VIII

Alive and Well

Rebecca had gone to bed early. There was nothing that needed tending to that couldn't wait until morning and she was quite tired from the work she had already accomplished. She had been doing much better over the past two weeks. She had starting eating full meals again and she was no longer keeping herself awake until all hours of the night. She was even smiling again, which everyone took as a good sign. The servants were beginning to feel rather hopeful that she would soon leave Locksley. Maybe she would find a better life for herself elsewhere; maybe, in time, she would forget her former master and all the power he had held over her.

The sound of horse hooves jarred Rebecca into wakefulness. "Did ya hear that?" She said with a sleepy groan to one of the other servants.

The maid shrugged, "Soldiers?" She guessed.

"Maybe." Rebecca yawned, "Best see what it is. Sooner we do, sooner we can get back t' sleep." She stretched and pulled herself out of her cot.

"I have an idea." The other servant said, "Why don' you go an see, since you're up. If it's important..." She rolled over, "Then ya can come back an' get the rest o' us."

"Marvelous help ya are." Rebecca chuckled as she rubbed at her eyes. She reached for one of the candle holders sitting on the mantle near the door. "Be back soon."

She crossed the small space of open ground over to the manor house. She gave a small shiver. It was not so cold out, but clad only in her nightshift even the slightest early night breeze felt like the full chill of a proper wind. She opened the door to the manor and quickly slipped inside.

She walked carefully and quietly towards the main hall. Already she could hear the muffled sounds of voices radiating outwards from the front of the manor. Who would be here at this hour? Maybe it was soldiers after all. In which case they would have no problem at all explaining their business here at this time. Steeling herself for a possible confrontation Rebecca stepped out, the flickering glow of the candle betraying her position to the others in the manor. "Who are you?" She called out, her voice not as strong as she had wanted it to be.

Dark and barely perceptible figures turned to look at her. She gulped, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. "I said who are you? What's your business in Locksley?"

She took a step backwards as one of the figures pushed aside two of his companions and made his way over to her. Rebecca was just about to run when the candle's glow revealed the face of the mysterious intruder. The candle holder fell from her shaking hands and the little candle went out as it rushed to the floor, plunging everything back into darkness. "You're alive." She whispered, nearly choking on her own words.

The man bent down to retrieve the fallen candle. He placed it atop a chest standing near the wall closest to him. "Listening to rumors, Becca? I would never have thought that of you."

Rebecca's hands were covering her mouth and she was staring at the man before her. She could no longer see him so clearly as she could when the candle had still been in her hands, but as she blinked and adjusted to the darkness she could make out his outline. She dared not speak. She didn't think she could. She fought for control of herself. Her first reaction would have been to throw her arms about the man to make sure he was real and not a very detailed hallucination, but she couldn't do such a thing.

"Are the other servants up?" Guy asked her gruffly, not paying any attention to Rebecca's startled reaction.

Rebecca could only shake her head no. "Then get them up. I have men here who need beds for the night."

Rebecca nodded that she would do so. She scurried away, nearly crashing into walls as she went blindly back towards the servant's quarters. Once outside she ran with all speed, the shock melting in her blood as she sped towards the smaller house. She threw open the door and shouted, "Up! Up, get up all o' ya!"

The sound of her raspy yelling awoke all of the servants. Two even tumbled from their cots at the sudden sound. "What in hell's name are thinking, Rebecca?" One grumbled, "Shouting at such a..."

"The master's back!" Rebecca spluttered, "He's alive. He's standing in the hallway! He's back!"

"What?"

"Knew it. Knew it. She's gone mad."

Rebecca was shaking the few maidservants in the room awake, "He's got guards with him. They need beds. Up with you, all o' ya!" She clapped her hands, finally seeing some of the girls stir to life.

Candles were lit and soon a yawning and stumbling troop of maids were making their way over to the manor. Rebecca was making her way over to the opposite room to wake the men from their sleep. With the household now fully awake again, Rebecca made her way back to the manor house.

Rebecca watched with approval as the servants led the four soldiers from the Castle to their respective quarters out in the shed usually kept for Guy's soldiers. The candles above the fireplace had been lit and the room now glowed with a honeyed light in the darkness. "Becca," Guy called her from the balcony on the second floor. "I need to speak with you."

"O' course, master." She was stunned at the almost civil tone he had taken with her. She hurried up the steps to meet him. He led her into his bedchamber and quietly shut the door.

Rebecca stood in the center of the room staring at Guy, questions in her eyes. For a man who had been rumored to be dead or rotting in a dungeon he looked far better than he did before he had been captured. Yet there was still a haunted and sorrowful look in his eyes and judging by the dark circles under them, he had not been sleeping. Rebecca didn't know what to do. Seeing him standing before her was surreal when she was trying to come to terms with his death. She didn't if she should laugh or cry. Neither would be appropriate and both would likely get her thrown out of his presence. She stood mute and as rigid as a statue. The strangest thing of all; however, was that Guy seemed almost equally out of sorts with her as she did with him.

"No questions?" He hazarded.

Rebecca only shook her head. Guy raised an eyebrow, "That's not something I thought I'd ever hear from you."

Was he making a joke? He had either lost his senses or he had suffered some grave disappointment and he was teasing her in order to gain some sense of normalcy to make up for the difference. Rebecca opened her mouth to speak, but no sound emerged at first. She settled for a raspy nearly audible whisper, "I thought ya were dead..."

"Rumors." Guy shrugged enigmatically.

Silence fell again between the awkward pair. Rebecca glanced down at her feet, hoping he would say something to break this tension. "I'm under the Prince's patronage now." Guy announced.

Rebecca did look up at that. "That is...good..."

"Not if I fail him." He muttered, Rebecca took that as a sign he might have already. He shook his head, turning back to his servant, "That is not the point now. The Prince is coming to Nottingham. He should be arriving in a matter of days. His soldiers will be stationed here as well as in Nottingham. I'll need you make the necessary arrangements to accommodate them in the village."

Rebecca blinked, not entirely certain if she had heard him right. He had just appeared from the dead and he was giving her such mundane orders as if he had only gone out to Nottingham for the day only to return later that same evening. She tried to keep from spluttering in her confusion. "I...I--shouldn't ya be telling Thornton this?"

"I will speak with him as well." Guy said.

"That's it?" Rebecca questioned, "That's all ya wanted t' tell me?"

"There is another matter, but it can wait." Guy muttered.

Rebecca stood unmoving in her shock. "Well?" Guy said impatiently, "That's all. You're dismissed."

"Dismissed?" She echoed.

"Yes. Go." He waved her away.

She felt something give way within her, as if a barrier had been snapped. She had grieved for this man. She had made a misery of herself for his sake. He had been gone for weeks and he regarded her with little care. Did he not think she would be even the slightest bit shocked or relieved to see him home and alive? Clearly not judging from the impatience beginning to shine in his eyes as he waited for her to go.

"Master, how long have we known one another?" Rebecca asked softly.

"Over twenty years...why?" Guy was feeling a bit uneasy at the disappointed light in Rebecca's eyes.

"An' it didn't cross your mind that after you've disappeared for two weeks I might be worried?"

"I don't have time for your games tonight, woman. What is it that you want? Tell me and have done with it." Guy sighed, crossing his arms.

Rebecca's cheeks flushed with a surge of anger, "What is it that you see when you look at me, master? Jus' humor me. What am I t' ya?"

"You're my servant." He sighed, rubbing at his temples, "My most loyal and trustworthy and oftentimes, most annoying servant."

Rebecca nodded silently and made her way to the door. She opened it, but Guy caught it and stopped it from opening half way, "What did you think I would say?" He growled out, knowing a trick when he saw one.

"Nothing." She replied, "You said exactly what I thought you'd say."

"Becca..."

"My name is Rebecca." She spat at him, startling herself with the ferocity of her own words. She had never raised her voice to him before. For once Guy seemed taken aback, the irony was not lost on Rebecca, it seemed to be the first time he regarded her as human in a long while. "It's Rebecca, master," she said with cooling fury, "Not woman, not girl, not idiot, an' not Becca. Not t' you; not anymore." She shoved her way out the door and hurried her way down the stairs. She didn't dare look back knowing that if she did her resolve would crumble in an instant. She must run while she still had the will, before she still remembered she loved him. Although tonight, she realized for the first time, it was hard to remember why.

1183

"Some o' the maids ain't too happy about getting a new master o' the manor." Rebecca joked to her mother, she chuckled a little, "Jenny's been crying fit t' fill a bath."

"Seems t' me all I hear is how the others feel about the new lord. You haven't said a word as t' how you're takin' it, my girl." Gemma asked coyly.

Rebecca shrugged as she focused on tying her hair back up into a ponytail, "Suppose I don't mind." She admitted, "It's not like Robin won't come back from the Holy Land eventually, eh?"

There was an awkward moment of silence after Rebecca's foolish words. "Sorry, mum." She said softly. Gemma waved her daughter away, "Know what ya meant, Becca, no harm in speaking your mind."

"What's odd t' me is that no one knows who the new lord is." Rebecca mused, attempting to drag the conversation off in a different direction, "Think word would have been sent, hm?"

"What isn't odd in this shire nowadays? New Sheriff, new guards. I don' like it, but it's not my business t' question it." Gemma frowned as she helped her daughter braid her hair.

"Things'll work out for the best." Rebecca said confidently, "Your words, mum, not mine." She grinned back at her mother with a cheeky smile.

Gemma found herself smiling too. "Oh," She suddenly turned away from her daughter and went to a small cupboard beside the chair. "I nearly forgot. I went out this morning t' the gardens an' I bundled up the prettiest collection o' flowers you'd ever hope t' see." She showed her daughter the bouquet of flowers she had tied together with a piece of string.

"Oh, mother." Rebecca gasped as she took the flowers in her hands, "They're beautiful."

"I thought...seeing as what day it was, that..."

"He would have loved them." Rebecca mused with a smile even as her lower lip threatened to tremble. She touched the delicate flower petals as if she was passing her hand over a rainbow. "I," She announced getting up suddenly, "will take these t' him right now."

"All right, Becca." Gemma said softly as she watched her daughter head out the door.

No sooner had her daughter gone out then a commotion could be heard just outside. Curious, Gemma left the servant's quarters of Locksley Manor and headed over to the village square. A troop of soldiers from the Castle were riding into the village and the people had gone out to see what was going on.

She gave a rude sniff at the sight of the new Sheriff of Nottingham. No one liked that man, he seemed to take a great enjoyment out of the higher taxes and stricter punishments he had enforced ever since the old Sheriff had been removed from his position. If it had been in her power she would have liked to give the man a good piece of her mind, as it was she lowered her head and muttered breathless curses as he rode into the square.

"People of Locksley," He spoke, smiling a grin which Gemma found entirely loathsome to behold, "I come as a messenger of good news for you all." This was something Gemma highly doubted, "Since your lord left for the Holy Land six months ago you have been left without a master. A fact that the old Sheriff seemed content to over look. Perhaps he had gone soft and believed the people could be left to look after their own interests." He laughed, he was the only one to laugh.

Gemma felt a hand descend upon her back, she turned to see her daughter beside her. "What's going on?" She whispered. Gemma merely placed a finger to her lips and directed her attention back to the Sheriff.

"Well, fear not, my simple people I have given governance of these lands to my most loyal and faithful knight." The Sheriff gestured to one of the men who had ridden in alongside him. "Sir Guy of Gisborne will be overseeing the Locksley estates until Lord Robin returns from his Crusades."

Whispers spread through the village like wildfire. All eyes were now fixed on the man in black beside the Sheriff. The Gisborne name was infamously known in the village of Locksley. His father had returned from the wars a leper and had placed the lives of all his people at risk. His parents died in a fire which was rumored to have been set by Guy himself. He was of mixed blood, his mother having been French. He was not one of them. He looked just as villainous as his master and the triumphant smirk upon his face did nothing to improve the peoples' forming prejudice against him.

"Mother?" Rebecca's voice shook with uncertainty. She could not have heard the Sheriff correctly.

"It can't...." Gemma whispered.

"Mother?" Rebecca asked again. She was staring right at the man who had been introduced as Sir Guy of Gisborne. It could be him. There was no reason why not. Only, Guy had abandoned his own lands nearly eleven years ago. How could he turn up out of thin air only to govern the estates of the family who had ruined him?

The Sheriff clapped Guy on the back. "Well, I'll just leave you to the introductions shall I?" He said with another wicked laugh. Rebecca regarded the Sheriff with a strange glance, as did some of the other people. This man seemed to find toying with the lives of the peasants of the shire to be a great game; they existed only for his sadistic enjoyment. He rode away, but the soldiers remained and it was then the villagers realized that this was Sir Guy's personal guard. The amount of men was staggering; far more than any guard Robin had stationed in Locksley. This was a small army. It was meant to terrorize.

There was silence as Sir Guy was left with his villagers. He regarded them with cool interest as he finally spoke, "As you heard from my lord, the Sheriff, I am to be your new master," he sneered, "There are only two things you need know about me: obey me and we shall get along well; cross me or seek to defy me and there will be consequences. Your old lord was weak minded and soft. There will be order and discipline in this village now. I can either be your ally or your taskmaster." He smirked as if the idea of becoming friends with these people was highly intolerable, "The choice is up to you." Although everyone doubted that they had a choice in the matter.

Sir Guy rode past the dazed people and straight on towards his new manor. Rebecca and Gemma exchanged glances. Rebecca shook her head, "It's not him. It can't be." She said, "That's not the Guy I remember."

"I pray that you're right, my girl." Gemma sighed, "If not, God help us all."

A/N: This flashback comes in two halves. The other will pop up in a later chapter. :)

Do review and let me know what you think. I don't say this enough, but critique is always welcome don't be shy about it.

Next chapter should be up within the next few days!