Enemy of My Enemy

Chapter Two - Discoveries

What I said before....you know, I said you were gorgeous...I meant it.

Marian rode, smiling, back along the Great North Road; those few, simple words meant more to her than any of the gifts Guy had ever given her. She hugged them to her, until heat of a different kind suffused her face....what had she done in return?

She'd punched Robin. And told him that he would pay. Strange, really, how her words and actions could be so at odds with what was in her heart. Truth was, she feared to let Robin know...to be too easily won. Truth was, she'd never stopped loving him, all those years when he was gone, and then since his return.

He'd come back the same, and yet not. Cocky, infuriating, but with a deep vein of goodness in him that war hadn't mined out. He was selfless enough to give up his lands for the sake of justice, stubborn and foolish enough to think his way was the only way, and compelling enough to have others believe it. And to her great surprise, Marian was starting to believe it too.

But the obstacles against them never grew less. The biggest she faced at that moment – the thought chagrined her – was to be so preoccupied with thoughts of Robin that she might ride straight into the sheriff's party, which would about now be heading that way. Cursing her stupidity, Marian turned her mount aside, and took a different path back through the forest.

For the remainder of the ride, a plan began to form in her head. It made so much sense that it was easy to set aside the dangers it would present.

Once Marian was back in the castle, with the knowledge that the sheriff, Guy and Allan were all out in the woods hunting Robin and the gang, she began snooping about, searching each room in which she thought the pact might be concealed. It made perfect sense to her, to try and find it for Robin. With all the gang's secret entrances blocked, thanks to Allan, it would be foolhardy for Robin to try and get into the castle to find it, when she was already there.

But as an hour dragged by, with no success, she came to suspect that it would be in the one place in which she hadn't looked. For long moments, Marian lingered in the corridor, debating what to do. Every minute she lingered, the risk of the sheriff returning grew greater. But she craved the anonymity of the Night Watchman, so Marian hastened back to her room and donned the outfit.

Then, dodging guards she retraced her steps, pushed open the door, and entered the sheriff's private chambers. And there not one, but two, shocks awaited her.

The first was to see that indeed the sheriff had returned, and was napping in his bed.

The second was to see that her father, somehow not in the dungeons, was at that moment carefully withdrawing documents from the safe in the wall.

He heard her enter, glancing fearfully back over his shoulder.

"What are you doing here?" breathed Marian, approaching him, glancing at the sheriff's sleeping form. "You mustn't be seen."

"I could ask you the same thing, daughter."

She took the pact from him, at the same moment noticing the dangerous tilt of a goblet on the edge of the bed. She pointed underneath the bed.

"Quickly," she mouthed.

When her father looked like he wouldn't comply, she whispered:

"At least I am disguised."

As Edward scrambled under the bed, Marian hastily replaced the stone and the picture concealing it. In the kaleidoscope of confusion that followed, the goblet clattered to the floor, disturbing the sheriff, who began groping around on his bed for the keys to the safe. Finding it misplaced he sat erect, hollering for the guards, as Marian fled for the door.