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

Chapter 16 - A Wedding in the Forest (Part 2)

"Hurry up. I'll be waiting on the way for Knighton," Robin said, while Guy fastened the clasps of his black leather jacket that he had just worn after taking off from the Nightwatchman's costume.
He hid the costume inside a hollow shaft, later Allan would recover it, and he took the horse by the bridle, leading him in the barn, quietly.
"It's not necessary, Hood, I am able to take care of myself, I don't need your protection."
Robin was about to ask him what would have happened a few days before without his intervention, but he forced himself to remain silent. He suspected that Gisborne wouldn't take well that comment and that the trauma of the attack by the inhabitants of Knighton was still too vivid to joke about it.
"It's not about that. We need to discuss some details for the wedding."
Guy looked at him, skeptically.
"And couldn't we do it tonight?"
"To talk of the banquet with Much nearby? No, thank you. Go now, or you're going to get caught."
Guy smirked, amused, then he walked to the door of Locksley Manor and he peered inside: Thornton was already awake, so Guy couldn't go inside using the back door.
Guy climbed on an empty barrel that he put directly under the window of his room some time before and he jumped to cling on the sill with his hands, then he sat up quickly and entered the room before anyone could notice him.
Guy looked out of the window and made a gesture to confirm to Robin that they would meet later, then he went over to the basin to rinse his face and to wake up a little.
The sun had already risen, and Guy wouldn't have time to sleep before having to go out again, but he decided that he could sleep in Knighton, lying in the shade of a tree after he talked to Robin.
He went to the door of his room and opened it, pretending he just got up. He went downstairs to eat something before he had to go out and he was surprised to see Marian already sitting at the table, absently nibbling a piece of bread.
"Good morning." He greeted her with a smile and, just looking at her, Guy had the impression he felt less tired. "You're up early today."
Marian winced and looked at him, then her expression softened into a smile too.
"I had a nightmare and I couldn't go back to sleep."
Marian didn't tell Guy that the nightmare was about him.
She had dreamed to see him going away and that she wasn't able to reach him. She had called him desperately, running after him, but Guy had not heard her and he kept walking without looking back until he disappeared from sight. She was left alone in the midst of a barren landscape, invaded by the fog and she had continued to look for him, calling his name, but Guy had never responded.
She had woken up distressed and she had tiptoed to Guy's room, but when she tried to push the door to see him sleeping, she had found it barred from the inside.
For a moment she had been about to knock, then she'd wondered how she could explain her presence there so late at night and she had lowered her hand. Guy would have thought that she was a fool.
She had gone back to bed, but she had lain awake, thinking about him and how she had seen him coming down from the upper floor of the inn, and she was tormented by doubt and jealousy.
Now that she saw him there in front of her, with that sweet and a bit shy smile that Guy reserved only to her, her fears seemed to be silly and childish. She stood, went up to him and she put her arms around his neck to draw him into a passionate kiss.
She wanted him, she thought, and she was frightened by the intensity of that desire.
Perhaps the women of Nottingham who despised her weren't completely wrong, maybe she wasn't a serious girl and the gossips about her morality were right, but in that moment, if Guy had asked to go further than that kiss, she wouldn't know how to say no.
She didn't want to say no.
When Gisborne parted from her, Marian felt almost disappointed, but she could see in his eyes that Guy had struggled to hold back, that he wanted her too.
Why doesn't he ask me to marry him, then? I would be his, and there would be nothing wrong.
Guy looked at her, almost breathless, wondering the reason for this sudden passion, then he forced himself to break away from her and he smiled ironically, to hide his own agitation.
"It must have been a terrible nightmare," he said, touching her forehead with a much more chaste kiss. "But I can't say I'm sorry that you had it, if this is your reaction."
Marian broke free from his arms with a cry of indignation, and she struck him on the shoulder with a slap, but she couldn't suppress an amused chuckle.
"You are terrible!" She scolded, pretending to be stern, but now the atmosphere between them had returned to be playful and relaxed and Marian was relieved and disappointed at the same time.
"And that's why you love me, right?" Guy said lightly, but he could not avoid to throw her a slightly fearful look, as if he was worried that she could deny it.
Marian smiled and stroked his cheek with her hand, surprised as always to feel how his skin could be both soft and rough at the same time beneath her fingers.
A little like him, after all.
"Yes," she said, looking into his eyes. "I love you, Guy of Gisborne."

"So much for coming here quickly," Robin said, popping up from the woods to ride near Guy's horse.
"Why, Hood, did you have something better to do?" Guy grinned and turned to face him.
"Certainly something better than waiting for you to flirt with my ex-girlfriend."
"Were you spying us, Hood?" Guy snapped, but he was interrupted by Robin's laughter and he blushed when he realized that the outlaw was luring him into a verbal trap and that he had fallen in it.
"Really, Gisborne, sometimes you're so naive." Robin said, teasing him. "You're smiling since you arrived, it doesn't take a genius to figure out why."
Guy glared at him, then he kept staring at him, suddenly serious.
"What is it, now?" Robin asked.
"It really doesn't bother you?"
"What?"
"Marian. I don't know what I would do in your place... I don't think I would be able to look at the person who took away from me the woman I love."
Guy had spoken without looking at him and Robin shook his head, smiling slightly.
"Yes," he said "every now and then I happen to think that that time it would have been very easy to miss my aim and hit you too along with Barret. Then Marian would still be my girlfriend..."
Gisborne jerked his head and looked at him, alarmed.
Robin laughed to see his expression and he continued.
"But in that case I would have ended up with an unhappy love and without a brother."
Guy stared at him.
"Really?" He managed to say after a while, deeply moved, and Robin made a mock exasperated sigh.
"Yes, but now shut up or I'll regret the days when we were trying to kill each other."
"Then it's better for you to be my friend because I would have definitely succeeded, sooner or later," Guy said, hiding his emotions with a provocative smile.
"Yes, sure. And maybe you're also convinced that you can get to Knighton before me," Robin challenged him.
"Of course," Guy said, studying the open road before him to choose the best path.
Then they both turned to look at each other, exchanged a smile and spurred their horses simultaneously, making them spring forward.

The women of Knighton, bent on the large tubs filled with water that they were using to wash clothes, stopped their work to watch the two riders who were approaching the village at full speed.
"One of the two is Gisborne," a woman commented, noticing the blacks clothes of the knight. "but who is the other?"
"There are still too far away to figure it out. But what are they doing?"
"A chase? A fight?"
A young girl stood up on her toes and shielded her eyes with one hand to see better.
"I don't think they're fighting, they don't have weapons in their hands. Hey! The other one seems Robin Hood to me!
"Why is Robin Hood with Gisborne? Those two hate each other... Are you sure they are not armed?"
"The other day Robin defended him. I wonder why."
"Yes, it's Robin Hood," the girl confirmed now that they were closer "and it seems they are racing..."
The two riders slowed approaching the village and they stopped when they reached the group of women gathered around the tubs of laundry. The women saw clearly that the two men were laughing and they were still panting after the ride.
"Good morning, ladies!" Robin said with a cheeky smile, noting that they were being watched by the astonished villagers. "So, according to you, who won?"
The women threw one awed look at Gisborne, but Guy just shook his head with an amused smile.
"Come on, Hood, they will never admit that I've won because they hate me, but they won't even dare to say the opposite because they fear me, yours is a useless question," he said, and, despite the bitter words, his tone was cheerful.
The women stared at him in awe as Guy moved his horse.
"But we both know I won," he said, passing near Robin.