Grant What I Wish

Grant What I Wish - Chapter 21. Check

Chapter 21. Check

You are the sky my spirit circles in,

the love inside love, the resurrection place.

—Rumi

Nottingham

1195

Guy stood on the castle battlements, gazing down at the plains that stretched away from Nottingham to Sherwood. In the distance, a haze lingered over the dark forests. On the ravaged field below, he watched as Gilbert, who was one of King Richard's most trusted knights, entrusted the former Sheriff of Nottingham to the armed escort assigned to take him to the coast of England.

The King had arrived at Nottingham the previous night, two scant days after his army had helped stop the Sheriff's invasion of the castle. Upon his arrival, the King had immediately requested that Vasey be brought before him to the Great Hall where he had ensconced himself to take audiences and render judgments.

The King looked much older, Guy had thought dispassionately as he stood in the throngs of people massed about the perimeters of the room. His months of imprisonment and the illness that had beset him while he was held in Leopold's dungeons, as well as the battles he had faced in the Holy Land, had taken a definite toll on his health and stamina. To Guy's critical eye, he appeared gaunt and wan, but regal nonetheless. A man of his birth, temperament, and stature demanded respect and fealty-and received it.

In meting out punishment to Vasey, he was exacting. He rapidly decreed that the Sheriff was to be exiled to Ireland, to the far hinterlands of that heathen country. As punishment, he would be sent to work in the court of Finn, the Irish noble he had attempted to double cross. He would act as vassal and subordinate to Finn, puppet to the whims of that foreign lord.

"And who will administer Nottingham?" the Sheriff had asked in outrage, insolent to the end.

"Someone loyal to our sovereign throne," was the king's terse reply.

Guy watched now as the Sheriff mounted his horse and Gilbert slapped the animal on the flank to urge it onward. As the guard spread out about him and they set out for the west coast, Guy prayed that this would be the last he would ever see of Vasey.

As if he had read Gisbourne's mind, Vasey turned and glared over his shoulder at Guy, who felt a chill of premonition move through him. He feared that he would never be safe in England as long as Vasey or Prince John lived-so where did that leave him?

Turning his attention from this procession, his gaze fell upon Robin and Marian who were deep in conversation in the courtyard below. He felt his temper fray yet again as he watched Robin constantly lift his hand to touch Marian-smoothing a strand of hair from her forehead or softly touching her forearm. Given the fact that he never found Marian without Ashraf, Yousef, or Robin present, Guy had had little chance to speak with her. He understood the concerns of the visitors from the Holy Land and Marian's desire to be with them; she considered them family and cherished guests. However, Robin's slavish attentions to her were becoming tiresome.

Guy knew he had nothing to fear; Marian had declared her love to him, and she was not one to express her emotions easily, or to take such a declaration lightly. He knew that she loved him. Nevertheless, it pained him to see Robin dancing attention upon her, as if he hoped to take up where they had left off all of those long months ago.

I never forgot you, Marian, Guy thought wistfully. When I thought you were dead, I felt that I had died as well. I vowed then that I would never love another. Now that you are with me again, that is still true. But can I give you the life you deserve?