Lady Marian

Chapter 3

I spent a restless night, thrashing beneath the bedclothes and dreaming of all manner of the sheriff's rumoured cruelties. Once in a terrible vision, Will's young body lie beaten on the wheel. Robin sat on a gold throne, overlooking the Locksley village square, empty save the two of us and Will's unconscious body. I screamed at him, yelled until my throat ached because he had not moved to stop the torture. Robin smiled, one drop of blood spilling out of his mouth, and gestured for me to look down. I did. I held the cudgel in my bloodstained hands.

I woke with panting breath and a pounding heartbeat, the bedclothes drenched and twisted. Before I could steady my breath, Sarah burst through the chamber door, sending it crashing against the wall. The sound of iron work on stone echoed through the chamber, almost like the wild beating of my heart. I eased myself up onto my elbows, peering past the green damask bed curtains to watch as Sarah dropped her armload of firewood into the grate. It extinguished the last remnants of the previous evening's fire. With a barely audible curse, she fished a flint out of her deep apron pocket, bending over to relight the fire as if she had aged a hundred years overnight.

"I suppose you'll be going to the hanging this morning."

"I do not have a choice." I slid myself out from under the heavy red linen bedclothes.

"Perhaps you will want the green gown." Sarah flung open the wardrobe doors. "It's what you wore to the last execution."

"The green one will be fine," I answered as Sarah filled the basin. She slammed down the pitcher as if intent on shattering the plaster.

"He's me cousin. His mother and mine were sisters," Sarah said as I splashed the frigid water over my face.

I sat before the casement. Had it been only yesterday that I watched for Robin's arrival? Sarah scraped the ivory plated brush through my hair, catching it on every snag and tangle. I reached out to stop her.

"Beg pardon, my lady." Sarah slowed her pace with the brush. At once she exploded. "Is there nothing the Earl of Huntingdon can do? Will was found on his lands."

"Sir Guy has made his decision." I steadied my voice. "Lord Huntingdon tried his best to stop him.

"Can he not—"

"Sarah, you will remember your place," I snapped. My maid receded, backing away half a step. The remainder of my dressing was completed in silence, both my maid and I hoping for the same unlikelihood, that somehow Robin would be able to overturn the decision of the sheriff.

* * *

I took my place next to Father in the courtyard of Nottingham Castle. Gone were the stable hands rushing back and forth, the soldiers running up and down the castle steps to follow hasty orders. In their place stood what could only have been half the shire, gawking at the gallows set up just before the castle steps. A handful of raggedy children scrambled over bails of straw set in a half circle around the gallows, until a castle guard frightened them off with his mace. The guards were the only familiar sight in the courtyard, stationed around the perimeter and upon the steps, coats of mail falling below their knees and linked coifs pulled over their heads. Heavy double-edged swords at their sides did little to calm the terror rising up within me.

Father sat in one of the large chairs set out for us on the top of castle steps, staring down at the swarm of serfs and yeoman crowding around the gallows from his velvet cushion. He seemed to take pleasure in the event, asking a servant for a glass of wine and nodding to his fellow barons taking their places just behind us.

"Today we execute justice, eh Marian?" Father quipped.

"Indeed, Father. At what end of the rope is justice?" I asked.