[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...
Ουπς! Αυτή η εικόνα δεν ακολουθεί τους κανόνες περιεχομένου. Για να συνεχίσεις με την δημοσίευση, παρακαλώ αφαίρεσε την ή ανέβασε διαφορετική εικόνα.
A little more than two years ago
No birds were chirping, and yet the winter breeze had its own special magic. Marian was eight, playing, running, and enjoying the world's beauty in the sunshine. Sunlight shone on the white snow like diamonds. It covered the Nottingham countryside like icing sugar. Then, an ominous crack. The ground beneath her gave way. Marian remembered the nasty cold. Of the pricking of tens of thousands of burning needles, the water, and the darkness.
The next thing she saw was the blurred face of a girl. Wet strands of blonde hair stuck to her face, and she shivered uncontrollably. Gillian. She wasn't anyone important or significant. At least not in the eyes of the nobles or society. She was just a girl, a peasant's daughter. But she had jumped in after her without hesitation.
The Girl had pulled her out of the water, and they trudged through the snow, clinging to each other for warmth. Her mother wrapped them in blankets - patched, home-knitted sheets that were not made of expensive fabrics. They smelled of sheep and straw and camomile.
They did not know each other. Marian was an earl's daughter, and Gillian was a farmer's daughter. Servants. Marian was used to being surrounded by them, but there was always an invisible curtain separating them. But not on this day. On that winter day, they sat there, embracing and holding each other as if they had known each other from childhood. When her father's men came to fetch her, she was firmly convinced she would never see her savior again.
But she was wrong. Her father did not let his daughter's rescue go unrewarded, and Gillian became her personal chambermaid. The daughter of a farmer's wife came to the castle, to her side. Her mother was given a position in the kitchen. Clothes, food, and a warm roof in all seasons. Gillian combed her hair, and she helped her into her clothes. The Girl made her laugh and held Marian as she shed tears over Robin of Locksley and also as she shed those over the death of her dearly loved mother.
"My lady! Get up at last. You cannot lie in bed all day," with a resolute flourish, the blanket was torn from her, and glaring sunlight burned in Marian's sleepy eyes. It freed Marian from the last, inert strings of a frosty dream and brought her unblinking into the golden light of a crisp autumn morning.
Humming wearily, Marian fished for the blanket to pull her up higher again.
"Come on, Marian," Gillian tried a little more personally now. "You need to get some fresh air," Gillian urged with gentle severity, shooing Marian out of her springs in her cheerful manner. She worked Marian over until she agreed to go for at least a little outing. "It will do you good. A little ride out. Maybe you should stop by the chapel again? I'm sure Father Francis would be pleased. You haven't been there for a long time."
She gave her an encouraging smile. Blonde strands fell her face under her white bonnet, matching the numerous, adorable freckles on her narrow cheeks. Gillian pulled open the dressing table drawer and took out a silver jewelry box. Rings lay there beside silver bracelets, fine twisted gold of brooches and chains. "How about the silver necklace?" suggested Gillian, but Marian shook her head with a laugh.
