The Nightwatchman (English)(From Ashes Vol.2)

Chapter 3 - Clun by Day, Clun by Night

Guy lost time to fix a belt of his saddle that didn't need to be regulated, and he hesitated to mount his horse until Marian called him, telling him to hurry up.
He spurred his horse reluctantly, alongside the cart driven by Allan on which the girl and Sir Edward were sitting.
"Hey, Giz, you're not going to the gallows. A fair is an opportunity to have fun, why do you look so morose?"
"I shouldn't come." Guy replied grimly. "It makes no sense to go where I know I am not liked and the people of Clun would definitely prefer to see me dead."
"Well, Giz, if you think so then you should shut yourself at home directly and stay there forever."
"Guy, don't talk like that. In time they will understand that you are no longer the man of the sheriff..." Marian said, sympathetically.
"And in the meantime I should bear their insults as if nothing happened? If only they would limit themselves to blame me it would be different, but I hate it when they treat you with contempt because of me."
"Sir Guy, this is exactly why you shouldn't isolate yourself. When they get used to seeing you walking around like an ordinary person, they will no longer notice you and they will leave you alone." Sir Edward said, kindly. "For now, they still consider you an enemy, but the more they will see you behave normally and the sooner they will realize that you are no longer a threat."
Guy sighed and didn't answer.
The other three seemed too confident, but he wasn't. He saw the hateful looks people gave him every time he passed on horseback through the streets of the villages and the ever-present fear in the eyes of the workers who he had hired to clear the rubble of Knighton Hall. For those people he would never be anything but the black knight, the sheriff's dog.
But Marian and her father were right that it was useless to hide, unless he went away from Nottingham, he would have to live next to these people, so he might as well get used to it and bear their insults: in large part they were more than deserved.
He only hoped that his presence wouldn't ruin the day for Marian and her father. It was only recently that the health of Sir Edward had recovered to the point of allowing him to go out and Guy wanted this fair to be a happy day for the old lord and Marian.
He decided that if the hostility of the people would become too harsh, he would stand aside with an excuse.
When they arrived in Clun, Guy slowed the horse to get away a bit off the wagon, but the murmurs and hostile looks were also directed to Marian and not only to him.
He heard an irreverent comment on the dubious morality of the girl and he was tempted to draw his sword and to force the peasant who had spoken to withdraw the insult, but Allan joined him to take his horse and he shot him a warning look.
"Don't listen, Giz. They are just trying to provoke you. Ignore them, the sheriff told you worse things and you could you stand it, do the same now."
Guy nodded.
If he went around beating everyone who insulted Marian because of him, he would not stop the rumors, but he would only increase their malignancy. The only thing he could do was to bear them and in the meantime to work to build something good to offer to Marian when he'd finally ask her to marry him.
Then the chatter of the people would have no more reason to exist.
He looked away from the girl who was watching the stalls of the fair with her father and he smiled to see her happy and carefree as she hasn't been for a long time. Marian wore a headscarf to cover her too short hair and a light-colored dress. That attire made her look young and innocent and Guy couldn't understand how people could question her morality.
Those people knew her, Marian had always protected and defended the poor, yet they were all ready to despise her just because they heard she was close to him.
Do they hate me so much? Do they consider me so evil that I contaminate everything I touch?
"Come on, Allan." He said, looking away from her. "Let's go eat something."
"Won't you stay with her?"
Guy shook his head.
"It's better I don't. I don't want to ruin her day."
"You don't have such scruples with me, instead." Allan said, cheeky.
"For you to be seen in my company is an improvement." Guy replied with a wry smile.

Marian watched the products displayed on the shelves, stopping occasionally to admire a cloth embroidered in an original way or a particularly pretty trinket. It was so long since she spent a day so carefree and she was only sorry that Guy had decided to stand aside.
She would have liked to see the fair at his side, eating with him the pancakes with honey that were sold by one of the merchants and to be simply with him, without worries, but she knew all too well that for the moment it wasn't possible.
The evil looks and comments of the people would follow them everywhere and they would become even more poignant if they were caught together. Marian knew that Guy was keeping away from her especially for that reason and she sighed, sorry for him.
At last she has seen him going away along with Allan, she consoled herself, so he wouldn't be left alone.
Sir Edward insisted on buying her the cloth she had admired and Marian smiled to her father, genuinely happy to see that his health had improved so much in recent times.
She stopped to look at the goods displayed by a merchant, wondering what Guy might like. She was the one who convinced him to come to the fair and she had felt guilty seeing him so uncomfortable earlier, so she'd like to find something to give him to let him know how important he was for her.
She didn't care anymore of what people said. They said she was Gisborne's lover thinking they hurt her, but she just thought that sooner or later she would become the wife of Guy and that she would be proud of it.
Of course if Guy decided himself to ask for her hand.
By now it had been almost two months since she had confessed how she felt for him, but Gisborne had not done anything to make her his wife.
Perhaps, Marian thought with a mischievous smile, to give Guy a gift could make him reciprocate by giving her a ring...
But what could she give him? Marian wanted to find something significant, but she had not the faintest idea of what Guy might like.
She was examining a series of horse harnesses when the talk of two young peasant girls caught her attention.
"I think the Nightwatchman is more fascinating than Robin Hood!" Said one of the girls and Marian smiled to herself. If only they could have imagined that the Nightwatchman was her, that girls would probably be upset.
"But Robin Hood is an unsurpassed archer!"
"But he doesn't have the charm of mystery. Who knows who is hiding under that mask..."
"He could be horrendous, how could you tell?"
"I don't believe it. I saw him ride a few nights ago, you know? He was tall and proud, and he rode in such a elegant way that he can't possibly be ugly. When I walked past him, he gave me a bag full of coins! Now my mother can get nutritious food and enough medication to get her through the winter!"
She sighed, immediately followed the other and Marian watched, dumbfounded. She did not use the disguise of the Nightwatchman for months now, how could they have seen him only a few nights before? There had to be an impostor, she thought, and she decided that she should pursue the matter.
Once before the sheriff had tried to accuse the Nightwatchman to have poisoned the poor people of Nottingham, she wouldn't allow that to happen again.
She was about to approach the two girls to ask for more information when her father called her.
"Marian, please can you bring me some wine? I feel faint."
The girl joined him, worried.
"Are you unwell?"
"I'm just tired. I just need to sit and drink something."
The girl nodded, anxious, and accompanied her father to a bench placed in the shade of a small tree, then she walked away, looking for some wine for him.
Sir Edward watched her go, completely oblivious of the two young peasants and he smiled to himself.
A few nights before, he had struggled to fall asleep, and he looked out of the window of Locksley Manor, illuminated by the full moon. He had noticed some suspicious movement near the stables and he had recognized the Nightwatchman galloping away on a horse.
Worried, Sir Edward went to check into the room of his daughter, but Marian was in bed, asleep.
Sir Guy instead wasn't in his room and Edward understood that the Nightwatchman he had just seen was him, but he had decided to respect his secret.

The waitress at the inn came across the room, slammed rudely the plates and jug of wine on the table and walked away without deigning to look at neither Guy nor Allan. The atmosphere in the room had suddenly frozen when Gisborne had entered the inn and Allan had to struggle to convince the innkeeper to bring them food and drinks.
Guy looked at the food on his plate without deciding to taste it. He felt he would be lucky not to end up poisoned and he had completely lost his appetite.
Allan instead helped himself cheerfully both from his plate and the one of Gisborne.
"Cheer up, Giz, it won't always be like this." He said, between mouthfuls. "At least taste those, I bought them earlier from a vendor on the street. He was a merchant from York, he doesn't know you, so you can feel comfortable that he has no interest to put poison or to spit in your food."
Allan put a bundle full of pancakes with honey on the table and Guy finally decided to get one, then pointed at his plate, now in front of Allan.
"Apparently you don't worry too much. Aren't you afraid to eat the food that was meant for me?"
"They wouldn't poison it, it would be too obvious and they wouldn't risk their necks for you. If they are going to kill you is easier to do it stabbing your back or something like that. And if they spat on your plate... Well, in my life I happened to eat the most disgusting things and I survived the same. When you hunger you can not afford to be too picky."
Guy laughed at Allan's words and he took another pancake, grateful to his friend for having played down the unpleasant situation.
He didn't realize that many of the patrons had turned to look at him, amazed to find that even the terrible Guy of Gisborne was able to laugh.

Later that evening, Guy stared at the ceiling, lying on the bed in his room in Locksley.

That day hasn't been so bad, after all. Marian enjoyed herself at the fair and he, despite having had to endure all kinds of insults and whispered hostile behavior, had managed to stay out of trouble.

He had not threatened anyone, and no one had tried to kill him, so it was already a good result, even though he probably had to thank Allan for it.
The arrow of Robin entered the window, crossed the room with a hiss and stuck itself in the head of the bed. Without getting up, Guy reached out to pull the message tied to the shaft and he read it.
A few minutes later the Nightwatchman was riding along the road to Clun and Robin joined him.
"I see that out of the forest you have a better orientation." The outlaw teased Guy.
"Very funny."
"Besides, it would be hard to lose your way to a place where you've been just a few hours ago, right?"
"Are you spying me, Hood?"
"I don't find you so interesting, Gisborne. But you don't go unnoticed, people are not yet accustomed to see you go around quietly, when they see you they still think that you want to harm them in some way. Today everyone knew that you were at the fair in Clun."
"And of course, you decided to go for deliveries there."
"Because, for you does it make a difference? They hate you all the same wherever you go."
Guy snorted and Robin replied with a laugh.
He handed him a bag full of supplies and he took another for himself.
"You start that way, leave something in every house, I will go there."
Gisborne nodded and went to the first house, knocked on the window without having to dismount and, as soon as someone looked out, he gave him the food and he went to the next house, without waiting for a thank you.
He continued doing so until he run out of food, then he returned to Robin.
It was strange to see that the same people who a few hours earlier deluged him with hate and contempt were now happy and grateful to see the masked man who brought them food, even though it was always him.
A girl had even chased him to throw him a perfumed handkerchief, that Guy had let to drop to the ground without even touching it.
Robin looked at him, ironic.
"Do you despise the gifts of admirers?"
"That was the waitress of the inn." Guy said, sounding disgusted "And I have my reasons for believing that this morning she spat on my plate."
Robin looked at him for a moment, trying to keep a straight face, then he laughed.
"Really?"
"Yep."
"And what did you do?"
Guy shrugged with an amused smile.
"I let Allan to eat it."
"Remind me to never come to lunch with you." Robin commented, chuckling, then they both spurred their horses and rode away from Clun, disappearing into the night.