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

Chapter 30 - The First Time I Hated You

Robin threw the blankets aside and got up. He stood still for a moment to see if he could walk without losing his balance, then he walked the short space that separated him from the bed of Gisborne.
Guy was sound asleep, and he didn't stir even when Robin moved across the room, dragging his chain on the floor. The outlaw placed a hand on Guy's shoulder to shake him awake, but Gisborne merely turned on his side.
"Leave me alone, Allan," he muttered, before falling asleep again.
Robin sighed, frustrated. Obviously they must have used a greater dose of narcotic on Gisborne than they did on him.
Robin tried to shake Guy again, then he noticed a pitcher and a basin resting on a small table beside the bed, and he grinned when he saw that they were full of water.
He emptied the contents of the basin on Guy and he finally opened his eyes, with a start.
"Hood! Are you insane?" Guy shouted, recognizing him, then he looked around and realized that they were in a strange room and that he had a chain tied to his wrist. "What happened? Where are we?"
Robin gave him one of the neatly folded towels that were stacked next to the pitcher.
"I'm sorry, but I had to wake you up."
"As if I didn't know that you had fun throwing water at me." Guy wiped his face and sat up on the bed. He held his head with a groan. "What have they done to me? My head hurts and I feel so drowsy..."
"Try to stay awake. They drugged us and they brought us here, but I don't know why. That woman said that they had to reveal us an important secret."
"What woman? Even the old man in the carriage talked of a secret..."
"A French woman, she said she has been the nurse of us both."
"Adeline?!"
"She didn't say her name. Do you remember her? There really was a French nanny?"
Guy nodded, smiling slightly at the memory.
"She nursed both Isabella and me, and she took care of us when our mother couldn't. I remember she had a sweet voice, and, when I couldn't sleep, she sang for me to calm me down. When she sang for me, I fell asleep almost immediately."
Robin glanced curiously at Gisborne, he rarely heard him talk like that.
"When she came here, she did it. She was watching you while you were sleeping and she sang a song in French."
"Really?"
"Yep. She said that she had also been my nanny, but I don't remember her."
"I do. And maybe that was the first time I hated you."
Robin looked at him, puzzled.
"Why?"
Guy smiled, a little embarrassed.
"When you were born, Isabella was already two years old, she didn't need to be nursed anymore, but Adeline was still taking care of us. Your mother died a few days after she gave birth to you, and our mother sent Adeline to your home so that she could take care of you. I didn't want her to go away."
"I have no memories of her."
"She went away from Nottingham the following year, I believe that her husband had found a better job elsewhere. Since then I had not heard of her... Why did she come back looking for us, now? And why the chains?"
Robin shook his head and walked to the table, looking suspiciously at the food and at the bowls.
"She said that this remedy would ease the headache, but I don't know if we can trust her," he said, sniffing at the liquid without deciding to try it. Guy came over and he took one of the bowls.
"I don't think it could make me feel any worse, I'm willing to take the risk. And I doubt that they would take the trouble to bring us here and tie us with chains just to poison us to death."
He drank the remedy, then he took a slice of bread, and he cautiously took a morsel of it.
Guy wasn't hungry at all, and the headache was making him feel rather sick, but, after eating something, he began to feel a little better.
Robin watched him for a few seconds, then he decided to imitate him.
For a while they ate in silence until Robin looked up from the food.
"So, what are we going to do, now?"
Gisborne yanked the chain, and he gave an ironic look at Robin.
"Unless you don't want to chop a hand, there isn't much that we can do, don't you think?"
"Locks can be opened."
Guy went to the window, and he looked out.
"And then we should learn to fly. Look."
Robin saw that the house looked out on a high cliff, too steep to be used as an escape route.
"The door is solid and it's barred from the outside, but maybe we could loosen the stones of the wall and open a hole..."
"Hood, I want to know what they are going to tell us. I'm not going to run away before I find out what they do know about my parents."
"And I want to know what they have to tell me. But I won't stay here and wait like a chained dog. I just need to find something sharp to pick the lock."
Robin looked around for a suitable object.
"Could this work?" Guy asked, and Robin turned to face him. Gisborne was holding a knife with a short, but very sharp, thin blade.
"Where did you get it?"
Guy shrugged.
"They took the dagger I was holding, and my sword, but they didn't think to search for the other ones."
"The other ones? How many... No, maybe I don't want to know."
"When most of the people around me would love see me dead, it's not so strange if I take a few precautions to defend myself."
Robin grinned.
"Those precautions didn't avoid you to get caught by a frail old man."
"It seems to me that you are locked up in here as well, aren't you?"
Guy went to the door.
"Hood..."
"Wait, I'm almost done," the outlaw silenced him, focusing on the lock of the chain. The knife slipped two or three times and it scratched his wrist, but eventually Robin managed to open the manacle.
"So what did you want?" Robin asked, turning to look at Gisborne, and he stared at him in surprise when he saw that Guy had already freed himself.
"I wanted to tell you that I had found this." Guy showed him a key. "Somebody must have slipped it under the door."
Robin stared at his bleeding wrist.
"Why didn't you say it before?"
"I've tried."
"What now?"
"Now we wait." Guy said, as he stretched on Robin's bed, folding his arms behind his head.
"Hey, that's my bed!"
"Now it's mine. You could have thought better before soaking my bed with a whole basin of water."

Marian stared at the fire, dancing in the fireplace. She sat on the chair by the fire where Guy used to sit, but now he wasn't there, and the fire itself felt cold.
She pulled up her feet and hugged her knees, clutching the blanket she had wrapped around her shoulders.
"You should go to bed," Allan said, walking over to her and standing behind her chair.
"He could come back and need me..."
"Not tonight. There is no moon and there's a storm. Even if Giz is just late for some reason, he will wait until tomorrow morning before coming home. Go to sleep and wait until dawn before looking for him."
Marian shook her head.
"I couldn't sleep knowing that he might be in danger." She turned to look at him with eyes full of tears. "Allan, I couldn't bear to lose him again. I simply couldn't."
"Nothing will happen to Giz," Allan said, hoping to sound more reassuring than he actually felt, "and then Robin Hood is with him, did you hear what Much said, didn't you?"
"I am worried for Robin too," Marian sighed.
"I would be more worried for those who have the bad idea to kidnap those two together: they will be lucky to survive," Allan commented, making her smile. "Tomorrow they'll both be here, you'll see."
Marian looked back at the flames.
"Allan? If you're so calm, why don't you go to sleep?"
The young man sank into the other chair and shrugged.
"I'm not sleepy."