Chapter 4

The riders didn't come as a surprise. Will had been lying in wait for a while, concealed in the forest, when the first men came along the road. He wasn't quite sure if the others were still around. Djaq and John had come with him, but had also planned to go hunting, so they all would have something for dinner once Much and Robin returned from Nottingham. Will had volunteered to keep a look-out on the road. They didn't plan any ambushes, now that they all would have to wait and see how the situation in Nottingham developed, but they still wanted to know what was going on, or at least see who was coming and going.

"Who are they?" John asked suddenly from behind Will who turned to look over his shoulder, seeing him and Djaq sneaking towards him.

"They're the king's men, I think," he replied, turning back to look at the riders wearing the king's colours.

"Not only the king's men," Djaq added quietly, and just as Will wanted to ask what she meant, he saw it for himself. Will had never actually seen the king, but now that he did, there was no mistaking him. The man and his entourage were riding along the Sherwood road, neither too slowly nor in an apparent haste.

"What is he doing here?" Will wondered. "Didn't Robin want to talk to him?"

"Maybe Robin is with him," Djaq suggested.

"I don't see him..."

"I don't like this," John said, looking at the road grimly.

"Maybe Robin told him to find us..." Will wondered aloud, but didn't believe what he was suggesting himself.

"Robin wouldn't tell anyone where to find us," Djaq shook her head. "He would come himself."

"Why isn't he with the king then? And what about Much?" John pointed out.

"I don't know." Will kept his eyes trained on the road. "I say we follow them, see what they're doing."

He waited to hear what the others would say. Part of him hoped they would disagree, for Will wasn't sure he wanted to find out what they were up to. For the King to leave Nottingham, and there being no sign of Robin, worried him. But what if he was right, and the king was looking for them under Robin's suggestion? What if it was something good...then again, what if it was something not so good?

John was the first to speak. "We go."

They pursued the men through the forest for a while, keeping on their track even as they had turned back into the direction of Nottingham. Will lead the others along the side of the road, hiding as well as they could behind the foliage that hadn't reached its full growth yet in the early spring.

One of the men stopped, and Will came to a halt, too, half-turning to warn the other two to stop as well. Looking at the road again, he saw the king's man turning around and looking directly at him. For a moment Will wasn't sure the man had actually seen him and wasn't just looking into his direction coincidentally.

"Someone is hiding there, Sire," the man gripped his sword, lifting it ever so slightly to point at Will who knew now that he had been detected.

He stepped back, deeper into the bushes, making up his mind to run, when he caught Djaq's gaze just a few feet away from him, John at her side. Hoping they understood, he dashed into the other direction.

He didn't get far.

Just as the men caught up with him, he glanced back again to see John pulling Djaq away deeper into the forest, and Will was glad for it. He didn't want to know what men of the king's army would do if they were to catch a Saracen here in England in the king's forest.

The thought vanished then for the time being as he was pushed to the ground.

"Who is that?"

"We don't know, Sire. He was sneaking up on us."

The other laughed. "Looked more like he was running away."

"Put him in with the others."

Will frowned as he was pulled to his feet, wondering who the others were the man had mentioned. He guessed he would find out soon enough.

The gate didn't look very different from when she had usually come to Nottingham. Guards were posted there, just as they had always been, only that these were wearing the king's colours.

Marian stopped the horse that had she had ridden from Knighton, glancing back at the maid that was accompanying her. When she had been at the castle, Sarah had usually waited on her, but as she hoped that she and her daughter had managed to leave the town before the fighting had started, Marian had decided to bring her old maid from Knighton, if only to keep up appearances before the king.

She didn't know how long the man would stay in Nottingham now that he had taken the town, but she guessed that he would at least install a new sheriff. The idea caused a sorrowful thought to her father, just as her maid Ann returned the encouraging smile she had given her. The girl was nervous to come to the town in times like this. And that things were different Marian could see once she was inside of Nottingham.

There were hardly any people to see who didn't belong to the king's army. The few men and women that weren't, were hurrying between the castle and the town, a few of them starting to re-enter bolted up houses. What had really happened there Marian could only start to guess when she came to the marketplace.

She felt sick as she saw it, and wondered why the bodies hadn't been taken down. It could only be meant to be a sign, a threat more likely to anyone who would dare to betray the king. Marian couldn't stomach to look any more closely in order to see if she knew any of them. She probably did, if they were guards that had worked at the castle.

Once she was at the castle yard, she asked who else had arrived yet, and was told that other nobles were already here, too, hoping to talk to the king. Marian hadn't expected any different. Some of the names she heard mentioned had been working with Vaizey, and she wondered how they dared to be here quite now. Others that were here though were men who had chosen to stay away from Nottingham in the past months, had kept their heads low, after what had happened to some of their peers when the sheriff had laid a trap for them with the fake king. Marian still didn't know how people had fallen for that.

When she entered the castle, she could hear talk full of rumours about Vaizey, some of them mentioning Gisborne as well, but no one really seemed to know where they were.

She told her maid to ask for the usual room she had at the castle, and then calmed herself to make her way to the Great Hall, guessing that the other nobles would be there, too. It was the first time she had to take the place of her father. She had inherited his title and lands, and although she certainly didn't think that only men could act in situations like these, she could expect that there would be frowns at her as an unmarried woman.

She wondered if Robin was still here as well, or if he had gone back to his men. He surely wouldn't have done that before getting a chance to speak to the king.

As she came into the Great Hall she could easily spot the other nobles who were talking among each other. She didn't see Robin though, and neither was the king to be found anywhere, no matter how much she looked around in the hall. One of the nobles caught her gaze then, but she waited for him to walk over to her. He was an old man, and he took his time, while Marian remembered the days when he had been friendly with her father, though she guessed the man had mostly been friendly with the sheriff, not so much with Edward himself.

Nevertheless she smiled, as he came to a stop in front of her.

"Lady Marian."

"Sir Hubert," she nodded. He was one of the men who had chosen to stay away during the last year.

"I am glad to see you well," he said. "And I was saddened to hear of the passing of your father, Sir Edward."

"Thank you," she said simply, rather willing to go on to business now. "Do you know where the king is? I had hoped to see his Grace..." She glanced over Sir Hubert's shoulder for a moment as she saw others looking into her direction, but focused again on the man in front of her then.

"The king is visiting Sherwood today. He desired to see it."

Marian could barely suppress a smile, wondering if Robin had anything to do with it, which would also explain why he wasn't here.

"Will he be back tonight?"

The old man nodded. "He is expected to be, yes. He has many things to do and consider."

"Yes, he does. There will be a Council of Nobles, I assume? And the king will install a new sheriff?" She knew Sir Hubert had despised Vaizey, though he had not dared to speak up.

"Yes, a new sheriff, of course."

He didn't say more on the issue and Marian figured she would find out soon enough, at the Council of Nobles at the latest. Maybe the others didn't know more than she did. They were not exactly confidants of the king either. Robin probably was, after everything she had heard about his time in the Holy Land.

So she would attend the council, and see what was happening. It couldn't go much worse for Knighton than it had done during the Vaizey's rule, and she would do her best to take over for the lands, no matter that the council, just as everything around here, was a bastion of men, as little as she liked it. She could only hope that the new sheriff would inaugurate a new policy when it came to taxes and to the poor.

"Have you been here long, Sir Hubert?" she asked then, not wanting to ask directly if he had seen Robin.

"No, my Lady," he shook his head. "I just came in time to hear about young Locksley."

"What about him?" Marian asked carefully.

The old man looked at her curiously. "You know he is an outlaw. And he came here to see the king." Sir Hubert frowned. "He has always been arrogant, that one. But I didn't know he was stupid."

Marian wanted to say something, but the words didn't come.

"The king detained him, of course, him and his servant."

She looked away from the man, this time pretending to glance around the room, just to regain her calm. It didn't have to mean anything bad. It could just as well mean that the king simply wanted to talk to Robin. Or that the noble had misunderstood.

"Now he is surely going to hang. He might have managed to slip out of Vaizey's grasps, but the king isn't going to let that happen," Sir Hubert went on. "It is sad. I knew his father. One can only wonder what is to become of Locksley now, with no heirs, and Sir Guy gone, too."

Marian's gaze returned to the man, looking at him sharply now. The last comment caused her to wonder if Sir Hubert hoped that some of the Locksley lands would be given out in other nobles' favour. Marian wouldn't quite exclude that. Who knew who the king wanted to benefit, probably in exchange for a good sum of money.

"I hope things will be improving for you, too, Lady Marian," the noble went on then. "A husband could surely manage to rebuild your hall."

"I plan to rebuild the hall, yes," Marian replied. "If you excuse me, I am going to see if my maid has managed to find the right room." She smiled faintly, turning away from the man then and walked out of the Great Hall, her thoughts rushing through her head.

She hadn't been able to stand one minute longer to discuss these kind of things with the other, when her worry was about wholly different issues. She wondered where Robin was now, and what was going to happen. She couldn't imagine that the king would really have him hanged. By everything she knew, Robin had been one of the king's favourites during his time in the Holy Land. He had been in his Private Guard, along with Much. Of course, Robin was an outlaw, but this wouldn't be a problem now that the king was back, would it? He would pardon Robin and the others, once he had learned what had been going on in the shire, what Vaizey had done... This was the explanation she could come up with: the king had simply not learned the truth yet.


It was frustrating to not know what was going on. For Robin probably even more so than it was for him, Much guessed, as Robin had been so much looking forward to talking to the king.

At least they were not starved, for they had been brought dinner just a little while ago, and Much was glad about it.

"They wouldn't waste food on us if they wanted to hang us, now would they?" he commented, as he was taking his share of the bread that was soft and none that had been lying around for days. He swallowed a bite. "Or maybe they would, and this is something of a last meal," he wondered worriedly as Robin didn't reply. "But I'm sure the king is going to talk to us again. And I mean, he's going to see that we had a good reason, a very good reason if you ask me, for what we did. And we were protecting him, after all, from the sheriff and Gisborne and his likes."

He stopped, looking at Robin who still didn't make any move to reply, nor to eat any of the food.

"Master?" He shoved the plate with the bread somewhat into the other's direction. "Robin?"

"What we did was right," Robin said then.

Much nodded. He knew that Robin could never have let Will and the others hang, and that was where it had all started, no matter all the trouble it had brought them.

"And I would do it again," Robin went on.

Much nodded again. "You should eat."

"And if the king wants me to face the consequences, I am going to do that." He now finally looked at Much. "I'm just sorry that I brought you into this trouble, my friend."

"Well," Much considered it, "if you hadn't brought me into this trouble with you, you'd be all alone in trouble. And that would be rather bad."

Robin grinned at that.

"What do you think is going on with the others?" he asked then, after he had at least taken a sip of the water they had been brought.

Much glanced through the tiny window in the castle wall. It was getting dark outside. "They won't expect us back tonight." They would have to take care of their own dinner.

Robin shook his head. He reached out for some of the bread, and Much made sure he also saw the slices of cheese they had been given.

Much was glad that they were at least not in the dungeons where the sheriff had usually kept any outlaws. He figured this meant the king had good intentions for them. The food was only another sign. And he didn't think the king would treat any prisoners this way. He didn't really like to think back to the gallows they had seen on the marketplace when they had come into town.

"Much," Robin said after some silent moments.

He had been watching the other anyway, so he wasn't sure why the man addressed him like that now.

"If there'll be any chance tomorrow that you can get away, I want you to do that."

"Robin, I can't-"

"I tell you to!"

"I cannot run away from the king any more than you can."

Robin nodded once, and Much almost thought he had been successful in his refusal.

"This is not about the king," the other went on though.

Much sighed. After a moment, he nodded. "When I was serving the king, I was serving you. I cannot leave you now."

"You can serve me best when you do. You can help the others. You can... talk to Marian. Tell her what happened. Protect her."

Much frowned. He didn't quite think Marian needed protection now that the sheriff was gone and the king back. She wasn't an outlaw, no matter that she had lived with them for a while. She wasn't in trouble.

Robin smiled faintly. "She agreed to marry me. When the king is back."

Much nodded, understanding the problem. "I'm sorry." After a moment, he added, "I mean, I'm not sorry that she agreed to marry you, of course. It's not the first time she agreed to that, is it? It's good she said yes again after we had left all those years ago when you were to marry her. But I'm sorry about now..."

"Will you leave when you can?"

"No."

Robin sighed, getting up from where he had been sitting and moving a little away, further into the darkness that was now taking more and more of the room.

Maybe he just wanted to sleep, Much figured. It was probably a good idea.