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

Chapter 32 - A Special Place in My Heart

Robin looked around, trying to catch every detail of what he saw.
Besides him and Gisborne, other three persons sat around the table: the old man, Adeline, and the young scared boy who the woman had presented as Thomas, her youngest son.
The house and its furniture were simple, but solid, and of good quality. Robin thought that it was strange that a family of servants could afford a house like that.
Gisborne didn't seem to have problems or concerns of any kind, but he kept staring at Adeline with an expression that Robin had never seen on his face. He wondered what kind of strong ties Guy had with that woman, and he felt a twinge of envy.
After all, Gisborne had the affection of both his mother and the wet nurse, while Robin had never known his mother, and he didn't remember Adeline.
He felt the old man's eyes on him, and he looked up to stare at him.
"I bet you have a lot of questions," the man said. "Just have a little patience and you will have all the answers."
Guy looked at him too.
"It's not a matter of patience. There are people who must be worried for us, now. You should have given us a way to warn them of our absence, we would have followed you even without being forced." He gave a little sigh, and shifted his gaze on the woman who had just approached the table with a plate of cakes in hand. "You'd only had to ask, Adeline."
"My father didn't trust you. We've heard so many things about you, Guy... terrible stories. People are afraid of you and they hate you, although I can barely believe it..."
"Those stories are true," Guy said, without looking at her. "Not all of them, but quite a lot. I'm no longer the innocent child you knew, Adeline, I have done many terrible things in my life."
The woman put the plate on the table and she put her hand on his cheek. Gisborne pulled away slightly from her and Adeline shook her head.
"Look at me, Guy."
She touched him again, forcing him to look up at her.
"If you really were the monster who they say, you wouldn't be ashamed of what you did. Maybe you've made mistakes, maybe you followed the wrong path, I can believe it, but I'll never believe that your heart is evil, I'd understand it just looking at your eyes. You've never been able to hide anything from me, you know that, don't you?"
Guy nodded, trying to hide his emotion behind a small smile.
"You always knew when I disobeyed you."
Adeline laughed, and she kissed him on the cheek, then she took the plate with the sweets, and she served him some, before passing the tray to the others.
"Eat, now, then you can write a message to your friends, and Thomas will deliver it."
The boy nodded quickly, clearly scared to death by that knight who his mother instead treated with so much confidence.
Guy looked at Robin.
"I'll write to Marian to reassure her, and I'll ask her to tell the outlaws that we are not in danger."
Adeline smiled.
"Is she your wife?"
"Not yet."
"I hope that you'll invite me to the wedding when you get married."
Guy finished chewing one of Adeline's pancakes, and nodded.
"If you really want to come to our wedding, it will be better to contact her as soon as possible. She will be really worried by now, and if she were to find out that Robin and I are just sitting here, eating sweets as if nothing had happened, I wouldn't bet on our survival."
The woman gave him a puzzled look, and Robin nodded emphatically.
"Marian can be quite impulsive when she cares for someone."
Adeline looked at Robin, intrigued by his tone: the young man spoke as if he had been very close to that Marian. She decided that it wasn't the right time to be curious and she looked at her son.
"Thomas, go with Guy to the other room and give him what he needs to write, then saddle your horse and get ready to deliver the message."
The boy jumped up and he waited for Gisborne to follow him, glancing with terror at the black knight. Guy stood up and started to reach the boy, but, before leaving the room, he walked back to the table, smiled at Adeline, and took some other pancakes.
The woman watched him go, and sat down in front of Robin.
"He always liked them," she said, with a nostalgic smile "I'm sorry, I didn't know you long enough to find out your tastes."
"These are more than good enough for me," Robin replied, taking another pancake, with a cheeky smile.
"Eat as many as you want, then."
Robin looked at her, curiously.
"It seems you care very much for Gisborne. More than you care for his sister, or for me. Am I wrong? And yet you nursed all the three of us."
Adeline stared at him, surprised by the question, then she nodded.
"It's true," she admitted, with a sigh. "Guy has always been special for me."

"When Sir Guy was born, Adeline had just given birth to her first child," her father said, talking for her, because he knew that it was still hard for his daughter to talk about it. "He lived only for a few hours, and she was grief-stricken, she couldn't accept it. My ancestors have worked for the Lady Ghislaine's family for generations, so my daughter couldn't refuse when the lady asked her to nurse her newborn son.
"I didn't want to do it," Adeline admitted with a sigh. "I didn't want to take care of a child who wasn't the one who I had lost too soon. I even thought about running away, but as soon as they put Guy in my arms so I could nurse him, everything changed. Perhaps it was wrong of me to have such strong feelings for the son of another woman, but that little one was able to fill the heart-wrenching emptiness I felt inside me, and every moment I spent with him tended the wounds of my soul. He wasn't mine, but I loved him as if he had been. Over the years, I had other children, and I nursed many others, but Guy always kept a special place in my heart."

Allan looked at Marian, concerned.
The girl had tied Guy's sword belt to her waist, even if that weapon was clearly too long and heavy for her.
"What are you doing with that?"
"If Guy is in danger, I'm ready to fight to help him. It wouldn't be the first time."
The young man couldn't find the words to answer. He didn't like that situation at all, and he didn't know if he should be more worried for Gisborne or for Marian."

He saw Will running towards them, waving to the other outlaws to make them reach him.
"The inhabitants of that house have seen the coach yesterday, and they know who own it!"
"Who?" Marian asked, immediately.
"It's a family who lives a couple of hours from here, in a stone house. They call them "the french" and they say that once were just servants of a noble family. No one knows how they could have made such a fortune."
"Have they also told you the way?"
Will nodded and Marian climbed back into the saddle, inviting him to do the same.
"Let's go, then."

Thomas had left the house in a hurry, anxious to get away from the knight, and Guy hoped that the boy had understood his directions to Locksley.
He went back to the room where the others were waiting for him, but he lingered for a while before opening the door.
Being reunited with his old nurse had awakened in him emotions he thought he had forgotten, and the loving ways of Adeline made him feel vulnerable and strangely happy at the same time, as if, for once, he could allow himself to lower his defenses and let somebody else to protect him.
He wondered what was the secret about his parents that was going to be revealed, and he suddenly realized that he was scared. His past was full of pain and fear, and Guy was afraid that discovering something new about it would only rekindle that suffering.
In any case, he wanted to know.
He took a deep breath and opened the door.