The night was long and uncomfortable. Edyn had been sure her exhaustion would overcome her discomfort, but being in such a bizarre place surrounded by strangers, she could not seem to shut her mind off. The floor was cold and hard, and Catherine shared her discomfort on the floor as there was only one bed in which Ebony lay on to be later joined by Gloria who snuck in a while after the other two girls had fallen asleep.

Edyn later found out the Joe regularly called upon Gloria to join him. She would do her job, wait for him to fall asleep and then sneak back to the comfort of her room she shared with her friends.

"It's just something you sometimes have to do," Catherine explained to her the next morning.

Edyn stared at her stunned. "What, you mean that you've also…?"

"Of course," Catherine replied indifferently. "We all have. Joe likes a variety but he's always preferred Gloria. He says it's his right as he is providing us with shelter. We should be grateful." She paused before she continued; her voice slightly softer, "He will wait a while for you to get settled, but be aware that he will call upon you."

Edyn stared at her wide-eyed and unable to speak. She was so terrified over what she had gotten herself into.

Working in the day was much better than the night, fewer drunks and the general atmosphere was better. It seemed each day the girls would take turns to run errands for Joe who allowed them to spend as long as they wanted so they could visit friends and family, so long as they were back with the supplies that Joe needed by mid-afternoon before the regulars would slowly begin to arrive. On the second morning Edyn had been there it was Gloria's turn, when she returned during lunch she was in a much friendlier mood. She even offered Edyn help with certain tasks, a change from the day beforehand when she had simply ignored Edyn as if she were some sort of threat.

While cleaning up after lunch Edyn noticed Gloria and Ebony disappear out the back and Catherine stood straightening her dress and fixing her hair. Edyn stood awkwardly unsure what was happening, when Joe approached her. "Come on. Half day today."

"Huh?"

"There's a hanging up at the castle and I ain't missing that. I don't think anyone is," he looked delighted by the idea.

"What? Hanging? As in they're going to kill someone?" Who in their right mind would want to watch that?

"Yeah, there really is nothing in that head of yours is there?" Joe muttered. Edyn still stood stunned. "Come on, I don't trust you here by yourself and personally I think you need to see someone die, it'll toughen you up! Besides, I heard there are four of them. First time in years the gallows have been full. It'll be great!" He rubbed his hands together in excitement.

"You are a sick man!" she couldn't hold her tongue.

His piggy eyes bore into hers. "And you are cheap thrill for my boys. Life is cruel, get over it!"

She felt as if she had been slapped across the face. How did life suddenly change so quickly? Only a few days ago she had happily been strolling through Locksley and now she felt as if she were living in hell.

She followed Joe and the other girls into the courtyard outside the castle. It looked like everyone had gathered to watch the horrible act of murder. They all disgusted her. She then thought she heard her name being called. Looking around she saw no one she knew. Then she heard it again. Turning right around she finally found who was calling her. She couldn't believe it. Sybil, an old friend from Locksley who had moved away a few years prior, was rushing over to her.

"Sybil! My God! Look at you," Edyn gushed.

She was even more beautiful that what she had been when Edyn had first moved into Nottinghamshire. Tall and curvy Sybil always had men turning their heads in her direction. She had long blonde curls that never seemed out of place with the brightest blue eyes and creamy white skin to make her even more stunning. Edyn never admitted it but she had always been jealous of her. She was always the plain average girl. Average height, skin paler than most, freckles across her nose, which had always seemed adorable as a child but not so much as she grew older. Her hair was dark red and framed her face though it never seemed to have the same body and curls as the rest of the girls she knew, hers was rather flat with only the slightest hint of curls at the end of her hair. Although she did like the dark brown colour of her eyes, but few people ever noticed them, especially when she used to spend so much time with someone like Sybil in comparison.

"Edyn, I never thought you would leave Locksley, you love it," Sybil said.

"Neither did I, we all have to leave home sometime. So here I am." There was no way she was going to explain to Sybil of her new job.

She nodded. "Well, I never would have thought you would be one to watch a hanging, but here you are."

"I'm not. I have to be here. Trust me when I say watching people die brings me no joy."

"I wouldn't think so, especially as they're from Locksley," Sybil commented.

This caught Edyn off guard. "What?"

"Didn't you know? I guessed that was why you were here."

Edyn shook her head. She was about to speak when the Sheriff arrived. As usual he rushed through his speech so he could bring out the prisoners. But it wasn't he who called them out. He handed the scroll to a young man who reluctantly accepted it.

Edyn then gasped. "That's Robin Hood!"

"Really?" Sybil stood on her toes for a better look. "So this is the man everyone's been hoping will put a stop to the Sheriff's taxes? He's awfully small for a crusader, and young. Not at all how I pictured him."

Robin's stance was stiff and his voice was gruff making his objection to the execution obvious to the people gathered. Edyn's heart suddenly sank when she heard the names being called.

"Benedikt Giddens of Locksley, Will Scarlett of Locksley, Luke Scarlett of Locksley, Allan a Dale of Locksley," Robin's voice echoed around the courtyard.

She watched in horror as the Scarlett boys were brought out with the other two prisoners. She had not been aware of their arrest. She the noticed Dan Scarlett at the front of the crowd; several people around him were occasionally clapping their hands on his shoulder as their way of comfort. He pathetically smiled to his sons as they passed by before being pushed up the stairs.

"Didn't the two Scarlett boys live near you?" Sybil queried.

Edyn nodded numbly. They couldn't die, they just couldn't. She could now hear Dan's voice calling out to them.

"The older one…?" Sybil started.

"Will."

"Will, that's it. Hmm, it's a shame. He's become quite handsome as he's gotten older," Sybil mused.

"Never occurred to me," Edyn answered honestly. She had never been one for chasing the boys around when she was younger. But studying him now, and comparing him to others surrounding him she could see what Sybil meant. He kept his face set and stern, though Edyn could still see the fear in his eyes, right up until the moment the hood was lowered over his face.

She could then hear someone calling out in the crowd, a priest. He claimed after visiting the prisoners last night and hearing their requests to become holy men he felt it was his right to put a stop to this execution. The Sheriff argued back angrily silencing the priest and paused mulling over the information. The courtyard was silent, everyone holding onto hope that they would be released.

"Well," the Sheriff broke the silence. "Hang them! And arrest him!"

There were several outcries from the crowd and after an attempted escape the priest was restrained and his disguise removed to find a nervous Locksley man disappointed in his failure to save them. The drumming sounded again, almost as loudly as Edyn's heartbeat, and suddenly the floor under their feet was dropped. She watched in horror as their bodies sank slightly before coming to a sudden, jerking stop. Almost instantly their bodies began thrashing around in a sickening way, legs kicking frantically, upper bodies twitching, heads rolling from side to side. It was all too much for Edyn.

Turning her back to them she hid her face in her hands. "This is horrible, how can they simply watch it!" she babbled. There was more yelling, and Edyn could have sworn she heard cheering.

Sybil suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her around. "He's saving them, Edyn. Robin Hood's cutting them down."

Edyn looked up in time to see one of Robin's arrows shoot through the air and cut the rope of Will's noose. His body crumpled to the ground next to where the man named Allan had landed a few moments before. The townsfolk where freeing Will from his restraints just as Luke and Benedikt both feel to the ground together.

Everything seemed to be going so fast. One moment they were just freeing themselves the next people were everywhere running in all different directions. Edyn could see through the crowd Luke and Benedikt fleeing with Dan Scarlett. But where was Will? She quickly scanned the area, and it didn't take her long at all to find him. He and the other prisoner Allan were desperately ducking through the crowd heading to the gate leading to the town. Robin and his companion quickly joined them and a moment later they were gone, fleeing through the streets of Nottingham.

Barely a day had gone by and already it was known that Robin was now an outlaw. His title, his lands and his home had all been stripped from him. She had heard that if the Sheriff were to catch him he was to be executed. The atmosphere was gloomier than before he had returned. Their one little speck of hope was gone.

The weeks went by and Edyn grew hatred beyond belief to her new job, home, master and almost everything else in her life. Joe's treatment to her was becoming worse and the men who regularly drank large quantities of mead and ale now felt they had a right to manhandle her, as they did so with the other girls. They all had a good laugh whenever one of them was to jump up and grope her, just to hear her squeal. Every time she saw Joe in the background glaring at her. She knew if she said something she would be homeless.

He had also forced her to change her attire. Her brown, shabby dress was replaced by a dark purple one that clung to her body, with a neckline that fell from her shoulders. All hope of modesty was gone. Gloria had laughed smugly about her plunging neckline having nothing to plunge into. Edyn was not at all big up top, and her noticeable ribs were over shadowing the cleavage she was meant to be showing.

The only thing in her life that was keeping her mind off everything was the constant news of Robin and his men. But it was not good news. From the rumours she overheard while working the people of Locksley had been terrorised after Robin's disappearance, some had been heard to have lost their tongues for not knowing his whereabouts. Edyn prayed her brother was not one of them. Recently, the talk around town had been of Robin murdering several innocent people, bailiffs and castle workers. Edyn had lost all her respect for him; maybe he was not the person she had believed him to be. But then she couldn't work out why he had helped her, why he had saved those men from hanging; it just didn't make sense for him to murder when he had seemed so against it.

One particular night while the killings were still being reported the tavern was unusually crowded. Fear had driven people to alcohol and several of the new guests wore cloaks trying to hide themselves. She passed one whispering something into Gloria's ear. Surprising she wasn't flirting with him; instead she nodded her head and conversed with him and wore a slight confused expression upon her face. Curious, Edyn cleared a table close by hoping for a better look. He was familiar. Very familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on where she had seen him.

Approaching the bar she passed another cloaked figure but his face was completely hidden by his hood. She gasped when she felt his hand grab her arm and pull her to a side room and pull the curtain closed behind him.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded. He turned to her and pulled his hood down. "Robin!" she gasped. Of course, it was Allan, one of the men to be hung that she had seen before. She suddenly became very self-conscious of her outfit and desperately tried to pull the front of her dress higher.

"Now, now," he said. "Don't cover up on my behalf. There may be one or two gentlemen in there that haven't yet seen all you have to offer."

She scowled at him. How dare he judge her? "You may it sound like I chose this for myself."

He raised his eyebrows. "Didn't you?"

"Of course not! Do you think I enjoy this? There's nowhere else I can go."

"There's bound to be somewhere," he replied shaking his head.

Edyn scoffed. "Half of Nottingham lives on the street. I'm lucky to be here, as degrading as it is." Robin remained silent. He had not expected that sort of reaction. "What are you doing here anyway? Not planning on killing more people are you?" She suddenly became nervous.

"That is a lie!" His voice was menacing. "I'm here to make sure that it stops. But before I do that I thought I might ask around to see if anyone had seen the Nightwatchman, but it appears no one has."

Strange, she thought. "Well, as you're trying to clear your name, is it true about what happened in Locksley? People getting their tongues removed for not knowing where you are."

"You believe everything you hear don't you," he said. "Yes, I know one young man was unfortunate, but I gave myself in to put a stop to it."

"It wasn't my brother was it?" Robin shook his head and Edyn sighed with relief. "How did you escape from the castle?"

"I still have some friends," Robin answered simply. He was clearly annoyed by the topic.

They were silent for a moment, which gave Edyn time to consider something else she had heard about. "Was it you who's been leaving food parcel's and coin purses to some people in the villages?"

He slowly looked at her. "I want to help people. But with the Sheriff's schemes I am seen as the bad guy and they are now refusing my help. I have given up everything, absolutely everything for them, and they still do not trust me." After another moment of silence he straightened up and went to leave before he added, "Keep a look out for the Nightwatchman. I don't know how well he can be trusted."

It seemed such an odd thing to say but Edyn nodded and watched him and Allan sneak through the crowd and exit into the darkness. She wasn't at all surprised to hear the following evening that people were again rejoicing in his return from the Holy Land. She had no idea what he had done to assure the people that he was a good man but in a way she felt sorry for him. As far as she could see he was risking so much for them and they only showed their gratitude when it suited them. She wondered idly what her opinion of him would be if he had not helped her that day, if she had not spoken to him, or if she was still in Locksley away from all the rumours.

A:N/ Not the best chapter but I needed something to fill the gap. The hanging was supposed to go at the end of the first chapter but it would have ridiculously long so I decided I needed to have it as a separate chapter and add something to the end of it, and I thought interaction between my character and Robin would be interesting. It's supposed to be before he sneaks into the castle to talk to the Sheriff in the 3rd episode, I thought maybe him and Allan might have another attempt at finding more information about the Nightwatchman. I don't really have an excuse of why he approached Edyn; I guess he was shocked at her working at such a place. I promise the next chapter will be much more interesting!

Oh, and a big thankyou to Bookworm41 for your lovely review and to everyone who added this to their alert list.

So please, please, PLEASE tell me what you think by reviewing. Again, constructive criticism is always welcome.