A World That Will Not Turn to Ash (English)(From Ashes Vol.1)

Chapter 32 - No

Marian had watched in horror Barret who drew his sword to chase Guy and she got up from the ground to try to stop him. She had only walked a few steps when someone had grabbed her, preventing her to continue and she had cried seeing the doors of the church that were closed and barred from the inside.
She looked back at the person who was holding her, ready to fight to get free and she found herself staring at the blue eyes of Robin Hood.
"Robin!" The girl exclaimed with joy, then she recognized the other outlaws. "You have come to free me! Come on, quick!"
The outlaw took her hand and he led her to the altar. Marian stared at him, surprised.
"Where are we going? We have to get out of here before they come back!"
Robin shook his head.
"We don't have much time, we have to hurry."
"Hurry to do what?"
"To get married." Robin looked at Tuck and the friar nodded in assent. Beside him, the priest of Locksley, clearly terrified, nodded weakly too.
"What?!"
"Once you are my wife, the sheriff can't force you to marry Barret." Robin explained and Marian stared at him in disbelief.
She did not know what to say and she felt that the time was running at twice the speed than normal. Robin had just asked her to marry him and he was going to do it right away. She couldn't help but think that Guy had chosen to expose himself so much just to stop the marriage and she couldn't forget the look that he had given her when he entered the church.
"Guy..." She whispered. "What will he do when he finds out?"
Robin had looked at her for a moment and Marian had seen a flash of disappointment in his eyes, then the outlaw had smiled ironically.
"He knows already, in fact, to be honest, this was his idea."
Marian stared at him, shocked, then Robin pushed her gently toward the altar.
"There isn't much time, Marian."
He waved to the priest and the man began to perform the ceremony, sweating with excitement.
The girl looked around nervously. Robin was beside her, and his figure was reassuring as usual, but he seemed to be nervous. Tuck was standing a few steps from the altar, next to the priest, while the other gang members were aiming with their bows at the nobles seated on the benches of the church.
As for her father, he could not be seen anywhere and Marian wondered where he had gone.
For years she had dreamed of the moment when she finally would marry Robin, her first love, and now that she was really going to do it, the situation seemed absurd, completely different from what she had imagined as a girl.
She should have burst with joy and instead she wanted to cry. The lump in her throat felt the same as when, only a year before, she had been forced to marry Guy...
Guy.
Marian realized suddenly that the feeling of anxiety she felt was closely related to the black knight.
Suddenly a lot of memories came to her mind, She remembered all the times when Guy stood at her side, protecting her from the cruelty of the sheriff or just waiting for one of her smiles, his timid attempts to woo her that she had always discouraged and the deep sorrow she had felt when she had believed he was dead.
The absence of Guy made her think that the world had somehow broken and its pieces were back in place only when she had hugged him in the stable of Locksley and she had started crying in his arms.
And now Guy was challenging Barrett to allow her to marry Robin...
She looked at the outlaw, the man she had always dreamed of sharing her life with since she was a kid, hoping to find comfort in his eyes, but Robin was looking serious, unsmiling.
He held her hand with a firm grip and Marian found herself thinking again about how much the hand of Guy trembled when she had taken it in her hands after she had kissed him.
She remembered what he had said the night of the siege, when he confessed that he was about to flee because death scared him, but that he didn't because he wouldn't be able to be alive in a world where she wasn't there.
If she married Robin, she would disappear from the world of Guy.
The image of her dream, with the knight lying dead on the altar, appeared all too vivid in her mind, but now she could see the face of the corpse and it was Guy, still and pale as a marble statue.
The priest asked her something and Marian looked at him, blankly.
"What?"
The old priest looked at her, worried, and he cleared his throat, before repeating the question.
"Will you, Marian of Knighton, take this man, Robin of Locksley, as your husband and love him..."
Robin interrupted him.
"No."
The pastor looked at him, stunned and Marian stared at him with tears in her eyes.
"No?"
Robin smiled sadly.
"This is what you would have said, isn't it? I don't want to hear that from your voice, and then I am saying it for you. No."
Marian hung her head and she began to cry. Robin took her in his arms to comfort her.
"I'm sorry!" The girl sobbed. "I'm so sorry..."
Robin touched her tousled hair with a kiss and he held her as she wept. To know that Marian didn't want to marry him hurt him, but, if he wanted to be honest, he had to admit that a part of him felt some relief at the thought that the ceremony wouldn't be continued.
Something had changed between them, it was no use denying it. The sentiment that had bound them when they were younger had turned into something else over the years. Perhaps their bond was torn for the first time when he had gone to the Holy Land and that wound had never completely healed even though neither of them had the courage to admit it until then.
When Marian had asked him if he had killed Gisborne, Robin had the impression of not recognizing anymore the girl who was in front of him. The Marian who he had proposed to would never have asked such a question, she would not have needed to ask because she would have no doubts about him.
It was from that moment that his heart had begun to say goodbye to her without wanting to admit it, but now, in front of her tears and the expression on her face that made her look like a trapped animal, it made no sense to deny the truth.
"I know." He whispered softly. "I know."
Marian closed her eyes, resting her face in his chest. In the arms of Robin she felt safe, secure and she trusted him completely, but Robin was no longer the boy who had taken her heart and she was no longer the Marian who had given it to him so many years before. They had both changed and the simple and pure love of the past had turned into a deep affection.
"When did it happen?" Robin asked with a sigh.
"What?"
"When did you fell in love with him?"
"But I do not..." Marian began to say, quickly, then she stopped, confused. She wanted to deny Robin's words, to tell him that she wasn't in love with Guy, but would it be the truth?
...I love Guy? This is what I feel?
She could not answer that question, but she knew that if she had any doubts, it wouldn't be honest to marry Robin, not even to be safe from the claims of Barret.
"I don't know... I don't know what I feel..."
She said, then she fell silent, her head bowed and Robin shook his head in resignation.
"Give me your hands, I will try to open these handcuffs and then I'll take you to safety. No one will force you to marry if you're not sure."
Marian held out her shackled wrists, without having the courage to face him and Robin tried to pick the lock with the tip of his knife, but the hole was too small and he could not snap the closure.
He needed something more subtle. It occurred to him that he still had with him the dagger that Allan had given to him, the one that he should have used to identify the aggressor of Gisborne. That knife had a thin and sharp blade and it would probably be able to get into the keyhole.
He picked it up and began to force the handcuffs, being able to open them after a few seconds.
The shackles fell to the ground, but Marian seemed to be petrified, staring at the dagger.
"Sorry." Robin said "It's still covered in blood, but it was necessary to get rid of the handcuffs."
She shook her head. It was not the blood to upset her.
"Robin, why do you have Barret's dagger?"
"What?! How do you know who owned it?"
"I saw the sheath that he uses, it is decorated in the same way as the handle of this knife, I can't be wrong. Why do you have it?"
Robin let out a curse and he gave a look of apology to the priest who had stared at him sternly.
"Marian, are you absolutely certain? Without the slightest doubt?"
"Yes. It's the dagger that completes the sheath of Roger of Barrett. Why do you ask?"
Robin looked at her, worried.
"This is the weapon that has been used to stab Gisborne. If it belongs to Barret, then it was him who organized the ambush! He is the leader of the bandits!"
Marian turned pale.
"Robin... This means that Guy..."
"He doesn't know. And he is facing him alone."