Sir Guy: The Look of Love, a ficlet, by Gratiana Lovelace, 2016

"Sir Guy, The Look of Love", A ficlet

"Sir Guy, The Look of Love", A ficlet, June 25, 2016 Gratiana Lovelace (Post#928)

(Copyrighted by Gratiana Lovelace, 2016; all rights reserved)

[I will illustrate my story characters with: Richard Armitage as Sir Guy of Gisborne and Lucy Griffiths as Lady Marian.]

Wattpad Description: Some might say that Sir Guy of Gisborne has too much ambition--and hubris--with regard to his love for the Lady Marian Knighton. And yet, when they are thrown together in the most unusual of circumstances, whom will take the opportunity to make the first step toward love?

"Sir Guy, The Look of Love", A ficlet

After a long day of maintaining his position in Sherrif Vaisey's never ending quest to humiliate and degrade him, Sir Guy of Gisborne wearily opens the door to his bedchamber in Nottingham Castle this evening. He instantly notices that the fire has been lit—an unnecessary extravagance in merely chilly weather. And he wonders at his orders being disobeyed as he quietly closes the door. Him sensing that something is different this evening.

Turning toward the glow in the fireplace, his senses are assaulted by apple and cinnamon--a most unusual combination, especially when one is in a bed chamber and not in a kitchen.

And he has only ever smelt such a wondrous combination outside of a kitchen when in the presence of one person, the woman who claims his daily thoughts and his nightly dreams--and who claims his heart, the Lady Marian Knighton.

Walking further into his bed chamber, Sir Guy spies the lady in question lying on the sette on her side--her legs tucked up, her hands making a cushion for her head as a cascade of curls drape over her shoulder and only a bed pillow that she must have retrieved from the bed, his bed. He would think her an apparition, but for her scent that overwhelms him with desire.

She is at her loveliest now, when she is sleeping and he may observe her at his leisure, without interruption—from her nor from anyone else. This gift of Lady Marian this night is more than what her presence in his bed chamber implies, were she any other woman.

But Marian is not any other woman to Guy of Gisborne. She is the sun to his moon, the Spring to his Winter, and a safe harbor from stormy seas. She holds the key to his hopes for happiness, were she to grant him the favor of her smile or the boon of her hand in marriage.

Now Sir Guy smiles—at being so easily conquered, and by a woman. She has beaten down all his defenses save one, and that is slipping away as each moment passes. He had resolved to never let the weakness of being in love undermine his ambitions for position and wealth. For now he realizes that they would be empty accomplishments without her by his side.

***

Quietly removing his leather tunic, trousers, and boots, Sir Guy goes behind a screen to wash himself in private—and to not awaken her. He dons a loose shirt and a fresh pair of loose cotton trousers—comfortable attire for lounging in his private bed chamber, with or without company.

Then returning to the sitting area at the foot of his bed, Guy sees the first signs of Marian stirring from her slumber.

Marian: "Hhhhh!" She sighs as she stretches her arms. But sleep has a strong hold about her, and she clings to it tenaciously as she buries her head into her pillow that she had pilfered from the bed. Yet she shivers.

Noting the chill in the room as the fireplace embers die down, Guy moves to the bed and lifts up a soft coverlet from it. Then padding quietly toward Marian in his stocking feet, he gently drapes the blanket from her feet to her shoulders, coming to kneel near her head. As he leans over her, her sleepy eyes flutter open and she looks up at him. Marian smiles sweetly at him, and Guy smiles back.