Gisburne was well aware that he did not always manage to resist temptations. And even if he could fail to notice this on his own, the Sheriff would never miss an opportunity to remind him of it. De Rainault was never too shy to point out to the knight whenever he was of the opinion that he had once again been unable to restrain himself and had thus embarrassed himself in public.
Just like at the time of the incident with Jennet of Elsdon. The Sheriff, of course, had promptly deduced the actual reason for the knight's accusation that the woman was a witch. Needless to say, he had been right in his assessment. The bitch had turned the knight down, but on top of that she had threatened to tell the entire village that he had not been able to have his way with her. He could not put up with such a behavior, so he had no choice but to take action. In order to make the case more credible, the husband had to be charged as well, although the knight had never had anything to do with him in the past.
Another example of Gisburne's inability to resist temptation was his failed elopement with Sarah de Talmont, although in this case he blamed the Sheriff for giving him the idea to run away with her in the first place. If de Rainault had not been so desperate for his money and finally had been unable to help himself other than to fake a pogrom against the Jews of Nottingham, the knight would surely have been content to continue secretly spying on Sarah. For his other needs, after all, there were the female servants in the castle. Some of whom did not care who would fuck them.
It was only the realization that the young woman's death would prevent him from further watching her, along with the fact that the Sheriff had no intention of giving him any of what they had looted - even though he had had to do all of the wet work - that prompted him to leave the service and take Sarah with him on his way to the Earl of Chester.
Looking back, Gisburne understood that this plan was not in the least well-considered and that he had been fortunate that the whole affair had not had a far worse outcome. Of course, he had not enjoyed falling into Hood's hands yet again. And of course, the Sheriff had made his displeasure known to him quite clearly - and in a painful way - after their return to Nottingham. But he was used to this, after all, and afterwards everything proceeded as usual.
But now his inability to restrain himself had put him in an extremely uncomfortable situation. What was particularly unfortunate about the entire affair was that no one knew where he was, not even the Sheriff, whose eye he could rarely escape. Of course, he would not let him forget so easily what he had done, but if he would get him out of here first, he could get over it. After all, it would not be the first time - as had been mentioned earlier.
As it was, however, this time he could not rely on de Rainault since he had not told him where he was going or what he was up to. The only reason for this had been that he had simply needed a few days in which he was not being pushed and shoved around by the Sheriff. And in which he did not have to expect to be surprised at any moment by Hood or one of his hangers-on, who had the unpleasant habit of appearing in the most impossible places at the most impossible times.
Therefore, he had left anything behind in Nottingham that might mark him out as the Sheriff's deputy - such things as his armor, but also Fury - and had set off in the direction of Newark - so that he would not be forced to cross Sherwood - to finally turn North. He had enjoyed just being on the road, with no particular goal and, most importantly, without having to get anything done. He had not minded sleeping rough either, though of course this made him look even less like the knight he was. But that had been his intention. He had not wanted to be recognized by anyone.
But once again, he had not thought the whole issue through to the end, and this now resulted in him not being treated like a knight even in those situations where he would have liked to be. Such as now, when he had not been able to resist a sweet temptation. However, it would never have occurred to him that he would end up in this pit for that reason. But it had also never occurred to him that no one would believe who he truly was. Now he was in danger of ending up in court also for pretending to be someone he could not be. According to the others.
But it could be worse. He had been stripped of his bags, his purse and his weapons, but he had still been able to hold on to something. And he would make sure that he could actually enjoy it.
With this in mind, Gisburne leaned back against the wall of the pit that served this place as a secure holding space for common felons, took one look at the scum that was down here with him, and then pulled some of his loot out of the pocket that was concealed in his cloak.
As a precaution, however, he hid the apple in his hand before biting into it.