"Tell me it's not true."

Allan a Dale burst into Locksley Manor, winded from his mad ride from Nottingham. Word had spread all over town about the brutal murders in Locksley the night before, and Allan had ridden to the village as quickly as he could.

"Tell me," he insisted.

Will could only look at him in sorrow. It was up to Djaq to confirm the terrible truth.

"They are dead," she said quietly. "All three of them. Robin's upstairs with them now."

"Robin?" Allan's head was spinning. He couldn't believe Marian was gone, nor the lovely girls. He sank to a bench and put his head in his hands.

Marian had always been a special friend to him, ever since they had survived the whims and wiles living under Vaisey in Nottingham Castle, back in the days when Robin had been an outlaw. Marian had saved Allan's life by begging Robin to spare him, and he had returned the favor by saving her from the hangman's noose. They had always shared a give and take sort of relationship, understanding each other when others, too emotionally invested in them, might be blinded by feelings.

He couldn't accept that she was gone.

But Djaq was also a special friend. She was kneeling beside him now, her calm presence seeming to flow into him, giving him strength.

"We must be strong, for Robin." she said.

Allan lifted eyes wet with tears. Standing, he nodded his head, acknowledging his resolve first to Djaq, then to Will.

Little John lumbered through the door. He didn't need to be told. He could read the situation perfectly, though he had never read a book. His fatherly presence caused Djaq to give way to her tears.

John strode forward and clasped the tiny woman in his huge embrace. "There, there, little one," he murmured quietly.

"Someone needs to fetch Much," Will said, but no one seemed to have the energy for it.

"I'll go," Little John volunteered, handing off a sobbing Djaq to her husband's arms. And even though he had just arrived, he turned and headed back out the doorway, toward Bonchurch.

...

Memories flooded Robin's mind in such rapid succession, he couldn't tell where one ended and another began.

"Congratulations, Papa...it's a girl." Matilda handed him the tiny red faced bundle, and his eyes filled with happy tears as he stared into the miraculously beautiful crying face of his firstborn.

"Good lungs," he laughed to Marian, prouder than a peacock.

"Just like Her Majesty," Marian smiled back.

"Then it's settled. We'll name her 'Ellen,' just as you wanted."

Ellen's little girl voice piped up. "Daddy! Daddy! Gracie's fallen off the roof!"

He dashed into the yard and scooped up the fallen body of his younger daughter.

"Daddy, it hurts!" Grace was trying to be brave.

Vastly relieved she wasn't more badly hurt, he comforted, "Shh! It's alright Blossom. Djaq's coming. She'll make you all better."

"Djaq!" Robin called now, not realizing he had cried out.

Djaq came running up the stairs and entered the room.

"Make them well," he ordered. "Make Marian well again."

"Robin, I cannot," she said apologetically.

He seized Djaq by her lower arms and turned her to face him. "Make them well!"

Staring into Djaq's unblinking eyes, he felt the hopelessness of the situation, and he released Djaq's arms and staggered toward the bed.

Dropping to his knees beside his dead wife's side, he cried in a choked voice, "Marian!"

Will and Allan stood in the doorway. Allan turned his face away. He couldn't bear to see the lifeless forms on the bed.

"We need to bury them, Robin," Will said quietly. "I've built them coffins."

"Leave us," Robin hissed at them from the bedside, his voice cutting through the room like steel.

His three loyal friends stepped from the room again, leaving him alone with the bodies of his family.

After many moments during which he did not move or utter a sound, Robin kissed the forehead and lips of his dead wife. How cold she was! How pale! "Marian?" he begged, stroking her beautiful hair.

Seizing her body in his arms, he tried to squeeze life back into it, but it was more stiff than a board. "No," he whispered, to the empty room, "you cannot bury her. She'll die if you leave her in the ground. I will not let you bury any of them!"

"Come back, my love," he whispered to Marian, over and over again. "Come back. The girls and I need you."