The Forgotten Keepsake

Chapter 4

IV

"My Lord, do you remember the village of Castlebrook?"

Vaisey looked up at his Master of Arms as though the younger man was losing his marbles. This reaction from his superior was not unexpected by Guy and he wondered himself if perhaps indeed he was.

"What?"

"Castlebrook. Near Clun. We err, reacquisitioned the village..." That was an understatement...

"What are you talking about Gisborne?" Vaisey spat impatiently before he began to fiddle about inside his mouth. Oh Christ, he's doing that thing with his tooth again...

"...It was quite a few years ago..."

"Have you been drinking again? Or did you hit your head on the way in here this morning?"

Guy sighed.

"No my Lord."

He wondered why he bothered.

"Look Gisborne, if you think I remember some piffling village..."

"We used the place as a Garrison for a while..."

"Gisborne!"

here we go...

"Unless this has something to do with a cunning scheme to capture Robin Hood then I don't want to hear any more about it."

Guy opened his mouth but then promptly closed it, he figured that the conversation had gone about as well as he could expect it to really. He wisely decided to drop the subject in favour of more outlaw-related topics, God knows he didn't need another lecture about how he should 'get with the plot and stop mooning over the leper'.

The thing was though, and he would never be able to admit it, in fact he could hardly believe it himself, he found himself not all that motivated to go on yet another outlaw-hunting spree at the moment. Yes, at times he felt the sting of humiliation caused by Marian and Hood (and the desire to lash out at them) as fresh and painful as ever but then at other times... he just felt so tired, so sick of it all.

His fingers slipped into his pocket and closed around the stone. He always had it with him of late and it had become a sort of tick to roll it through his fingers, a bit like some people did with rosary beads he supposed.

Where did you go to little one?

I should very much like to find you...

*****

In a moment of genius, well perhaps desperation was a more accurate term for it, Guy asked Thornton about the old village and then struggled to repress his joy as his long-suffering Manservant recalled knowing someone who had lived there! Guy silently rejoiced his luck. It was a long shot to be sure but it was something. Something that resembled a small sliver of hope...

He was careful about his story, not going into details or revealing his part in the demise of the place, instead expressing a vague curiosity about what may have happened to a boyhood friend from there (which wasn't a lie) and then before he knew it, he was sat there with a scrap of paper in his hand, upon which was the scribbled address of someone, now resident in Clun, who might be able to help him.