Everything is a Choice

Chapter 3

Previously...

Gisborne lunges at me and manages to grab my arms as I struggle for balance.  He swings me round.  Abruptly, he lets go.  I snatch at the boat’s railings, miss and smack onto the deck.  My head hits an iron rivet.  I gasp, both with the pain and at Gisborne’s rank breath on my face as he pins me down.  I blink to clear my vision, already recognising the futility of it.  He slides his powerful arms under me and lifts me up, as easily as if I’m some over-sized rag doll. The chill wind bites at my bare feet and ankles, and I imagine myself laughing – or maybe I am laughing – as I recall the reason why I’d come up on deck in the first place, my need to ‘go over the side’.

Dimly, I hear someone scream, “No!”

~

Chapter 3

The smell is familiar: old sweat and onions, bacon, too.

Something cold and wet slaps onto my forehead. My eyelids flutter open. I try to sit, but firm hands ease me back down onto my bunk.  I recall my bare feet on the splintery deck; the chill wind snapping at my ankles as Gisborne held me aloft; his split lips snarling accusations: “It was you. You forced me to do it.”

“Robin, can you hear me?”

“Much?”

“Don’t try to sit, not yet.”

“Why, what—”

“It’s all right. You’re all right.”

His voice sounds scratchy and weird, as though he’s been sick, or crying, perhaps both.

“Gisborne?” I say. “What happened?  Did I kill him?”

“No.”

“Did you kill him?”

“No,” Allan interrupts, “but he gave it his best shot.” 

Despite Much’s protestations, I sit. Allan is standing in the doorway.

“Tell me,” I say.

“Much saved your bacon, Robin. Gisborne was just about to chuck you into the sea. Much threw a sword at his legs, Gisborne’s sword as it happens, and he let go of you.  Lucky he dropped you the right way mind, else you’d be shark fodder by now.”

“You were there?” I ask.

“Nah, it was John. His stomach was playing up and he’d gone up on deck to...you know.” Allan mimes retching and my stomach roils just a little. “He heard Much shouting and went to see what was going on. Got there in time to see Much flinging something at Gisborne and you dropping like a stone.”

At his name, John squeezes into the cabin.

“Did you kill—” I begin.  

“No!” John bangs the end of his staff on the floor for emphasis.  “What do you take me for? I...we do not kill, not unless we have to. You taught us that.”

I think of my earlier intention to return to my cabin, recover my bow and put an arrow into Gisborne’s back. The thought is not a pleasant one, but I’m still sorry I didn’t get the chance.

“What happened to Gisborne?” I ask.

“When he saw John charging towards him he made a run for it,” Allan says.

“Allan,” I say, pushing my thoughts of revenge aside for the moment. “Now we know Gisborne’s on board what about the sheriff?”

“Already on the case, Robin. I’ve been doing a bit of snooping while you’ve been flat on your back.”