rebellion.'

Robin reached down and pulled her up onto his horse behind him and rode towards Nottingham, with Penny, Myra and Much riding behind. Marian threw her veil away joyously, then wrapped her arms fully around Robin's waist and pressed herself against him in relief. She could almost hear him grinning as they rode.