"What's this?" Allan asked, sniffing at the food Much had set before him. Maggie sat next to Allan, still slightly shaken from her recent ordeal.
"It's chicken!" Much insisted, defensively.
Little John devoured his meal in three bites, then tried not to stare at everyone else's portions, especially not at Lady Cecily's, as her dainty fingers picked distastefully at her food.
"Lady Cecily," Djaq ventured, annoyed at Her High and Mightiness' scorn towards sustenance when so many people starved, "does your appetite suffer from catching a chill, from bathing in the stream? Allow me to dose you with what I gave Maggie."
Allan shot Djaq a surprised glance. His blue eyes sparkled with delight, as he realized the Saracen was agreeing to his suggestion to slip some "medicine" into Cecily's food or drink. Allan gained newfound respect towards Djaq.
"No," Cecily rudely answered. Pushing aside her nearly untasted food, she cast yearning eyes on Robin.
"I insist," Djaq pursued.
"I haven't caught a chill," Cecily argued.
Djaq said nothing more, and her face remained inscrutable, even when Allan grinned at her and whispered, "Nice try."
Robin and Much ate their meal just a few feet away from the others.
"Much," Robin said quietly to his friend, "when you've spoken with Marian recently, has she ever mentioned any reason why she cut her hair?"
"Not Marian. Not even when I asked her. She just shot me one of her looks, slamming the door on that subject once and for all."
Robin chewed his meat thoughtfully. "You don't think she did it to spite me, do you?" Robin remembered that Marian had first appeared with short hair around the time she mistakenly believed the baby Seth was his child, and she had been even more angry than usual with him.
Much gulped back ale and laughed. "Marian's right about you, you know."
"What?"
"You always think everything revolves around you!"
"Only when it does."
"Please!"
"Marian said that about me?" Robin fell silent, wondering what else Marian might have said about him.
To the vast annoyance of both men, Lady Cecily approached and sat down between them, intruding on their private conversation.
"Forgive my interruption, but I could not help but overhear," Cecily began. "Do you really not know about Marian's hair?"
"What do you know?" Robin asked suspiciously. After Cecily's earlier snide comment about Marian, Robin had no desire to discuss her with Cecily, but the bait was too strong for him to resist.
"She didn't cut her hair," Cecily explained. "Why would she? It was hacked off her in public, as a punishment for defying the sheriff. Oh, it was dreadful! Horribly humiliating for her! I remember how she looked, with her wrists bound behind her, like a common criminal, and her eyes fighting back angry tears while the sheriff gloated, and a guard pulled back her head and cut off her hair."
Much's eyes grew even wider than they already were, while storm clouds gathered within Robin's breast.
Robin rose to his feet and began strapping on his weapons.
"Master, what are you doing?" Much cried. The fury in Robin's eyes frightened him. "You can't rush off and attack the sheriff, single handed!"
"Watch me!"
"Robin, no!"
The other outlaws rose to their feet and tried to hold Robin back. Robin, insane with anger, swung his fist and knocked both Will and Allan aside. He was stopped, however, when Little John stood in his path.
"Stand aside, John," Robin commanded.
"No."
"Stand aside! I'm warning you-"
Little John picked Robin up by his forearms and set him down on his bunk. Robin leaped to his feet and managed to dash past the giant, tearing off through the forest, towards Nottingham.
"Now what?" Much cried, hysterically.
"We go to Nottingham," Little John fumed, while Djaq did all she could to revive Will, and Maggie tried to kiss Allan awake.