"Unbelievable!" Much shouted, trudging alongside Robin on their way toward Knighton Hall. "I can't imagine why Djaq did it! I mean, leading Marian to think that you and she...! Why, Master? Why? Unless, of course...No! Not Djaq, too! Don't tell me she's fallen for your charms, like countless other unsuspecting women, Robin!"
"Djaq and I are friends. No more than that, Much."
"Are you sure? I mean, you might think you're friends, but maybe, oh, yes! Maybe she has different ideas!"
"She doesn't, Much. I swear it. Shh! There's Marian!"
Much shifted his wide-eyed stare to the path, where Marian was approaching, astride her horse.
"Oh! Doesn't she look nice?" Much commented, approvingly. "Be sure to tell her, Robin. Tell her how nice she looks."
"Go back to camp, Much. I can handle this."
But Much silently refused, not trusting his master to smooth things over with the fiery tempered Lady Marian. Grimacing as he hid himself in a blackberry thicket, he soon became distracted by the abundance of blackberries to temporarily forget about listening to his master's conversation the lady.
"What are you doing here?" Marian asked, her eyes first lighting up at seeing Robin step from behind a tree, then smoulder when she remembered she was angry at him.
"Is that any way to greet an old friend?" Robin asked charmingly, hiding his nervousness behind a cocky demeanor. "I thought your father taught you better manners, Wren."
"Don't call me that. We're not children anymore, Robin."
"So you keep reminding me, telling me to 'grow up' the way you do."
"What do you want?"
Much was right, Robin was thinking. She looked beautiful, dressed in her snug fitting white woolen gown, with her hair up. Robin preferred it down, his fingers practically itching to touch its warm silkiness, but he understood why she preferred to hide how short it was.
Looking at her, he forgot what he wanted to say.
The way he was gazing at her made Marian nervous, but she hid the feeling behind another wave of anger. "What's wrong with you, Robin?" she asked, counting off a thousand likely answers in her head. "If you can't at least speak to me, then stand aside. I have places to be."
"Such as my house? What? Has the gallant Sir Guy invited you to dinner?"
"As it happens, yes. He's entertaining a boyhood friend."
"I'd believe you, if I thought he had one."
"He does, for your information."
"Another snake, like the sheriff?"
"No. A kind, thoughtful, intelligent man. Quite different from the company you keep."
"I thought I told you, Marian! Insult me all you like, but don't speak a word against my men, until you get to know them."
"Like your sly little Saracen?"
"I didn't come here to talk about Djaq," Robin insisted, his words turning Much's attention away from the berries stuffed in his cheeks. "I came to ask you a question."
"Alright. What?"
Robin sighed. He was holding Vesper's reins, looking up at Marian while she sat above him, astride her horse. So close, and yet the gulf between them was enormous.
"You remember the sheriff's iron ore mine," Robin began, seriously. "Was I right, Marian, to destroy it?"
His question surprised her just as much as it did Much. immediately, she forgot her anger, sympathizing with his feelings and concern.
"Robin, of course you were right! Think of all the men who died underground, so the sheriff could have iron, to make weapons!"
"Iron could be used for tools, to make people's work easier, to help them. Mines could be safe, or safer. Men could earn an honest living, and feed their families again."
"In an ideal world, yes. But Nottingham is not ideal, Robin. Not under Vaisey."
"I want to open that mine again, Marian, but I don't know how to do it, unless there were safer methods. And I don't want Vaisey, or Gisbourne, to profit."
Their eyes held each other's gaze, neither seeing nor hearing anything else but one another. At last, Marian spoke.
"Let me see what I can learn," she told him, kindly. "I've met...I've met a man who is highly intelligent. Let me ask him what he thinks."
"Thank you. You're going to Locksley?"
"I have to. I'm sorry, Robin."
Robin looked away, in the direction of his home. "Very well, then," he said, sadly. "Goodbye, Marian."
Releasing Vesper's reins, he turned and disappeared into the forest before Marian could even open her mouth to call his name.
A rustle in the blackberry bush startled her, and she sighed in relief when she saw it was only Much.
"Unbelievable!" Much announced, covered in leaves and blackberry juice. Pulling off his serf's cap to swat away a bee, he called out, "Shoo! Shoo!" and then, satisfied, he turned to Marian and said, "I can't believe he didn't tell you how nice you look! For you do look nice, Marian."
"Thank you, Much," she said, sadly.
"And...and what's worse, he didn't say one word why he really came here to see you!"
"He didn't? What did he really want, Much?"
"Well, let me tell you! I shouldn't be surprised, though, knowing Robin. He never says anything he ought to, you know, when it comes to his feelings."
"Believe me, I do know that."
"You're not the only one, you know, Marian, who's been waiting for years to hear how he really feels! He never talks to me, either! Never! After everything we've been through together, too! You'd think-"
"He loves you, Much. He loves you like a brother."
"Yes! Well, it would be nice to hear that from him, once in a while."
"What does he say to Djaq?" Marian asked, forcing the words out. "She doesn't impress me as someone who would fall for his dribble."
"Djaq! Yes! That's exactly what I want to talk to you about, Marian, I mean, milady! You just listen to me!"