Grant What I Wish

Grant What I Wish - Chapter 20. End Game - part 2

Chapter 20. Endgame (Part II)

You kiss a beautiful mouth, and a key

turns in the lock of your fear.

—Rumi

Nottingham

1195

"Yes," Vasey exclaimed again with malignant glee, "this is the very same Marian, come back from the dead to the arms of her true love, Hood."

He strolled about the chamber, slapping his gloves against one hand, before stopping to stand before Marian. "Consider her dismay to discover that her one true love has in turn found another," he said in mock despair, staring at her thoughtfully. "I can only imagine how much it must have hurt you, my dear, to find yourself supplanted in Robin's affections by a brawny young village wench." An expression of distaste crossed his features. "To tell the truth, I prefer you to that wench. She is shrill beyond belief."

Marian gazed steadily at him, her expression unchanging. His taunts no longer had the power to wound her, she realized. He was beyond her contempt.

Isabella stared at Marian through narrowed eyes. "So, you are Robin Hood's betrothed-and the woman who spurned my dear brother."

Vasey laughed harshly. "Spurned him? She humiliated him so many times that I lost count. Left him at the altar, played him for a fool, played him for a fool yet again...."

Marian struggled to maintain a placid demeanor, although her hands itched to strike that smug expression from the Sheriff's face. She could see that Isabella was grappling with the realization of who she was.

Isabella continued to stare at her thoughtfully. "But, if that is the case-if you did trick Guy and play him for a fool-and he in turn tried to murder you-why have you returned to fight for him? Why did you rescue him from York?" Her eyes played over Marian's face, looking for clues to this puzzle.

Marian held her silence-nothing she could say would placate this woman, and might indeed give her enemies further ammunition.

"Rescued him from York?" Vasey repeated, amazed. "You rescued the man who ran you through with his broadsword? That's a bit too much turning of the cheek, eh, Marian?"

Marian smiled at him grimly, and said sarcastically, "Unlike you, whose credo is an eye for an eye, Sheriff? That much has not changed, from what I can tell."

He laughed in genuine amusement. "I'm glad to see that your time in the Holy Land didn't sap your spirit."

Turning away, he caught the expression of sullen anger on Isabella's face. "Now, now, Isabella, don't let your temper get the better of you. I know you would like to do your brother an ill turn, but Marian is more valuable to us alive than dead. When she was supposed dead, Prince John confiscated her estate. Now that she is alive, the crown will have to make reparation to her-as long as Richard remains alive, that is."

He gazed at Marian thoughtfully. "The lands and holdings of her father will now revert back to her, providing her with some degree of wealth which we can barter off to some deserving knight. And Prince John will want to keep her close to his side-no more plotting against him, eh? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?"

He met Marian's bland gaze, shrewdly cataloguing her thick hair bound in the long braid, her soft skin and luminous eyes, and the brows that gave so much character to her face. "Once our new king claps eyes on you, I have no doubt you'll be warming his bed in no time."

As Isabella hissed, Vasey swung toward her, relishing the enmity between the two women. "Oh, cheer up, Isabella, perhaps she will try to escape or attempt to harm me-then you may use that dagger upon her as you wish."