Robin's impression of portending doom increased when he rode into the yard of his home. No one ran forth from the house or stables to greet him or take his horse, and he slid from his steed's back and led him to the stables himself.

"Michael! George!" His call for his stable boys was left unanswered. His home seemed eerily deserted. He quickly set about the business of unsaddling his horse and made certain there was fresh hay and water.

The smell of smoke made his nostrils twitch, for it was too warm for fires to be lit, even at night, and Robin could tell the smoke did not come from cooking fires. Had the house caught fire? But no, everything seemed alright on that account.

The silence was oppressive. Where could everyone be?

Striding through his front door, he nearly collided with Will Scarlet. His relief at seeing his friend was shortlived, for Will's tear stained pale and sympathetic face raised his alarm. His pulse began to race as a sense of panic seized him.

"Will? What are you doing here? Where's Marian? Where are my girls?"

Then he saw the smoke damage.

The rear of his house had burned, as if it had been set ablaze, but the fire had thankfully been put out before it had damaged the entire structure.

Robin breathed out a sigh of immense relief. So, that is why it was so quiet! The damage in Locksley could be repaired, and everyone who had left could return home. Still, it was odd they had gone in the first place. The damage certainly wasn't extensive. The house was livable, if not exactly comfortable.

Will managed to answer his friend at last. In a voice choked with grief, he began haltingly, "Robin, last night, Gisbourne was here..." His voice trailed off.

"Gisbourne?"

What kind of nightmare was this? Gisbourne had long been dead! Marian had shot him years ago. Unless Will was referring to Isabella? But she hadn't been heard from in years either.

"Will?" Robin asked again, his eyes darting back and forth from Will's haunted eyes to the closed doors of the rooms upstairs in his beloved home.

His heart felt frozen in his chest, a hard block of ice that began to hurt. His breathing grew labored as he dashed up the steps of his house, not from exertion, but from emotion. He heard his own voice calling for Marian, but nobody answered in return.

The door to his room opened and closed. Djaq had stepped from the doorway, and she now blocked his path. Tears were welling up in her kind eyes, and Robin experienced a sense of deja vu. He couldn't shake the feeling he was thrust back in time, back in the cave in Sherwood, with Djaq apologizing for not being able to save Marian from Gisbourne's dagger.

"Robin," she said, "I'm sorry. You must listen before you go in there."

This was a nightmare...it had to be! In a moment or two, he would awaken in Marian's loving arms, as he had on so many nights, and her gentle hands and lovely voice would soothe away his fears.

"Marian," he said weakly.

Will had climbed the stairs behind him, and Robin watched him take his wife's small dark hand. The two of them stood before the door to Robin's room, asking him to sit on a bench on the landing, while they explained.

"This will be the hardest moment of your life, Robin," Djaq was saying. He heard her voice coming to him through a thick fog. Everything seemed unreal as he tried to comprehend her words.

"Your family is on the other side of the door," Djaq explained. "But they were killed last night."

"No!" Robin leaped to his feet, and Will tried unsuccessfully to to ease him back onto the bench.

"You must believe they live in Heaven now," Djaq said comfortingly. The irony of a Saracen speaking of the Christian Heaven was lost in the trauma of the moment.

Robin's throat was so tight he couldn't make a sound. His lungs couldn't get enough air as he gulped down huge breaths. Somehow, he walked to the door to his room and pushed it open.

The room stank with the smell of death.

There, side by side on his bed, lay the dead bodies of his beloved wife and their two daughters.

...

(Please do not hate me for killing Marian in this story. This story follows the actual Robin Hood legends, which has Marian killed after being happily married to Robin for 15-20 years, by a Black Knight while Robin was returning home from Runnymead after making King John sign Magna Carta. Although Guy of Gisbourne was not the actual knight who performed the killing, Gisbourne was one of the knights who plotted her death as revenge on "Hood." My source is THE COMPLETE ROBIN HOOD GUIDE, which reprints most of the actual legends, and also paraphrases them in modern English, and contains an extensive glossary of names and places.)