[WATTYS2023 - GERMAN WINNER/Most Engaging World] ** Marian, a thieving nobleman's daughter with too big a heart, meets Robin Hood, a daring thief with a huge ego. Will they be able to overcome pain, longing, and, finally the cruel Sheriff of Notting...
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Nottinghamshire - Castle De Burgh
The next day
The rising sun's light sent its golden rays through the large windows into the meeting hall of Castle De Burgh. The hounds lay idly before the stone fireplace, its arch flanked by two massive stone stags. On the long table near the windows, freshly baked bread gave off a tantalizing aroma. Red-cheeked and green apples lay alongside a few nuts and dried fruits in a silver bowl. Sour cream and herbs in small bowls, jams, and the carafes of wine and milk wove their own notes into the extraordinary morning scent of early hours, which flowed into the interior through the open windows.
Hardly anyone would have guessed from this harmonious and quiet scene what chaos had reigned within the walls of this castle just a few hours before. However, if one paid closer attention to the signs, one could guess what had happened: outside this chamber, there was still excited activity. The maids and servants whispered, taking every opportunity to put their heads together.
In the kitchen, the noise level was much louder than usual, but the chatter resounded even over the clatter of pots. At every entrance and important gate, there were two armed guards whose bags under their eyes testified to an exhausting night. They rubbed their sore feet or tried to sit down somewhere, for they had walked up and down the castle until dawn.
Everyone was talking about what had happened last night: the brazen thief Robin Hood had stolen the taxes from under the sheriff's nose again! And not only that - Hood managed to free a prisoner from the dungeon!
Earl De Burgh bent over his plate on a large and nobly carved chair at the head of the long table, whose red brocade upholstery was already slightly worn and testified to the fact that important lords and ladies had often sat on it. The bread crust cracked softly as he broke off a good piece of it, and a maid milled his goblet with wine. "You look tired, dear." the aging earl's voice rang out. His once full and dark hair had grown a few patches terribly thin and had taken on a distinct shade of gray, and his beard, too, was streaked with the silver of age. Perhaps the gray streaks might have come from the worries that his wayward daughter or even the troublesome thief Robin Hood were causing him? His usually alert, watchful eyes were small and reddened today, testifying to exhaustion whose cause Marian did not have to guess this morning. She was no different. She, too, had hardly slept a wink that night.
"I have not slept well, Father. The commotion and the ringing kept me awake," she said quietly, only managing to wring a wan smile from herself.
Her father leaned back in his chair, tapping his hand thoughtfully on the tabletop. "Hood escaped through the sewage tunnels," he told her, and Marian raised her head to at least blink in feigned surprise.
"Oh? Really?" "He must have had allies in the castle. The guards in the counting chamber said two thieves attacked them. And hardly anyone knows the old tunnel. Especially the collapsed entrance in the dungeons," her father noted, and Marian wondered if he was just telling her that, or if maybe he suspected something?
