Guy And Marian Retold

Absolution

I woke late the next morning, as we hadn't drifted off to sleep until almost dawn. Gazing adoringly at my sleeping husband, I was on the verge of waking him with sweet kisses when my stomach gave the most appallingly loud growl. Baby was hungry, it seemed. I pulled on a robe and went downstairs, finding the housemaid, Sarah, ready to get me breakfast. I yawned as I waited, thinking over what Guy had told me last night. When she came back with my food, I hesitated a moment, and then asked her if she had been around when Guy had lived here with his parents.

"Aye, I was Master Malcolm Locksley's housemaid then." She hesitated, and I asked her what he had been like.  She thought for a moment, and then told me that he had been wise and good.  He had tried to teach Robin right from wrong, but Robin was proud and headstrong. "It wasn't until Robin came back from the Holy Land that I saw a change in him," she added, and I nodded in agreement. He had gone from one extreme -- self-absorbed -- to another -- the poor man's hero.

"What happened between Malcom and Ghislaine?" I asked, interested to hear her take on it.  She hesitated again, and I gave her a friendly smile.  She smiled back, and started talking softly.

"Master Malcolm and Lady Gisborne fell in love while Master Roger was away, but nothing ever came of it, poor souls. They never got the chance, what with Master Roger coming back from the dead and everything that happened after that. They all died in the fire, and the lady with child too. You were just a wee child when it all happened, not more than three or four." I nodded...no wonder I didn't remember any of it.

"Did anyone blame Robin or Guy for what happened?" I asked, curious to know what public opinion had been.

"There were some people blamed Master Robin, and some blamed Master Guy," she said, confirming my suspicions.  "Most of us knew it was just a terrible accident and not the fault of either of them."  I nodded my understanding and she moved to go back to the kitchen.  I had a couple more questions for her, though, and I voiced the first one before she could leave.

"What happened to Guy?" She shook her head sadly.

"He was such a fine young man, if a little quick to anger, not at all spoiled like the young Master Robin -- I'm sorry to speak so of him, but it was true," I nodded in agreement again, and she continued, "it was unfortunate that the bailiff had his eye on the Gisborne land, but fortunately it went back to Master Robin. It was too late for Master Guy and Isabella...they had already run off at his cruel words."

I tried to imagine what he had felt at that moment, with the bailiff condemning him and no one taking his side.  They were probably all too afraid to stand up to the bailiff.  Thinking it was his fault his parent's and Robin's father had died.  I wasn't surprised he had run...it would have been hard for an adult to stand up to that, much less a twelve year old boy.  But how different things would have been had he stayed.

He wouldn't have come back looking for revenge.  He might have presided over his people as well as Robin had, and gained as loyal a following from them.  I would have grown up knowing him, and perhaps grown to love him over a longer time than I had the way things had gone.  Would I have admired him the way I had Robin?  I wanted to think so.  Would we have wed before now?  Almost definitely.  My father had let me wait for Robin, rather than force me into a marriage I didn't want.

He had let me decide to marry to protect him, much as he hadn't wanted to.  He let me make my own decisions.  He would have let my love for Guy blossom, and he would have readily consented to our marriage, just as he would have consented to Ronbin's -- because he wanted me to be happy.  He had been concerned about my marriage to Guy because he thought I wouldn't be happy.  I could tell that he was relieved it had turned out as well as it had.