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

Chapter 10 - The Destroyer

The inhabitants of Knighton stopped their activities for a moment on hearing the sound of the hooves of Gisborne's horse, coming along the road that crossed the village.
Women scurried to bring back the children into the house before following them, closing doors and windows behind them, while men limited themselves to keep an eye on the horse and his rider and clutched more tightly the grip on the handles of their agricultural tools.
After what had happened the previous week with their refusal to pay taxes, everyone expected some retaliation by Gisborne and they were ready to react accordingly, but for the moment it had not yet happened.
Guy of Gisborne appeared stubbornly in Knighton every morning, inspecting the land. He gave orders and instructions that the villagers pretended to listen and to which they did not obey, and then he went to work alone in the reconstruction of Knighton Hall for the rest of the day.
"He's surely plotting something." A woman whispered to her friend. Both the women were peeking at the passage of the former black knight through a crack of the closed window shutters.
The other one sighed, with a pained look on her face.
"He will surely take revenge for that matter about taxes. Sometimes I don't sleep at night thinking about what he might do to our men. I always pray that at least he won't hurt our children."
"I pray that he dies." Said the first one, dismissive. "If he's dead he can't do anything bad to our children or our husbands."
The friend shuddered.
"You think what they say is true? That he has made a pact with the devil to come back from the dead?"
"I don't know, but I hope he goes to hell soon."

Guy crossed the village trying to act normally, but he clearly felt the hostile stares and terror that his presence stirred in the inhabitants of Knighton.
According to Robin, they'd eventually get used to him and he would be accepted as their lord, but Guy strongly doubted that. Probably it was already good that none of the farmers had openly tried to attack him and Gisborne suspected that this was due only to the fact that they were afraid of him.
After all, ignoring him completely was a strategy that would have paid off if Robin Hood had not helped him: if Knighton could not produce enough to secure the payment of taxes, the sheriff would take it from him, while for the inhabitants of village things wouldn't change that much, they would simply found themselves working for a new lord.
Gisborne thought that he should unlock the situation somehow, but how?
If Robin Hood were in his place, it would probably be enough for him to make a speech to the inhabitants of Knighton to convince them to follow him without hesitation, but he was not Robin, the hero of the people, he was the monster hated by everyone and he wasn't good at all with words.
Trying to talk to the people of the village would be an embarrassing failure without any utility. Indeed, Guy had the sensation that it could only make things worse.
They would listen to the Nightwatchman.
If they only knew that he was the person who risked his life to bring them food and assistance, they wouldn't look at him with so much disgust, Guy thought bitterly, but he couldn't do anything to change the situation.
He spoke with some of the farmers to give them short and unnecessary orders on the management of Knighton, then he led the horse towards the ruins of Knighton Hall.
He tied the animal in the shade of a tree and he brought him a bucket of water, then he took off his jacket and headed for the spot where once Marian's home stood.
Since he had started working, he had managed to take away the debris of the house, but it were a few days that Guy didn't call any workers to continue the work.
Accepting tax money from Robin was already humiliating enough, but necessary, but he would never ask for help for the reconstruction of Knighton Hall.
That was a damage that he had done and it was only his duty to put a remedy to it, even if he had to put together an entire house by himself, if he could not afford to hire the workers.
Residues of charred wood and most of the debris had already been taken away, and where there was once a house, only a layer of burnt soil and ash was left. They formed a large black spot in contrast with the green of the surrounding lawn.
That dark spot had become a kind of symbol in the eyes of Guy. That was what he had done in the past: he destroyed, stained and contaminated everything with which he came in contact.
He took a shovel and he began to dig, throwing the blackened earth and ashes on the wagon that he used to clear away the debris. Alone, he wouldn't be able to do much, he could probably clear just a few meters of land before evening, but he didn't have much choice, anyway, and that work was less depressing than having to deal with the villagers.
He had worked for only a few minutes when the shovel met something hard, buried in the ground.
Guy found a small wooden box, partially blackened by smoke. The ground around it was burned and Gisborne thought that probably it had been buried under the floor of the house before the fire.
He pulled it off the ground and carried it under the tree where he had tied the horse to open it. He took a knife from the saddle bag and he used it to force the cover, then he set it aside to examine the contents of the box.
There was a small cloth doll looking battered, a few ribbons and simple trinkets that certainly had belonged to a little girl. Guy thought that objects contained in the box reminded him of the little treasures that, at the time of their childhood, had been dear to his sister. Only, on the edge of the skirt of the doll there was a name embroidered in flickering and lopsided letters: Marian.
The image of a little Marian who hid the dearest treasures of her childhood under a floorboard of her home appeared incredibly vivid in his mind and it hit him like a stab to the heart.
He and Isabella had done something like that too, when they were children and even those precious memories were destroyed in the fire, along with the rest of their lives.
And it was always his fault.
A tear stained the dress of the doll and Guy stared at it for a moment before realizing that it had slipped down his face before falling on the toy.
He ran a hand over his face to wipe his eyes and the gesture brought him to think of another painful memory: the flames of the fire, his sister clinging to him, stiff and unable to say a word, and the desperate cries of Robin who begged him to do something, while Guy was unable to do anything but stand and watch the blazing fire, occasionally wiping the tears with the back of the hand with that same gesture.
Instead of fighting back the tears, as he had wanted, Guy covered his face with both his hands, let out a sob and began weeping uncontrollably.
Guy had burned his own future and the one of his sister, as well as Marian's past and now he was afraid that this was the only thing he could do: to burn and ruin things. He was distressed at the thought of not being able to reconstruct anything of what he had destroyed.