Yes, it's been a while since I've updated, but I have a good reason! I'm currently in Budapest, and my nephew, who has never been to Hungary, is along this summer, so I've been taking him places. It's been pretty hectic, but I'm quite fond of this chapter. Actually, it wasn't even the content itself that took so long to write, but researching the medieval terms for some of the things mentioned in the chapter.

Thank you to everyone who is following and reviewing this story. You have no idea how much it means. xo

Kassandra Khaos: Hello here, too! Hahaha, I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter. "They make each other healthy and whole in their own little morally ambiguous way"-that's the best description of Guy and Ajsa's relationship that I've seen. Thank you for the review!

lostinthewords16: Yes, the show was indeed shot in Hungary (in a forest called Dobogókő not far from Budapest and on sets outside of Budapest), so I suppose in that respect, Ajsa really isn't that far from home. :) Thank you for your review!

fiamma71: You are so incredibly sweet, thank you. Yes, I agree that with Ajsa, Gisborne has finally learned what he began with Marian-to accept a person as he/she is. I think this chapter hits upon that perfectly. I never wanted Ajsa to replace Marian or to be "better" than Marian. Instead, I wanted her to help Guy finish the journey of self-discovery and redemption that he started with Marian. I wanted them to challenge each other, to take the other out of his/her comfort zone into a completely new and possibly better one. So, yes, you've hit upon the crux of their relationship yet again. :)

ArtCounterclockwise: I'm glad you like Ajsa! And I'm sorry that you feel Guy is irredeemable still, but change and redemption take time. It's not my plot, so much as the TV show's; I'm merely following it for sake of continuity. Gisborne will be redeemed, he will feel remorse, slowly and at exactly the moment he's ready to. But not before. It's the capability to become a better person (and Guy does have it, as evidenced by some scenes with Marian) from someone so utterly despicable that makes him interesting. He's a dream character for a writer, because he is three-dimensional, not flat and static. There's somewhere to go with him, and I will go there, in due time.

williewildcat: Yes, Ajsa shows a strange loyalty towards Guy, doesn't she? But she's a healer, remember, so her instinct is to fix. Or at least help Guy fix himself.

partygirl98: Hahaha, stupid grins are the greatest. :D I often break into them when I'm reading your reviews. I'm glad you liked the previous chapter. I hope you'll like this one, too!

JayneDLM: Guy's stint as an outlaw is brief, for now. But there's something even more interesting in this chapter. XD

I did not plan the events in this chapter. At all. Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 17: Give and Take

Guy contemplated the series of events that had led him to be trudging through Sherwood Forest. Ill luck, poor decisions, and a changeable prince had all played a role, but the main cause of his current misfortune was that godforsaken band of outlaws.

Still, for the first time, he felt something akin to sympathy for Robin Hood, because now their situations were identical. They were both noblemen, banished from their previous titles and forced to roam the woods as outcasts. That their contributing choices differed was of little consequence to Gisborne. He and Robin had the same goal-to oppose Prince John.

After the prince had dismissed him as Sheriff, he'd offered the post, as well as Locksley Manor, to Isabella, who had insisted that Ajsa remain. Guy scowled. When had Ajsa become such close friends with his treacherous sister? Isabella would only betray her in the end, as people of ambition were wont to do. But perhaps Ajsa did not know that, so he sneaked back into the house, with the aim of warning her.

The end result, however, was quite different from his original intent.

"Hello, Sister," he greeted, stepping out from behind a wooden beam.

Isabella grabbed a knife from the table and struck, but Gisborne was quicker. She managed only to cut his hand, before he took the weapon from her and drew his sword.

"Guy, please, please," begged his sister. "Just wait."

"For you to betray me again?" Guy bellowed.

"You got what you deserved."

He shoved Isabella against a beam, keeping her there with his hand and sword at her throat. Ajsa watched from the shadows, along with Sarah, Isabella's maid.

"And you will get what you deserve," Gisborne assured her.

"So kill me," said his sister. "You did as much to me when I was a child anyway."

"Is that to be your dying thought?" he asked, in a mocking tone.

Sarah tried to go to Isabella's aid, but Ajsa held her back. Guy's next actions were critical, and they had to be made completely of his own volition.

"Yes," Isabella whispered. "Go on, end it now. Put us both out of our misery." He touched the flat of his sword against her throat, staring down at her, hesitating. Isabella tried a new tactic. "Maybe we can change things," she said hopefully. "King Richard is dead, and Prince John is due to be crowned."

"What?" breathed Gisborne.

"That's right. I can help you."

"How can you help me?" he asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

"I can speak for you," Isabella replied. "But for that, you need me alive. Kill me, and you kill your last chance back with the new king. Let me live, and we both get what we want."

He scanned her face, deliberating, then backed away and sheathed his sword. His sister sighed in relief, and was echoed by Sarah and Ajsa.

"Thank you, Guy," said his sister.

He briefly wondered at the state of their relationship that she should feel the need to thank him for sparing her life, but then Isabella retreated upstairs with her maid, leaving Ajsa alone with Gisborne.

"Were you really going to kill her?" she asked, after a moment of silence. She joined Guy beneath the moonlight that shone in through the windows.

"I thought so, yes," he replied. "But when the moment came, I couldn't do it. Isabella doesn't have to know that, though."

"I think she does know," commented Ajsa. "Your hesitation told her as much."

Gisborne arched a brow. "Are you suggesting that I should have killed her?" She flashed him a look of scorn in response. His lips twitched. "I didn't think so." He allowed his gaze to rove over her body, taking in the curve of her hips and the dip in her waist. It had only been a day since he had seen her, yet he'd already longed for the sight of her. "She is treating you well?"

"Yes, very well," Ajsa nodded. "Isabella has a good heart, but it has been ill-used one too many times." She smiled ruefully. "Such is the fate of women, I suppose."

"But no longer for you," he promised. Guy tilted up her chin so that he could look into her eyes. "While you are with me, Ajsa, I swear that no further harm will befall you."

"I thank you," she said gratefully, "but do you not think you should offer the same promise of protection to Isabella?"

"You heard her. She can protect herself now, and me, as well," Gisborne replied spitefully.

Ajsa considered this, then nodded. "True. You should have protected her when she could not protect herself."

"That's what I thought I was doing." He glanced out the window, at the waxing gibbous moon. "It's late, and I still have to make camp somewhere." He also did not want to speak about his past.

"Are you certain you still know how to? As I recall, Mary and I prepare your meals, while Thornton lays your fires."

"Oh, and I suppose you did all of that yourself as a noblewoman, did you?" Guy retorted.

"Indeed I did," she agreed.

"Did you hunt your own food, as well?"

"No," she conceded, "but I did care for our pigs and poultry." Ajsa paused and offered him a small, conspiratorial smile. "I do not miss it."

Gisborne chuckled. "All right, you have me beat. I've never tended livestock in my life."

"And I have never fought a battle in my life," she said. "I do not think I would want to."

"I don't think I would want you to either," he remarked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "We should both retire for the night. I shall see you in the morning." Guy allowed his thumb to stroke her cheek, before he pulled away and made for the door.

Her voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Since you are already at the manor, perhaps you should sleep here."

"Isabella has taken my chambers," he reminded her.

She met his gaze. In the bright moonlight, he saw her lick her lips. The sight ignited a long-suppressed warmth in his loins.

"Yes," she agreed, "but Isabella has not taken mine."

Before he could gather his wits to protest, Ajsa took his hand and led him to her quarters. A small bed was pushed against one wall, while a wooden trunk sat against another. The furnishings were sparse, but at least there was a fireplace that provided ample heat.

"The bed is too small," he observed unnecessarily.

"Then we must sleep very close to each other."

Gisborne glanced at the cot again. "It would not be proper," he demurred. "If you insist that I sleep here, I will do so on the floor."

"This is an odd time for you to develop a conscience," Ajsa said dryly. He glared at her. "If you are truly concerned about propriety, worry not, Sir Guy. You will be compromising no virtues that have not been compromised already."

He looked at her, taken aback by the frank confession. "You are not a virgin?"

"At eight and twenty? Decidedly not," she replied, with a wry smile. Then she pulled him down by his shirt strings and kissed him.

Guy had been kissed similarly by Marian, but he now knew she'd only done so in the aid of her precious Hood. He remembered the joy he had felt that finally she was beginning to return his affections, that finally she could be his. But she had loved another all along.

He broke the kiss, panting harshly from the memories of his most heinous crime.

"Marian, she-" Guy averted his gaze, unable to look at Ajsa. If she were to reject him, too, he could not bear to see it. "She loved Robin Hood. She-"

"I know," said Ajsa softly, "but I do not love Robin Hood." He chanced a glance at her and saw a warmth in her eyes that had never been there before. "We each have our sins, Sir Guy. Let us cleanse them tonight."

"With sex out of wedlock," he stated, arching a brow. "Wouldn't that merely add to our sins, instead of lessening them?"

She grinned. "Only if you are Christian." Ajsa knelt on the bed, and this time, he needed no prompting to go to her. He kissed her, reveling in the feel of her soft lips on his. When they separated, there was an amused glint in her lust-darkened eyes. "And I can say with absolute certainty that neither one of us is."

He considered protesting that he was, in fact, a Christian, but that would have been a lie. Gisborne had long ago eschewed religion, in favor of more lucrative and pleasurable pursuits.

"We are well-matched, then," he remarked, with a nip to her lips. "The pagan and the soulless knight."

"That sounds like something a minstrel would sing about."

He chuckled. "Vaisey was always summoning minstrels to entertain him, so perhaps that's where I heard it." He moved closer to her, standing at the edge of the bed, and rested his hands on her waist, awaiting her response. It came in the form of her body against his and her arms around his neck. "If the minstrels displeased him, he tossed them in the dungeon. I think he enjoyed that more than their music."

"And what do you enjoy, Sir Guy?"

"This," he replied and kissed her a third time.

Her lips parted, the touch of his tongue to hers sending the first of many tendrils of heat to his groin. Guy had lain with many women, but with Ajsa, he was gentler and less dominating. Their interactions had thus far been give-and-take, and their carnal relations should therefore be no different.

Hands began to wander. They roamed over hard planes of muscle and soft mounds of flesh, dipped beneath black tunics and the skirts of rust-colored kirtles. The ties on the front of her dress were swiftly undone, while his shirt was discarded in rapid succession.

He pulled away to look at her. In the firelight, her exposed skin took on a warm, orange hue, and the dancing flames cast intriguing shadows on her torso. Ajsa watched as he trailed a finger along her collarbones, between her breasts, and down her abdomen, then her eyes closed when he retraced the path with his mouth. Lips scattered kisses. Teeth dragged across flesh. Tongue laved and soothed.

Cupping her breasts, Gisborne turned his attentions to her neck, nipping carefully so as not to leave evidence of their activities in such a visible location. But as he kissed lower, he grew less cautious. He sucked a mark onto the underside of her left breast, while his fingers toyed with the right. His tongue swirled around her nipple, then he suckled it, pulling a sharp gasp from her lips that went straight to his stiffening cock. After giving the right breast the same attention, he slid the kirtle from her shoulders to reveal more of her body.

Ajsa had gained back the weight that she'd lost during her captivity, resulting in a slim but shapely figure. There was no denying that she was small-delicate even-, but she was every bit a woman as the voluptuous whores he had bedded. He watched, mesmerized, as his hands slid down her sides, dipping into her waist and gliding over the swell of her hips.

A tug on his lower body alerted him to the fact that she was unlacing his breeches and pushing them down to his mid-thigh. Then she started kissing his torso, mimicking his own ministrations on her chest. Guy could not remember the last time a woman had touched his nipples, but he groaned in unexpected pleasure. His abdominal muscles rippled beneath her mouth, and when he felt her exhaled breath on his braes, he began to throb in anticipation. She cupped him, and he cupped her. Their gazes locked, dark eyes reflecting their mutual desire.

Gisborne rubbed Ajsa through her smallclothes and reveled in the hitch in her breath. But it was his turn to gasp when her hand slipped into his braes to grasp his hardness. After that, it was not long until they were both bare and lying on Ajsa's small bed. He hovered over her, his gaze hungrily devouring the woman beneath him. Her legs spread in invitation, and he accepted it.

Parting her folds, Guy was gratified to feel her slickness between his fingers. He kissed her and simultaneously stroked her from top to bottom, easing her into the sensation, before slipping one finger inside her. A shudder ran through him as he imagined how she would feel around his shaft.

A second finger soon followed the first, and Gisborne quickly found the special patch of flesh on the roof of her channel that had her breaking their kiss in surprise. He smirked, massaging that spot, while his thumb began to circle her pearl. Ajsa stroked him as well as their height difference would allow, but it was enough to have him leaking. As her thumb grazed the ridge under the head, he could not help thrusting into her hand.

It had been years since he'd engaged in this much preparation. His work and ambitions had relegated sex to merely an avenue for release, to a deviation from the routine when he craved something other than his own touch. With Ajsa, however, he remembered the satisfaction of being the cause of another's pleasure.

Guy watched her eyes flutter closed and her mouth open on a moan. She was close now; he could tell from her panted breaths and the way her walls twitched around his fingers. A final sweep of his thumb sent her toppling over the edge. She bucked her hips and bit her lip to keep from crying out. Gisborne silently cursed Isabella's presence for denying him the sounds of Ajsa's climax. But he groaned regardless, because she had squeezed his cock in response.

Once her tremors had ceased, he draped himself over Ajsa and allowed her to guide him to her entrance. The head breached her easily, and he moaned as he slid inside her tight, warm sheath. True to her word, he encountered no barrier that would signify her maidenhood. Guy wondered about that, but when she pulled his head down to kiss him, the only thoughts that remained were of the woman lying beneath him.

He began to move, slowly at first, with long, thorough thrusts that Ajsa felt deep in her core. Tongues mimicked the motions, swirling and tasting. A hand supported himself, while the other attended first to one breast, then to the other, cupping, squeezing, and circling. As she wrapped her legs around his hips, her heels pressed into his buttocks, urging him to pick up the pace. He obliged her.

Placing both hands onto the mattress, Gisborne pounded into her, her breathy moans spurring him on and making him leak even more. Ajsa was not like those inexperienced maidens who merely lay there, nor was she like the prostitutes he bedded. She used her arms around his neck as leverage, to meet each thrust with a buck of her hips, while her pants and gasps and moans were genuine, not feigned to tempt more coin.

Yet their coupling was about more than just carnal pleasure. When he gazed down at her, Guy saw the stern, protective facade gradually fade away. He saw fleeting flashes of affection, affection for him, not for another. But most of all, he saw someone he could love for more than a night.

It was that thought, in combination with the sudden spasms around his cock, which had him grunting and swelling and throbbing. Gisborne spilled inside her, just as Ajsa arched up into him, her shout muffled in his shoulder.

He held her against him, her chest heaving nearly in tandem with his, as they caught their breaths. Gisborne grinned into her hair. It had been many, many years since he'd experienced so satisfying a release.

And then, with a sinking feeling, he realized his mistake. He cursed.

"I didn't pull out."

Ajsa looked up at him with a serious, almost irritated expression.

"You do remember what I am, do you not?" she asked rhetorically.

"I do," he said, uncertain as to her meaning. "Are you saying that you will...terminate it?"

She arched an amused brow. "Conception, should it occur, is not immediate, Sir Guy. There are safe methods of inducing abortion, yes, but there are even safer methods of preventing conception."

He was relieved. Although Gisborne wanted children someday, the last thing he or Ajsa needed now was a babe.

"How?"

"By charting my monthly cycle," she replied. "And with wild carrot seeds, to be doubly secure. I shall search for some on the morrow when Isabella leaves the manor."

"You sound like you've had previous experience with this," he remarked, out of curiosity more than anything. She had, after all, admitted that she was not a virgin.

"I may have," Ajsa hedged. "In Orosháza, women would come to me asking for ways to prevent and terminate unwanted babes. I have much experience with that." She paused, shifting beneath him. He had softened during their conversation, and he slipped out when she moved. "We had to be very careful, though. Discretion was crucial, or else we could be accused of witchcraft."

"Why take such perilous measures, then? Isn't procreation a woman's chiefest wish?"

Ajsa snorted derisively. "Christianity would have you believe such nonsense, that a wife should be a vessel of conception for her husband," she retorted. "But I can assure you that most women would disagree. Although procreation is important to us, so, too, is sexual pleasure. Men are free to lay with as many women as they please, siring bastards where ever their cock goes." Gisborne gave her a warning glare, but she ignored it. "Meanwhile, women are forbidden to enjoy sex, within marriage or without it, all because of a story that was created by a man in order to exert control over women."

The fervor with which she expressed her ideas was dangerous, as were the ideas themselves. If heard by the wrong ears, they could have terrible consequences. But for all her defiance, Ajsa was prudent. Guy knew firsthand how difficult it was to gain her trust, and he was reassured that she safeguarded her opinions from those who would persecute her.

"For someone who despises Christianity, you're certainly knowledgeable about it," he remarked dryly.

She shrugged. "I learned, like every other girl, the teachings of the Bible."

"And what made you turn so violently against them?"

"I did not turn against all of its teachings," she confessed, to his surprise, "merely against the ones that claim males are superior to females and the ones that attempt to belittle and control females. The tales of Jesus are actually quite nice. He lived what he preached, which is more than can be said for most of the religious men I have met."

Guy could find no fault with her answer. He enjoyed being the dominant one-in all circumstances-, but if Marian had taught him anything, it was that some women would not be dominated, no matter how much a man tried. Marian had been one such woman, and Ajsa was another.

"I would be a hypocrite to condemn you for your opinions," he admitted. Growing tired of holding himself above her, Gisborne maneuvered them so that she was resting atop him. The bed was too narrow for them to lie side-by-side. "I wouldn't tolerate being inferior to women, nor would any other man I know. Therefore, equality seems...fairest."

Ajsa smiled, but faintly. "Take care, Sir Guy. If one of your sex were to hear you speak thusly, you would be laughed out of Nottingham."

"That would be no loss, since I am already viewed as a failure," he said acerbically.

"Not by me," she insisted. "I am very glad you have not killed Robin Hood or your sister."

Sighing, he said, "Then I suppose I should be glad, too, for if given the choice between your favor and Prince John's, I would rather have yours."

Ajsa averted her gaze, hiding her face in the crook of his neck. But he felt her mouth widen in a smile. A feeling of warm satisfaction rushed through him at the knowledge that he had been the cause of her smile.

"Let us sleep now," he suggested. "We have an important day ahead of us tomorrow."

She kissed the slope of his shoulder and shifted until she found a comfortable position on top of him.

"Good night, Sir Guy."

"Good night, Ajsa," he whispered.

She dozed off soon after, but Gisborne lay awake for a while, staring up at the crisscrossing beams until the fire dwindled to embers. His mind was a mess of thoughts, thoughts of Isabella, of Hood, of the prince, and of Ajsa. With his sister's help, there was yet an opportunity to reclaim his position, and with Ajsa by his side, he may yet reclaim his humanity.

For the moment, at least, life was looking up for Guy of Gisborne.