Marian stared, hollow eyed, out the window of her bedchamber, every inch of her body and soul screaming in pain.
She forced her mind to take her away from this frightful hell of Gisbourne's making. Her kind, loving father giving her her first horse "Princess"...Robin and Much and herself as children climbing trees and rolling down hills and throwing snowballs...Christmas and her children's birthdays and May Day...her very first kiss...her most recent kiss, Robin's long lingering one of goodbye...Robin carrying her over the threshold and up the stairs after their wedding in Locksley Church...their babies...tucking the children in at night when they were small...picnics and prayers and romance...whispered confidences in the dark...Knighton Hall...Vesper and Llanrei and all the horses she had loved...Allan's ribald jokes...Little John's comforting strength...Will and Djaq's amazing intelligence...Robin's blue eyes and his unpredictable smile...Ellen's wedding gown...
"You," Gisbourne resumed his accusations, wrenching her from her thoughts, "are a liar!"
He stood over her, blocking her view out the open window, jealous of anything that took her attention off him. She painfully turned her face away, so as not to have to look at him, but he seized her by her hair and yanked her head back around.
"You will look at me!" he cried.
She closed her eyes, and he slapped her across her face again. "Look at me, you lying whore!"
If she screamed, if she cried out, Gisbourne would murder whomever came to her aid. Her wrists were bound and tied to the bed, the ropes cutting into her flesh. She could not save herself. She opened her eyes and looked blankly into Guy of Gisbourne's steely blue eyes.
"Marian!" he cried in anguish, now that her eyes were on him, "why did you reject me?"
His question left her cold. He saw himself as the victim, and her the inflicter of wounds. He was self absorbed, and completely mad. Pathetic and cruel. Not a completely whole human being. Unworthy even of her hate, yet she hated him for what he had done to her tonight.
"Robin will come home, and he will save me, and he will kill you," she managed to say.
His eyes hardened. He gave a cry and plunged his sword through her bed. She didn't even flinch, but her heart shot to her throat at the next sound she heard.
"Mama? Mama, are you alright?" The voices of her daughters on the other side of the door made her want to scream out a warning. But though she tried, she could barely make a sound.
Gisbourne froze for a moment, and then a sneer played on his features.
"It would appear we have company," he said, striding to the door.
Marian began to cry when he unbolted the door and threw it open. "Guy!" she begged, referring to him by his Christian name for the first time in years. "I beg you! Please! Let them go!"
But he had already grabbed the startled girls and thrown them into the room, and was tying them to the bedposts at the foot of Marian's bed.
"Robin Hood's treasure!" he sneered, "stolen at last! Let's just see how Hood will react, shall we, when he comes home to save you!"