It wasn't often Marian snuck from the castle into the woods, but some early mornings before the King or Alexandra woke she would cover her face so only her eyes were showing then carefully sneak to the stable to tack her favorite horse. She didn't know what called to her, but something about riding through the woods at top speed called to her. She felt like it was natural to her, like she had done if before, but she knew she hadn't. Her memories were back she had grown up a princess always riding in a carriage behind a horse. She never learned to ride one, but yet something called to her she seemed to know how to saddle a horse without even thinking. Getting on and asking the horse to move forward seemed only natural to her.

Marian sat on top of her horse feeling safe and content. She felt like nothing could touch her, that her confusing life didn't seem so important. The emptiness was gone when she was riding she felt free. Nothing felt like it could touch her here in the meadow. She was startled from her peaceful moment when something spooked her horse; it reared up causing her to fall to the ground.

"Are you alright?" a voice asked from behind her, Marian looked up to see a women in a white dress and long brown hair standing behind her holding a basket filled with berries.

"I'm sorry." Marian said

"No need to be sorry you just were watching the sky and it seemed you were watching for something." The women said with a soft smile, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to startle you."

"I'm not watching for anything." Marian said startled that a commoner saw her she was always so good at staying clear of people, no one could know she was the queen. She couldn't trust anyone she remembered clearly the commoners cared for nothing, they only cared for who ever paid the highest price if she got kidnapped she would be ransomed. She tried to get up and winced as her weight was put on to her ankle, she had hurt herself in the fall and now her horse was nowhere in sight.

"Here let me help you." The women said as she put her basket down and took hold of one of Marian's arms helping her to her feet. "My husband will be here in a moment I will send him to fetch your horse."

"There is no need." Marian said taking a step as she did she felt more pain shoot through her ankle, this wasn't good she was stuck here with this woman alone if they realized who she was it would be over.

"You are hurt let us help, we are here to help the people of this land." The women told her.

"Kahlan?" called a male voice from the woods, "Where are you with the berries the gang wants to eat." A man walked into the clearing

"Over here." The women called Kahlan called; "Do you want to remove this covering from your face its warm out today and that must keep you warm." She moved to remove the cloth that covered her nose and mouth. It was her protection so no one would be able to recognize her easily if they knew what the queen looked liked.

"No!" Marian said quickly, "I mean no its alright my husband wants me to keep this on, I must."

"Alright" Kahlan said understanding a wife's devotion to her husband after all before Arianna went missing she had been that type of wife. She turned her head to her husband. "I'm right here." She then looked back at Marian, "That's Robin my husband."

Marian looked up at the man approaching them she felt her heart skip a beat something about him. She knew him, didn't she?

"Is everything alright here?" he asked his voice seemed so familiar, where had she heard it. "Are you alright miss?" he asked his voice sounding almost like a dream.

"I'm fine, I just have to walk home." Marian took her arm from the women next to her and tried to take a step forward, but the moment she put weight on her ankle again she fell forward in to the man's arms.

"Careful." The man said with a smirk

"I'm fine." Marian snapped at him

"If you were fine you wouldn't be falling into my arms." Robin replied his grin spreading on his face.

"I just tripped it has nothing to do with my fall from the horse." Marian told him as she pulled herself from his arms, "I'm alright now if you please it is about time I head home." Once again Marian tried to walk, but the pain in her ankle was too much she stumbled forward again into his arms.

"Robin make sure she doesn't try and put weight on her leg, I'm going to go find her horse." Kahlan said heading off into the woods.

"You remind me of someone I know." Robin said with a laugh

"Who?" Marian asked looking up at him from his arms.

"Someone I used to know." His smiled turned to a frown as his eyes met her; he put her on her feet and took his arms from her. He felt his heart hit his stomach as the eyes of the women hit his. Her eyes were so much like his lost love, his lost wife. It was easier thinking of his late wife now but he still missed her the same. Little by little Kahlan was filling in the dark hole that she had left. Yet now here he was looking into the eyes of a stranger and all he could see was his love, the woman he wanted more then anything.

"What happened to her?" Marian asked seeing the pain in his eyes, his familiar eyes.

"I lost her." His eyes were locked on the stranger in front of him, the stranger that reminded him of his pain that was beginning to ease. It seemed no matter where he went, whom he met, or the years that passed there never would be a time he could forget her.

"I'm sorry." Marian said softly she felt almost like she was under some spell, some spell where she couldn't take her eyes off the man in front of her.

"Sorry for what?" he asked

"Your eyes." The women said, "You miss her don't you?" She felt drawn to this man, but why? Why him? Why now? Who was he?

"Yes." Robin said feeling something strange with in himself, something that made him want take this woman in his arms and never let go, her eyes looked so much like Marian looking back at him.

"I should be going my husband will be looking for me." Marian told him hoping he hadn't realized she had left the castle grounds yet.

"After my wife returns with your horse you can't walk on your ankle not with it like this." Robin glanced down she was still leaning in his arms.

"I uh um." Marian said lost for words as she pushed herself free of his arms. She didn't understand why she was feeling this way, like a little girl encountering a crush.

Holding this woman in his arms felt right, so natural. Yet he didn't know why, he could hardly even see her face except her eyes her beautiful familiar eyes that made his heart melt. In the past year he had begun to feel things for his wife he had started to see a life with her once they got their daughter back, but holding this woman seemed to made him realize that what he felt with Kahlan was no were near what he needed, what he craved. Why did this woman make him feel this way? Why did she make him see no matter how much he fell in love with Kahlan it would never be enough? She would never be enough?

"What is your name?" he asked hers softly.

Not wanting to say her true name fearing he would realize she was the queen she thought quickly, "Elizabeth." She told him

"It's nice to meet you Elizabeth, I'm Robin."

That name it was so familiar, but why? Marian thought she knew the name it seemed so right. "Hello Robin." She said softly hoping that he had no intention of hurting her, but some how deep down she knew he wouldn't harm a hair on her head. But why? Why did she feel so safe with this man?

Her eyes, they were eyes he knew, knew a long time ago. The eyes that seemed so much like the women he had once loved. The eyes he had watched the light fade from.

"Hello." Robin said not knowing what else to say all he knew was he wanted to smile, he wanted to hold this girl close because her eyes. Her eyes so much like Marian's.

"Robin." Kahlan said walking up leading the horse, "I got it." She frowned seeing the women in her husband's arms. He seemed so relaxed holding the stranger.

"Let me help you on your horse." Robin said softly to the girl.

"Thank-you." She said to him. Don't show him weakness never show it to him. She heard a voice say in her head. She shook her head as she felt her world start to spin, images began to fly into her mind, images and voices.

"This is Robin." A man's voice said pointing to a young boy not more then ten, "he is to be your future husband." The voice was proud.

"Yuck father I hate him." She felt herself say in a young voice.

"I heard that and I hate you too." The boy argued "Father don't make me marry her." He complained to a man behind him.

"That won't be for a long time my son, and you may realize you like her." The man behind the boy spoke

"Never." Marian said sticking her tongue out at Robin.

"I'm a lord don't stick you tongue out at me!" Robin yelled

"I'll do as I wish I'm not some weak little girl to do as you say." Marian said as she punched Robin in the stomach then took off running.

"Marian!" the man that had stood behind her yell.

"I'll show you!" Robin yelled as he got up and chased after her.

"Robin!" yelled the man that stood behind him, but neither child stopped to answer the men.

Marian opened her eyes to see a fire burning. "Where am I?" she asked softly mostly to herself. She sat up and held her head as it began pound.

"You collapsed when I tried to help you on your horse." Came a voice from behind her. She jumped up and turned a little to fast and felt herself growing dizzy again. She swayed and thought she would fall in the fire, but his arms grabbed her and pulled her safely away.

"Stopping you from falling and hurting yourself is becoming a full time job." Robin said with a soft chuckle.

"Then don't bother." She snapped at him as she tried to push herself from his arms. She was confused she didn't know what was going on, her mind seemed to be a jumbled mess.

"I didn't mean it as a bad thing." He said to her

"I'm sorry." She said placing her hand on her head "My head it just" she stopped and knew she would fall to the ground again if his arms weren't wrapped around her. "I don't feel well." She said as she felt herself fall back into darkness.

"You can only resist me for so long." Robin said with a smile holding a flower to her.

"I'm not going to be just another notch in your belt." Marian said, "That kiss meant nothing, I was just wrapped up in the moment."

"It meant everything." He said stepping closer, "It proves you do have feelings for me."

"I will never have feelings for a boy who thinks he can get everywhere simple on his good looks and money." She said frowning ignoring the flower he held to her.

"You aren't just another notch on my belt Marian." He said glaring at her, "you could never be."

"I will never love you Robin of Locksley." She said as she turned and walked away.

Marian opened her eyes again as she felt the pain in her head increase, she was lying back on the ground.

"We don't know who she is or why she is in these woods, she could be a spy." She heard a woman's voice say.

"Kahlan relax she isn't a spy just a hurt girl." Robin said to his wife.

"Can we take the face cover thing off to see what she looks like?" a different man asked.

"No she wishes it to stay on so it will." Robin told him

"You have a soft spot for her." Kahlan said angrily.

"Is that what this is about?" Robin asked, "Are you jealous of a girl I have known for a total of ten minutes."

"It has been far longer then ten minutes." Kahlan said

"Yes that she has been with us but talking and couscous I'd say ten minutes was giving even more time." Robin told her

"I see it in your eyes, the way you speak to her, the way you hold her." Kahlan said.

"You are my wife." Robin said to her, "there is no need to be jealous I have never been unfaithful to you and I never will be."

Their conversation began to fade away once again as Marian felt her world go black.

"So you are really going?" she asked

"Yes." Robin said looking down. "The king needs me."

"Your land needs you, your people." She turned to look at him, "I need you."

"Marian-" he stared

"No!" she yelled at him, "you have spent years trying to get me to admit that I love you and when I do only a few days later you tell me your leaving?"

"It's not like that." Robin said to her it hurt him to see the pain in her eyes.

"Then what is it like Robin?" she asked "I love you, but if you go then we are done." She told him. "I don't care that are fathers wanted us to marry I don't care at all." Her voice showed hurt, "I won't be here waiting for you."

"Marian-" he said to her softly reaching his hand to brush the tear away, "I love you more then anything, but the king needs me, needs my help."

"No Robin, you want glory." She said softly, "you have always wanted it you love to stand out from a crowd and by going and being part of the kings guard you will, you will find glory, but tell me will it be worth it? Losing love in the process."

"Don't lecture me Marian I'm sure I could-" he stopped himself

"Sure you could what?" she asked anger filling her when she realized what he was about to say, "That you can find love anywhere? That every women here would be willing drop everything to marry you!"

"Marian" he tried to interrupt but her anger was far too strong.

"No Robin, I hope your happy with them, with one of those willing easy women that love you for your talents not for the person you are." She turned to leave, "good-bye Robin, don't bother to call on me when you leave or if you come back."

"Marian!" he yelled as she walked out the door.

Marian groaned as the light woke her up

"Elizabeth?" she heard his voice ask. She looked at him confused for a moment as her dreams already faded from her mind.

"Yes." She said sitting up, he moved forward and spoke softly

"Careful." He said, "you must have hit your head hard when you fell from your horse."

"My head." She said, "It feels like it has been run over by a herd of horses." Marian looked around no one was here but him. For a moment she feared what he could do to her, but something within her seemed to push that fear away. She knew he wouldn't hurt her.

"Yeah it will feel like that for a while it always does when you take a big bump to the head." He told her

"I know, not long ago I was in a bad accident and took a bad bump to my head, it took me a long time to remember who I was." She told him.

"Well at least this time you remember who you are right?" he asked her, but she didn't answer. "Elizabeth?" he asked

"What?" she said realizing he was speaking to her, she remembered that was the name she told him

"I just wanted to make sure you know who you are." He said his eyes meeting hers.

"Yes." She told him. No. A voice said in her head, which she shook away. Of course she knew who she was. She was wife to the King, mother to the heir of the throne and adopted mother to Arianna the lost forgotten child left alone without parents to cared for her. Wrong. The voice said again. She wanted to ask the voice who she was then if not who she claimed to be, but she knew there was no point in asking an imaginary voice in her head a question.

"Yes" she said, "I know who I am." No you don't. The voice said, you may think you do but there are so many holes, so many.

"That's good." Robin said, "Here." He handed her a bowl of stew, "I'm told it isn't squirrel."

"Why would it be squirrel?" she asked

"Meat is hard to come by." Robin told her, "Much the one that cooks all our meals always finds it some how and the only thing abundant is squirrel."

"They why do you say its not?"

"Because Much says it isn't denies the squirrel but we all have our theories." Robin told her with a side grin.

Marian felt her heart race, not in the way that it should. She shouldn't be feeling the way she did when she was with him. His smile shouldn't send her heart racing, it shouldn't make her smile or even make her feel safe. She knew nothing about him nothing about his smile so why did she feel at home with him alone by a fire eating some mystery meat stew beside a fire in the woods then she did in the castle with her husband with any food she could want and any comfort she could desire?

"Tell me about yourself." She said as she ate trying to get her mind to stop racing.

"My name is Robin." He told her, "A long time ago I owned my own lands and governed it, but hard times hit and I lost it all."

"Why?" she asked she knew people lost their lands a lot in the past years. "Did you run out of money? I hear when the land owners lose money the people usually turn on them due to taxation."

"No." he told her, "My people never turned on me, and I never taxed them unfairly I gave up my lands."

She glanced up at him an away from her food, "Why?" she asked, "I've never heard of someone willingly giving up their lands and wealth. Did you have wealth?"

"Yes I had wealth I came back from the crusades to a land I had dreamed of. I couldn't wait to return those five years away at war I always had home in mind, home and the love of my life. I regretted going everyday because I walked away from what was most important to me. When I returned I expected my people to be happy to see me, but I found a land filled with fear and tyranny." He told her, "So much injustice in the land, when I took back my lands from the man running them in my absence my people were happy I thought my life was going to fall right back into the way it was when I left." He smirked, "I should have believed Marian when I left for war that she wouldn't be waiting for me."

Marian felt her body freeze, who was the Marian he spoke of and how did she know that his Marian said she wouldn't be waiting for him if he left to go find his glory?

"She refused me many times, eventually in order to save innocent men I had to brake the law and save them stealing flower doesn't equal a hanging. So I ran to the woods and realized the only way to fight in injustice in my land was to help the people by stealing from the rich and giving to the poor."

"You became and outlaw?" she asked

"Yes."

"And Marian?" she couldn't remember perfectly, but she was pretty sure the woman he called his wife had a different name. "Did she find another?"

"No." he said with a grin, "There was another who wanted her but she never fell for him, while she was drawn to him at times I think no matter what she still loved me even though she wouldn't admit it and wanted to play hard to get so she didn't look like she was going back on her word so easy." He paused, "Or perhaps she did hate me a little bit, it took me a long time to win her back, perhaps if I never became an outlaw I never would have gotten her."

"What happened to her?" Marian asked, "You say you won her back?"

"I did, it took a long time but she did become mine." He paused, "Or I became hers Marian was never a woman to be possessed by a man." His smile when he talked of the woman seemed to melt Marian she had never seen a man look so in love. So what happened to his love? What happened to the woman that made him smile so? "She became a spy from inside the castle, but we did become secretly engaged." He paused, "But she was too strong willed when she found out the sheriff planned to kill the king she couldn't find me and decided to try and end the sheriff." He paused as he began to remember the most awful few days of his life. "I saved her once he captured her, but when the kings life was threatened Marian stood up to the man that wanted to make her his wife, when he heard she would never be his and that she was going to marry me he plunged a sword through her." Robin felt the pain all over again he grew silent as he took a few moments to regain himself.

Marian felt her self tear up hearing the man's story, but as he spoke she felt like she already knew what was going to happen. It was as if she had heard this story before, but couldn't remember how it ended.

Robin continued, "I found her laying on the ground, when I reached her I knew she only had moments left. She died in my arms."

"I'm sorry." Marian whispered.

Robin shook his head, "No I'm sorry I don't know why I just told you that." His eyes met hers for he still could only see her eyes, as she never removed the cloth from her face. They both didn't say anything as the slowly leaned closer together it seemed as if they were drawn to one another, their faces moving closer neither even seemed to realize they were moments away from a kiss.

"It isn't squirrel Allan!" Much's voice seemed to yell

Marian looked up breaking the trance that seemed to form between her and Robin.

"I should be heading back." Marian told him, "My husband will be worried."

"You didn't eat anything." Robin said.

"I know I'm not really hungry I must return home, I have a baby who must be hungry."

"At least let me ride with you to make sure you get home safely." Robin told her.

"No." she replied, "Please don't."

Robin hesitated but said no more something about this woman told him he wouldn't win a fight against her.

An- Sorry for the long wait but what do you guys think? Leave a review and let me know the more reviews I get always inspires me to write faster when I know people are enjoying this story and want to know more.