Cecily's rude insult against Marian caused Robin to muse again over Marian's hair. Not knowing the reason it had been hacked off, he wondered again why she had cut it.
There was, of course, the practical reason of Marian trying to look more like a boy, to better disguise herself as the Nightwatchman. "As if shorter hair could hide your femininity!" he scoffed quietly, smiling at the thought of her loveliness. Yet, he had to admit, even he had been fooled, more than once, believing the Nightwatchman had been a man. Was it any wonder Marian mostly used the cover of night to enact her good deeds while disguised?
Her good deeds. Her good, brave, unselfish, noble deeds. Robin sighed with longing as he thought of Marian, risking her neck to help the unfortunate, just as he was attempting to do. How different from Lady Cecily, who tried to tempt him away from his work with offers of a selfish, luxurious lifestyle. Any regard he had felt toward Cecily vanished as he contemplated her recent words to him.
He grew angry, stung by her insults. He was helping! He and his gang were truly making a difference in people's lives, and he didn't need defeatist talk to sway him from his mission. He refused to pity himself by dwelling on how difficult it was, living in the forest, sacrificing everything he could be enjoying. He would never accept that his efforts to help the poor were in vain.
Cecily, with her typical blindness toward the needs of the poor, had to go, before her attitudes began to poison him and his gang.
Robin knew he could count on Marian to find somewhere for Cecily to live. Leaning his back against a tree, he sighed again, thinking of Marian and her short hair.
...
Cecily lay with her body underwater in the stream, her freshly washed hair spread out behind her on a boulder in whatever sun managed to break through the thick trees overhead.
She wished she were bold enough to stage a near drowning, so that Robin would rush in to rescue her. But no, she couldn't do that. It was bad enough to bathe naked in this forest stream, where even now, that randy Allan a Dale might be hiding in a nearby thicket, watching her. The thought of any outlaw ogling her unclothed body made her shudder.
No, she couldn't scream for Robin to come and save her, and pull her naked and dripping from the stream. That was not the seduction scene she wished for. In her dreams, she and Robin were alone in a luxurious bedchamber with every possible comfort, dressed in the finest clothes and jewels. They supped alone together, with servants attending them, and drank the finest wine. And then, Robin would dismiss the servants, and present Cecily with a gift, a magnificent jeweled necklace. And he would fasten it around her neck, and kiss her, and one by one, remove all her articles of clothing, leaving her in nothing but her jewels.
A tremendous splash yanked her from her daydreams. That disgusting whore, Maggie, had jumped into the water, and was fighting her way towards her, and the streambank.
"Can you give me your hand?" Maggie sputtered, having trouble staying above water. "It's deeper than I thought."
Without a word, yet carefully shielding her body from the whore's eyes, Cecily rose from the stream and dressed herself, as quickly as she could, considering she had no lady's maid to help her dress. Blocking out Maggie's cries for help, she realized again how difficult life was, without servants!
And life was ironic as well as difficult, for just as she was ready to depart, Robin came running, then executed a perfect dive into the stream and pulled Maggie up from underwater, swimming as he pulled the whore's naked body to the bank.
"Are you alright?" he asked Maggie, removing his outer garment and covering her with it, then leaning over her with deep concern on his handsome face.
"That bitch wouldn't help," Maggie gasped, gulping down air. "Her High and Mightiness would of let me drown!"
"I was just about to go seek help," Cecily lied, while Robin stared at her, his eyes hard in disbelief.