NOTTINGHAM TOWN
"Thank you Lady Marian."
Marian smiled at the young woman she had handed the money to. The young girl walked away leaving Marian alone in the shadow of an alley across from the Trip Inn.
She looked down at her hands as sunlight caught her eye as it danced off the face of her wedding ring.
She felt bad for even thinking it, but she wondered how much money she could make from selling it, how many people that amount of money could feed for a month.
But she knew that it would be wrong to do it. While it may help a lot of people, it would surely hurt Robin's feelings.
She would never do it, she and Robin had given so much, everyone in the gang had, she did not think that it was wrong to have some kind of personal treasure for herself.
Besides, Djac wore her wedding ring with pride, an intricate Saracen design that Bassam had given to Will when he had asked the man for her hand in marriage.
It had been so sweet. Marian smiled at the memory of the two people being joined aboard the ship that carried them home, at sunset, between their two homelands.
"What are you thinking about?"
Djac's voice startled Marian and she looked up to see her stood beside her.
Marian smiled at her best friend, a woman she felt closer to than she had any other woman.
Robin had Much, she had Djac.
"I was thinking about your wedding actually."
Djac could not help but look surprised, "really?"
Marian nodded and watched as Djac looked at Will across the courtyard lovingly.
"How is it that you two never argue?" Marian started to ask, "And me and Robin sound like an old married couple already?"
Djac laughed, "I do not pretend that that day will not come for me and Will... perhaps it is because you and Robin have been unofficially Married for many years."
Marian smiled, "Perhaps."
Out of the corner of her eye Marian saw moment and watched as Thomas cross the yard towards the inn. She and Djac stared as he went inside.
"Whatever Robins faults..." Djac said, "Be thankful you did not marry a man like that."
"What would he be doing in the tavern?"
"Marian!"
Her eyes snapped up as Robin and the others walked over to them. Will joined them as well, as they all crowded in the alleyway.
"Did you find out what is going on?" Djac asked.
Robin nodded, "The Sheriff is planning to melt down the crown to make coins to finance weapons in his revival of the black knights against the king."
"Well then we must stop them." Marian was firm.
Robin nodded, "we will."
"What is the plan?" Will asked.
"Robin is going to talk to Thomas." Alan supplied.
Marian raised an eyebrow, unsure whether there was an underlying note to that statement.
"Talk to him?" She scoffed, "and there I was thinking you were going to suggest something ridiculous like digging into the tavern with spoons."
Robin chose to ignore her sarcastic comment that Alan sniggered at.
"I knew him as a boy." He told her and everyone else, "I cannot believe that he would betray the king like this... I need to find out what is going on."
Marian nodded and Robin licked his lower lip in thought as he scanned the crowds of Nottingham.
"But first we need to find him..."
Marian blinked, "He is in the tavern."
Everyone looked at her in confusion.
"We saw him go inside." Djac said calmly to robin.
Robin nodded, "Right."
"Let's go."
THE TRIP INN
Thomas walked around the tavern, stumbling to sit at a table that was empty except for one man who was sat on the bench with his hood up.
In his youth Thomas had trained hard to be a soldier, a warrior, a hero... but an injury soon after his wife died in childbirth at the age of twenty three made Thomas give up on that dream.
It was around the same time that he had turned to the indulgences of Mead, and that lasting sense of happiness that being drunk brought with it.
"I hope you do not mind this intrusion." The man at the table lifted his hood down and his bright eyes twinkled.
Thomas's drink nearly went everywhere.
Part of his brain sobered instantly.
"Robin of Locksley as I live and breathe..."
Robin did not smile.
"We need to talk."