From Ashes, Through the Fire (English) (From Ashes Vol.3)

Chapter 15 - I Will Love You Forever

Marian sat on the bed, expecting Guy to imitate her, but instead Gisborne surprised her by lying down and resting his head on her legs. The girl ran a hand through his hair and Guy closed his eyes, abandoning himself to her touch with a tired sigh.
"I didn't think her hate would hurt me so much," he said softly. "I thought I was prepared."
"Does she have any reason to hate you?"
Guy was silent for a moment.
"Yes."
Marian fiddled absently with a lock of Guy's hair, rolling it around her finger.
"You never told me about her."
Guy smiled so sadly that Marian was tempted to silence him with a kiss and to tell him that it didn't matter, that he shouldn't tell her anything if he didn't want to, but she remained still and silent, thinking that maybe it would do him good to talk about what saddened him.
"There wasn't much to say. At least there was nothing that wouldn't make me feel ashamed. After the death of our parents I should have protected my sister, but I haven't been able to. I tried, I swear I tried, but after three years spent living in poverty in a remote village in France, I agreed to give her in marriage to a man I didn't even know. He was an English nobleman, rich enough to give her a comfortable life and he offered me a good price for her. At that moment it was the only opportunity we had to get out of that situation, but Isabella never forgave me for selling her."
Marian looked at him, surprised. She had never imagined that Guy's past could have been so difficult, and only then she realized that this must have been why he had been so pleased to get Locksley in the past, and why he had so proudly shown her his riches when they were getting married for the first time.
She had thought that Gisborne wanted to boast to impress her, but now she understood that instead, Guy just wanted to show her that he would be able to take care of her and to make her live a comfortable life. And that must also be why he had waited to rebuild Knighton Hall before asking for her hand.
She thought with remorse of the way she had robbed him, shortly before their wedding and how Guy had never reproached her for that theft, even after she told him she was the Nightwatchman.
She continued to stroke his hair gently.
"How old were you?"
"I was just over seventeen, Isabella thirteen. It is since then that I didn't see her."
"Really?"
Guy smiled ironically.
"Her husband is a noble, his property is not huge, but he is rather rich and probably he also attends the court of Prince John. I wouldn't have done a great favor to Isabella by visiting her, I doubt that the lady of the manor could have been happy to have a brother like me, a dog obedient to the sheriff's orders."
"Don't say that."
"That's what I was, it's useless to deny it. Not really a relative to be proud of, don't you think? And then it was more convenient for me too: no bonds, no weaknesses in the sheriff's eyes."
"You were still her brother. But why does she hate you so much? From what you told me, you didn't have many alternatives."
Marian knew how unbearable the idea of a loveless marriage could be and Isabella had been little more than a child when Guy had gave her away to be married, but she also realized that she had been lucky to be the daughter of Sir Edward. Many other fathers wouldn't allow their only daughter to decide her own future. If her father hadn't been indulgent with her, most likely Marian would have had to accept a marriage without having any say in the matter.
Most of the girls had to accept the will of their parents in this regard, and many of them were even younger than Isabella, it was the normality of things, and in the end almost all of them resigned themselves to their destiny and many even managed to find a certain happiness.
"I don't know. I tried to give her an opportunity, I didn't want to hear her cry because of hunger or cold, I thought a rich husband could give her the comfortable life that I wasn't able to guarantee her. I admit, I also wanted the opportunity to become a knight in order to regain the lands we had lost, but I was convinced that Isabella would have the chance to have a good life. Is it enough to want to see a brother dead?"
Marian leaned over him to wipe a tear with a kiss and she shook her head.
"There must be something more, something you don't know."
Guy nodded.
"I have to find out, then. So maybe I'll find a way to fix it. Maybe I don't deserve it, but I want my sister's forgiveness."
"It's right that you want it, she's your family. Guy? Can I help you? Maybe she would talk to me, maybe she could trust another woman and tell me why she feels so much rancor towards you."
Gisborne got out of bed and he took her hands, genuinely moved.
"Would you really do this for me?"
Marian nodded and Guy hugged her suddenly, holding her tightly.
The girl hid her face against Guy's chest to hide her blushing cheeks. She felt guilty: she had doubted his love and suspected that he had betrayed her, when she was the one who had found herself admiring another man.
Forgive me, Guy.
Gisborne stroked her face and her hair and looked for her lips to kiss her. Marian put her arms around his neck and drew him closer, responding to his kiss with a passion that in the past she would never have thought she could feel. It was a mixture of love, sense of guilt, desire to comfort him and to be forgiven, and the overwhelming need to become one with him.
Guy's hands slid down her back, burning and possessive, and Marian felt as if every touch of his fingers passed through her clothes to leave a mark of fire on her skin.
They were alone, in a bedroom with the door closed, and this already would have been enough to go against the decency and to attract people's gossip about them if someone had discovered them, but Marian didn't think to get away from him . On the contrary, she allowed her own hands to detach themselves from Guy's neck to stroke his back as well.
Marian's fingers tried to make their way under Gisborne's jacket, but the belt that held the scabbard of the sword was too tight and it formed an insurmountable barrier that didn't leave enough room for her hands to pass. A moment later, the girl's hands were on the belt buckle, and they worked anxiously to open it.
The sword fell to the ground after a few seconds and Guy was startled, surprised to feel Marian's fingers on his bare skin. He stopped kissing her and looked at her, astonished to find in the girl's eyes the same desire he felt.
"We shouldn't..." He said, shuddering as he felt Marian's fingertips marking the lines of the scars on his back.
"No, we shouldn't," Marian repeated, smiling, a moment before searching Guy's lips again.
Gisborne gave up with a groan and he took her in his arms, lifting her off the floor to get closer to the bed. They collapsed together on the mattress, without too much delicacy, but without feeling the need for it. Marian felt the weight of Guy's body pressing her against the sheets and she was surprised to realize that it was exactly what she wanted and that, indeed, it wasn't yet enough.
One of Guy's hands had ventured under her skirt, while the other was trying to untie the laces that held the bodice of her dress closed and that scorching touch on the soft skin of her leg made her tremble, shaken by feelings never felt before.
As a young girl, she and her friends sometimes had wondered what it would be like to be touched by their husbands and that curiosity had always made her blush. Of course, they were all certain, letting a man touch them would be terribly embarrassing.
Instead, at that moment, Marian didn't feel the slightest embarrassment: there was her and there was Guy, everything else was superfluous. The touch of Guy's fingers made her burn and shudder at the same time and filled her belly with a sort of ravenous hunger she didn't know how to satiate.
She had to feel him close, even more, to let her skin touch Guy's, as if only in this way they could merge into one.
Her hands had opened the clasps of his jacket and slipped under his shirt, anxious to explore every place of his body, then, while Gisborne was still trying to loosen the laces of her dress, Marian's fingers had moved, trembling, on the laces of his leather pants.
She had stopped for a moment, suddenly frightened by what was about to happen, and even Guy had stopped moving, feeling her hesitation. They looked each other in the eye and Marian smiled at him, happy. Guy's loving gaze had dissolved all her fears.
She held out her arms at Guy and kissed him again, this time more calmly. She could feel Guy's love in every touch and she realized that this feeling was only for her. The doubts that had tormented her until a short time ago had completely dissolved and Marian had the impression that she would have understood that even if Guy hadn't told her that Isabella was his sister.
In the arms of her future husband she was safe and loved, and she should never forget it.
She closed her eyes, confident, ready to give herself to him.
What they were going to do was a sin, but the girl couldn't consider it wrong at all. Soon she and Guy would be married, but in her eyes he was already her husband: Marian had decided to stay by his side for life and she could pronounce the wedding vows without hesitating even at that same moment.
What harm was there to love her husband?
"I will love you forever," Guy whispered, as if he could hear her thoughts and Marian opened her mouth to repeat those words too, as if they were bridal vows, but she stopped with a cry of terror when the door was suddenly opened, slamming against the wall, and the sheriff entered the room, followed by Archer and some guards.
"Oh, Gisborne, this is getting a bad habit, don't you think? You should at least learn to close the door."
Guy jumped out of bed, throwing a blanket over Marian at the same time for the girl to be protected from those intrusive prying eyes.
"The door was closed! You were the one to break it open! Now go out!" He shouted, angry. Marian hid under the blanket, blushing furiously.
"Details, Gizzy. And don't worry, I'm not going to watch such disgusting scenes if I can help. Even though I thought you'd get tired of her after all this time. Evidently your leper friend is a better lover than I thought."
Guy was about to throw himself at the sheriff, but Archer held him back.
"Hey, keep calm. We'll leave in a minute."
His brother squeezed his arm as if to tell him something, and Gisborne tried to calm down.
"What do you want?"
"The Nightwatchman assaulted the sheriff, we are searching the castle," Archer explained, then he turned to the soldiers. "It seems obvious that he is not here, let's go."
"Not so fast," the sheriff said, and Guy looked at him. Vaisey pointed a finger at him. "You will make yourself useful and join the search, while you, miss, will go back embroidering with the other lepers."
Guy glanced at Archer and the other shrugged: even though Guy was no longer working for him, it would be unwise to disobey the sheriff openly.
"Go ahead," Archer said to the other soldiers and to the sheriff. "I'll wait for Gisborne to be ready and then we'll join my men."