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

Chapter 25 - Do You Have a Plan?

"You are very silent," Robin, said placing his horse side to side to the Nightwatchman's one. "Any problems?"
Guy didn't answer and Robin repeated his question.
"What?" Guy asked, turning to face him.
"Gisborne, what happened? You're distracted, you weren't even listening to me."
Guy was about to say that there was nothing wrong, then he shook his head with a sigh.
"Marian. She thinks I'm a coward because I told her that I could do nothing for the arrested men."
Robin sensed that there had to be something else that Guy didn't want to mention, but he chose not to investigate further.
"You're not a coward. And you're doing something."
"But she will never know, she will continue to believe that I don't care at all."
"If this is such a big problem, just tell her you're the Nightwatchman."
"No! If Marian should know what I'm doing, how could we prevent her from taking risks too? How could I tell her that rebelling against the sheriff would endanger the lives of her father and of all of us, if she knew that I am the first to do so? No. She cannot know."
"Then you have to accept the fact of not being a hero in her eyes."
Guy nodded.
"I know, but it hurts."
"I can imagine, but now forget it. You can't afford to be distracted, or you'll end up getting both of us killed. Now you are the Nightwatchman and you must focus on freeing the prisoners and getting back home in one piece. The problems of Guy of Gisborne at the moment shouldn't affect you."
Robin was right, Guy thought, but he didn't say it aloud. That night he had to focus only on his mission: first, he had to survive and then he would have ample time to clear things up with Marian in one way or another.
"How many of the sheriff's men are on guard?" He asked.
"I don't know exactly, at least a dozen around the barn, but I suspect that others are lurking in nearby buildings to take us into a trap."
"Probable."
"I asked Much and Little John to create a diversion, but we shouldn't count on it: the sheriff may have instructed the guards not to be distracted."
"That's possible too. Do you already know how to act?"
"Don't worry, I have a plan."
"No, you don't."
Robin laughed.
"True. But we'll get through somehow, trust me."
"If I didn't trust you, I wouldn't be here."

Marian knocked quietly on the door of Guy's room and she sighed when she realized that she wouldn't receive any answer.
She was still distressed because of the events of the afternoon, but she realized that she had overreacted and that she had been unfair to Guy.
To think of the slap, and of the angry words she had told him, made her blush with shame. She felt guilty, she had been carried away by her emotions, but she only managed to hurt Guy once again.
How could have she talked with so much contempt to the person she loved? She couldn't blame him if he didn't want talk to her now.
She knocked again, a little louder this time.
"Guy? Please, answer me..."
Marian left on a bench the tray she had brought with her, and she sat on the ground, leaning against the door with her back.
It was not the first time that Gisborne closed his door, refusing to speak to her, but whereas in the past he did it to protect her, now he was simply offended and hurt, and he had every reason to be.
Marian would have preferred to hear him shouting at her rather than having to collide against this cold silence.
"I'm sorry," she said, bursting in tears "I'm so sorry! I should never have talked to you like that... I love you, Guy, I want to spend the rest of my life by your side and if you want to have the right to tell me what to do, you just have to ask and I will answer yes. Please, open this door and tell me that you want it too."
After saying those words, Marian would have expected a reaction from Guy, at least one small opening to discuss or clarify their feelings, but she received no response.
The girl could not imagine that she had spoken to an empty room, and she thought that this time Guy had to really be angry with her. Perhaps she had managed to ruin everything.
She wept for a while, then she wiped her eyes and stood up, taking a decision.
The fact that Gisborne had not reacted in any way to her supplication, hurt her pride and kindled in her a certain irritation.
She had apologized sincerely, she had confessed her feelings and she told him explicitly that she would marry him, when in fact it should have been him to make his proposal, so why did he continue to ignore her?
Well, she said, if Guy didn't want to talk to her, and he didn't consider her worthy of his attention, then she was not bound to obey him.
After all, she was still convinced that someone had to free the men arrested by the sheriff, and if no one had the courage to do it, it was time for the Nightwatchman to came back into action.
She no longer had her costume, but it was not necessary. She returned to her room, she tore a strip of dark fabric from the edge of an old garment, she cut two holes for the eyes in it, and she tied it on her face in place of the mask. Marian put on comfortable clothes, an old cloak with a hood and she slipped out of the house, through the window. She took a horse from the stable, saddled it quietly and then she guided it out of the stables without mounting until she was far enough from the house not to be heard.
She had heard that the arrested men had been brought in Clun and she headed in that direction, spurring her horse into a gallop.
She felt sad, guilty, angry, and hurt, but she couldn't help but feel a certain euphoria as she rode at full speed into the night, with her makeshift mask on the face: she had missed that feeling, she had missed being the Nightwatchman.

Robin crawled through the boxes of supplies, he reached the window and peered out, following with his eyes the movements of the guards along the road, then he returned to Gisborne.
The two men had entered into the storeroom of the tavern and they hid themselves among barrels and crates of food because from the window of that building it was possible to have a good view of the shed where the men had been imprisoned.
"We can't enter through the main door, it's too well guarded... What are you doing?" Robin asked, noting that Guy was rummaging among the shelves lined up along the walls of the storeroom.
"We'll have to wait for the end of their shift, that will be an opportunity to pass unnoticed. And since we still have some time I'm looking for something to eat."
Robin looked at him, incredulously.
"We're going to risk our lives and you think about food?"
"I'm hungry. I skipped dinner to argue with Marian, and anyway in this tavern they owe me a decent meal. Ah. I found cheese, you want some?"
"You're not quite normal, you know that, right?" Robin said, smiling, but he accepted the food and sat down beside Guy to eat it.
"If I was, I wouldn't be here, risking everything to save people who hate me, don't you think?"
Robin smiled and he handed him something that he had just taken from a barrel.
"Here, you have earned one of your stupid apples."
Guy bit into the fruit, amused.
"Would you have ever imagined this, Hood?"
"What?"
Gisborne made a vague gesture with his hand.
"All of this. You and I fighting together, we'd never have believed that only a few months ago."
"I would have called a madman whoever could suggest such a situation. But I must be mad too because I don't think it's so absurd, now."
Guy recovered two empty mugs from one of the shelves, filled them with wine from one of the barrels, and he handed one to Robin Hood.
"A toast to madness then."
"For once I agree with you. Although, at this point, I don't know if we should fear more being caught by the sheriff's guards or by the tavern owners."
Guy grinned.
"They deserve it, the last time I was here, they spit in my food and I don't even want to know what they may have done with my wine."
Robin looked at him, shaking his head with amusement, then they both returned serious, hearing a commotion outside the building.
Guy covered his face again with the mask and they both came to the window to look out: three guards were left at the door of the shed, but the others were running down the street.
"Get him!" a soldier shouted "It's the Nightwatchman!"
Guy and Robin exchanged a worried look, thinking they had been spotted, but the soldiers passed under their window without looking up.
Other guards sprang out from nearby buildings, as they had imagined, and Guy gasped when he noticed that all the soldiers were chasing a single person, her face hidden under the hood of a gray cloak.
"Marian!" Guy exclaimed and Robin turned to him, aghast.
"What?"
"Tuck gave me that cloak, I left it in Locksley. Marian must have taken it... She thought that I wouldn't do anything to help these men and then she decided to do it herself!"
Guy was about to jump out the window to reach the girl, but Robin stopped him.
"Wait! You can't go down there blindly, or the guards will kill both of you!"
"Let me go immediately! I have to protect her!"v
"I'm not saying that you don't have to save her, but calm down and think. Look, she has taken refuge in that stable and she barred the door: we have some time and I have a plan."
"One of your plans, Hood?"
Robin touched his shoulder in a comforting gesture.
"Usually they work, don't they?" He said, gently. "Now listen, and trust me."
Guy nodded weakly and Robin continued.
"I know that stable, on the back of it there are some loose boards, and sometimes the young people of Clun enter from there to take the girls in the stable with them. If you can get to that passage, you can get inside and take Marian away without the soldiers can see you."
Robin explained how to find the hidden passage and Guy looked at him skeptically.
"The young people of Clun, eh? You know too many details for being just hearsay."
The outlaw smiled innocently.
"Now go. Don't let them see you because I won't be able to come and save you right away."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to free the prisoners, of course."
"Do you have a plan?"
"I'll find one."
Guy chuckled.
"Typical of you. Don't get yourself killed, Hood."
"Same for you, Gisborne."
Guy slipped out the back door of the storeroom to get to the stable, passing through the back streets, while Robin took his bow and put it on his shoulder, then he drew his sword and jumped out the window, preparing to confront the three soldiers who were on guard.