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Episode 1x07 "Brothers in Arms" Part II
May. 25th, 2007 09:51 pmGuy had important business to attend to back in Locksley, but that was all soon forgotten when something glinting in the pale sunlight caught his eye. It looked like the girl who had asked for his blessing on her marriage and she seemed far more cheerful than one who had had a prized heirloom taken in payment. The guards fetched her over to satisfy his curiosity and to try and quell the inklings of dark suspicion that he found stirring in his heart.
Yes, she was the bride-to-be that he had met earlier and now that she was closer, he had a better idea of what had caught his attention. When she lowered her collar at his command, he was still astonished to see the necklace he had given to Marian hanging against her skin, though he almost convinced himself while waiting for her that she must have been wearing some other trinket. And when he asks her, in a low voice, where she got the necklace, her response that it was from her mother does little to answer his questions. Reminding her that he had taken it from her, he asks how she got it back as his gloved fingers clasp the cool metal still fastened around her neck. Guy barely sees the worry and panic in the girl's eyes when she admits that Robin Hood gave it to her - he is too consumed with the painful tightness in his chest that comes with the realisation of what must have happened. Fury and anger add to the hurt, when he tears the silver necklace from the girl, and near disbelief mingles with bewilderment in his thought as that idiot Lucky George offers him a ha'penny for it. Coolly, he tells George to keep it, it means nothing to him. Nothing when the woman that he desires, that he has courted in the proper way, that he had thought would one day be his wife and that he, in his way, was growing to love, could stab him in the back so cruelly. How could the woman who had seemed to show at least a small measure of affection for him in his clumsy attempts to please her, betray him so easily?
--
In Nottingham Castle, he tells Sheriff Vasey that he has been betrayed, though he can tell that his master isn't taking him very seriously.
"Again? You're making a habit of it, aren't you?"
The mocking smirk makes it all the more difficult for Guy to express his grave mistake.
"Not again. I was wrong, my sergeant died an innocent man." He is brief, hoping that by admitting his mistake quickly, it can be more easily forgotten about or at least, the guilt at punishing his sergeant so would be easier to deal with. With some difficulty, he revealed that it was Marian who has betrayed them and that he has proof of her deceit.
The fact that the Sheriff is not surprised, as he was - that it is, apparently, always the girl and that women are lepers - does little to ease Guy's hurt and the dull ache that fills his senses. And the Sheriff, ever vigilant, seems to seize on his pain but not to comfort him. No, he exposes a crime that Guy had not yet considered.
"Aw, you're really hurt. Hmm? Can you feel the hot metal of the knife twisting in your back? All the times she was smiling at you, but really she was laughing at you. Betraying you. Despising you. Humiliating you."
He pauses briefly, while this new revelation, that Marian would have been laughing at him, sinks in, igniting a burning, all-consuming fury in Guy's heart.
"What do you want to do to her now?" Guy can think of many terrible things. "Go and enjoy it."
The Sheriff is like the devil, tempting him and Guy leaves, swiftly, before he can reveal any more terrible deeds on Marian's part.
--
Marian was not at her home when Guy arrived, consumed with rage, which the ride had done little to abate. Her father had been hospitable and offered him some food, which he took to help pass the time - any hunger he felt having been overshadowed by the terrible gnawing of treachery at his soul. The idle buzzing of small-talk on Edward's part ends when the old man can no longer avoid the question that burns his tongue and asks Guy what he wants. But Guy will not ease his worry, for surely he is worried for his daughter - what other reason does Guy have to ever visit this house? And another wavering question tumbles from Edward's mouth, trying to find out where his beloved daughter is.
"Good question." The wait is tiring, dowsing the explosive flames of his anger somewhat but leaving the bitter slow burn of betrayal still smouldering in his heart and does nothing to quiet the turning of thoughts of humiliation, betrayal and deception in his mind.
"If you've hurt her, ...if... if you've done anything to her..."
"You'll what?"
Guy would laugh if this matter wasn't so serious. The idea that Edward could even dare to threaten him was a joke and an empty threat that was interrupted by the door flinging open and Marian almost falling into the room in her haste.
"Speak of the devil."
"Sir Guy, we were not expecting you."
"I know. Sorry. I just popped in for a little chat."
Marian's sudden appearance, though expected, ties his tongue and the damning condemnations he had been formulating in the time since he spoke to the Sheriff twist and tangle in his mouth. Abandoning them, he asks her a question that has little bearing and yet everything to do with the accusations against her that he has to make.
"Where have you been?"
She mentions something about a hanging and then offers him a drink as if nothing is wrong. As if nothing is wrong when she must know full well why he is here! What can she be thinking? That he doesn't know? That if she pretends to him that she has not done anything to hurt him it will all go away? And daring to ask "What necklace?" when he asks to see it?
The simmering anger turns into a cold rage that threatens to boil over with barely contained passion and when Edward tries to intervene to spare his daughter, Guy barely notices that he has struck the old man so hard that he falls.
"Show me your necklace." Steady. Demanding. Still contained.
"You would have me prove my innocence?" What right has she to feign outrage?
"Show me the necklace." It is a reasonable request.
"Have I committed a crime?" She is trying to delay him, stalling while she can think of some brilliant reason for stabbing him in the back and tearing out his heart.
"Show me the necklace." His teeth are so tightly pressed together that they might shatter.
"I will not. This is the end of our friendship." As if a friend could be so treacherous? "How can I be friends with somebody who demands proof of my innocence without stating my crime?"
As if she didn't already know!
"You betrayed me to Robin Hood. You gave him the necklace." A litany of sins. "You told him of my plan and now you will pay the price."
That Marian cannot be honest with him, even now, stirs his anger once more.
"You have no proof."
"You have no necklace."
A silent beat hangs between them and then she makes hurried claims that it is upstairs in her room, that she will fetch it for him when he asserts that it isn't, with the knowledge that a conman keeps it in his pocket, and tells her not to waste his time.
He will be fair though, and stands aside to let her upstairs when she pleads to prove herself to him.
--
Partly impatient, but mostly resigned to Marian's newly revealed role as Judas, Guy follows her upstairs, after a time, to find his once-beloved flinging possessions about the room - not hearing his footsteps as heavy as the dull empty weight in his stomach.
"You make it look like a robbery." She spins to face him, caught in the act, feigning innocence with bloody hands. "Oh my. Robin Hood's broken in. Stolen the necklace!"
He is tired of this. Weary.
"I thought we were friends."
"So did I."
"The only reason you paid me any attention, was to feed information to my enemy."
More denial. More protestations of innocence.
"Why persist with lies? You're dead now anyway. Do you still not have the courage to tell me the truth?"
That is, of course, what hurts the most. Not that she was giving away his plans to Robin, but that she would lie to him about it and would still lie to cover her deeds when he had trusted her so wholeheartedly, not suspecting that giving orders to his men in her presence would endanger them.
"The truth is this country is being choked to death." A speech to buy more time, no doubt. He settles against the dresser, half hearing her words, but not really listening. "The truth is honest people are being forced to lie and cheat and steal and if you really want to know the truth, you should know that I..."
The break in the soft drone of her voice brings him back to the room, paying attention once more.
Quietly he asks, "What?" to find out why she has stopped and then he looks up to see her turn round to reveal the necklace in her hand. Guy almost can't comprehend what he is seeing, even as he knows what the glint of silver against her fair palm means. His mind races to the girl wearing the necklace in Locksley, to her admission that Robin had given it to her, to George taking it from his own hand.
It cannot be the same necklace, but getting up to draw closer to Marian, he can see that it is. Looking up at Marian and then back to the necklace, transfixed. "It is not possible." She shoves it into his gloved hand, offering him tangible proof of its being there. He looks down at it confused and almost does not hear her saying that he owes her an apology.
"Sorry." He is miles away, thoughts racing round and round inside his head. Trying to think how he could have seen the necklace on the other girl and now it was here and he is wrong. How he had doubted Marian.
How the Sheriff knows of her supposed betrayal.
Oh God. What has he done?
Alarm and worried panic course through his thoughts, now void of the other girl and the necklace.
"Marian, I told the Sheriff that you betrayed us." Oh God.
"Tell him you were mistaken." She speaks so easily, as if that would be enough?
"He is expecting news of your arrest." Oh Holy Mother.
"Show him the necklace." She doesn't understand the danger she is in, does she? What pit he has trapped her in?
"No necklace will persuade the Sheriff." Oh Blessed Child Saviour.
"How could he trust you after this? I... I cannot protect you." He has failed her. But she is right, he must protect her. But how? "You have already defied the Sheriff once. Suspicion will cling to you and your father." Her father! The one person she treasures most! "You must prove your loyalty, beyond all doubt."
And as she asks how, one bright shining solution leaps out to him. One desperate, grasping idea that could save Marian.
"Marry me."
This will surely save her and saving her is the paramount instinct driving him as he proposes. No thought of status or respect. The preservation of her life is the one motive that fuels what should have been, what he had always dreamt would be a romantic moment, brought on by a suitable period of courting and not the hurried flailing to save her from harm.
"It is the only way. As Lady Gisbourne, I could protect you. What do you say?"
She hesitates. She wants time to think? Doesn't she realise the urgency?
"I am loyal, but..."
"But what? ...I know you were betrothed to Robin Hood."
She may have been a girl then, but maybe she still has some feeling for him? Her hesitation surely means this is true, but she claims to despise him! That she could never marry him and to Guy, this is the greatest news in the world. She does not love Robin! There is some chance for him, maybe one day, to have a place in her heart!
"So what about me? Will you marry me?" Each of those four last words spoken carefully and deliberately. It would mean nothing for her to despise Robin, yet there never be a hope of her marrying him. And the question is no longer driven solely by her salvation, but also out of the desperate yearning for her love.
And she says yes! That she will only marry him when the King returns is of no consequence. She will marry him! Guy does not care that he will have to wait - the promise is there, the hope is there. His desperation, his half-blind panic softens, though clearly she is not ready to show any affection towards him.
In time, though...
She reminds him that her father is downstairs, asks if they will go and tell him the good news and he remembers the harsh blow that he dealt the man to stop his interference.
"Yes. I have an apology to make." He says solemnly. It would do no good to leave this injustice between him and his future father-in-law.
Yes, she was the bride-to-be that he had met earlier and now that she was closer, he had a better idea of what had caught his attention. When she lowered her collar at his command, he was still astonished to see the necklace he had given to Marian hanging against her skin, though he almost convinced himself while waiting for her that she must have been wearing some other trinket. And when he asks her, in a low voice, where she got the necklace, her response that it was from her mother does little to answer his questions. Reminding her that he had taken it from her, he asks how she got it back as his gloved fingers clasp the cool metal still fastened around her neck. Guy barely sees the worry and panic in the girl's eyes when she admits that Robin Hood gave it to her - he is too consumed with the painful tightness in his chest that comes with the realisation of what must have happened. Fury and anger add to the hurt, when he tears the silver necklace from the girl, and near disbelief mingles with bewilderment in his thought as that idiot Lucky George offers him a ha'penny for it. Coolly, he tells George to keep it, it means nothing to him. Nothing when the woman that he desires, that he has courted in the proper way, that he had thought would one day be his wife and that he, in his way, was growing to love, could stab him in the back so cruelly. How could the woman who had seemed to show at least a small measure of affection for him in his clumsy attempts to please her, betray him so easily?
In Nottingham Castle, he tells Sheriff Vasey that he has been betrayed, though he can tell that his master isn't taking him very seriously.
"Again? You're making a habit of it, aren't you?"
The mocking smirk makes it all the more difficult for Guy to express his grave mistake.
"Not again. I was wrong, my sergeant died an innocent man." He is brief, hoping that by admitting his mistake quickly, it can be more easily forgotten about or at least, the guilt at punishing his sergeant so would be easier to deal with. With some difficulty, he revealed that it was Marian who has betrayed them and that he has proof of her deceit.
The fact that the Sheriff is not surprised, as he was - that it is, apparently, always the girl and that women are lepers - does little to ease Guy's hurt and the dull ache that fills his senses. And the Sheriff, ever vigilant, seems to seize on his pain but not to comfort him. No, he exposes a crime that Guy had not yet considered.
"Aw, you're really hurt. Hmm? Can you feel the hot metal of the knife twisting in your back? All the times she was smiling at you, but really she was laughing at you. Betraying you. Despising you. Humiliating you."
He pauses briefly, while this new revelation, that Marian would have been laughing at him, sinks in, igniting a burning, all-consuming fury in Guy's heart.
"What do you want to do to her now?" Guy can think of many terrible things. "Go and enjoy it."
The Sheriff is like the devil, tempting him and Guy leaves, swiftly, before he can reveal any more terrible deeds on Marian's part.
Marian was not at her home when Guy arrived, consumed with rage, which the ride had done little to abate. Her father had been hospitable and offered him some food, which he took to help pass the time - any hunger he felt having been overshadowed by the terrible gnawing of treachery at his soul. The idle buzzing of small-talk on Edward's part ends when the old man can no longer avoid the question that burns his tongue and asks Guy what he wants. But Guy will not ease his worry, for surely he is worried for his daughter - what other reason does Guy have to ever visit this house? And another wavering question tumbles from Edward's mouth, trying to find out where his beloved daughter is.
"Good question." The wait is tiring, dowsing the explosive flames of his anger somewhat but leaving the bitter slow burn of betrayal still smouldering in his heart and does nothing to quiet the turning of thoughts of humiliation, betrayal and deception in his mind.
"If you've hurt her, ...if... if you've done anything to her..."
"You'll what?"
Guy would laugh if this matter wasn't so serious. The idea that Edward could even dare to threaten him was a joke and an empty threat that was interrupted by the door flinging open and Marian almost falling into the room in her haste.
"Speak of the devil."
"Sir Guy, we were not expecting you."
"I know. Sorry. I just popped in for a little chat."
Marian's sudden appearance, though expected, ties his tongue and the damning condemnations he had been formulating in the time since he spoke to the Sheriff twist and tangle in his mouth. Abandoning them, he asks her a question that has little bearing and yet everything to do with the accusations against her that he has to make.
"Where have you been?"
She mentions something about a hanging and then offers him a drink as if nothing is wrong. As if nothing is wrong when she must know full well why he is here! What can she be thinking? That he doesn't know? That if she pretends to him that she has not done anything to hurt him it will all go away? And daring to ask "What necklace?" when he asks to see it?
The simmering anger turns into a cold rage that threatens to boil over with barely contained passion and when Edward tries to intervene to spare his daughter, Guy barely notices that he has struck the old man so hard that he falls.
"Show me your necklace." Steady. Demanding. Still contained.
"You would have me prove my innocence?" What right has she to feign outrage?
"Show me the necklace." It is a reasonable request.
"Have I committed a crime?" She is trying to delay him, stalling while she can think of some brilliant reason for stabbing him in the back and tearing out his heart.
"Show me the necklace." His teeth are so tightly pressed together that they might shatter.
"I will not. This is the end of our friendship." As if a friend could be so treacherous? "How can I be friends with somebody who demands proof of my innocence without stating my crime?"
As if she didn't already know!
"You betrayed me to Robin Hood. You gave him the necklace." A litany of sins. "You told him of my plan and now you will pay the price."
That Marian cannot be honest with him, even now, stirs his anger once more.
"You have no proof."
"You have no necklace."
A silent beat hangs between them and then she makes hurried claims that it is upstairs in her room, that she will fetch it for him when he asserts that it isn't, with the knowledge that a conman keeps it in his pocket, and tells her not to waste his time.
He will be fair though, and stands aside to let her upstairs when she pleads to prove herself to him.
Partly impatient, but mostly resigned to Marian's newly revealed role as Judas, Guy follows her upstairs, after a time, to find his once-beloved flinging possessions about the room - not hearing his footsteps as heavy as the dull empty weight in his stomach.
"You make it look like a robbery." She spins to face him, caught in the act, feigning innocence with bloody hands. "Oh my. Robin Hood's broken in. Stolen the necklace!"
He is tired of this. Weary.
"I thought we were friends."
"So did I."
"The only reason you paid me any attention, was to feed information to my enemy."
More denial. More protestations of innocence.
"Why persist with lies? You're dead now anyway. Do you still not have the courage to tell me the truth?"
That is, of course, what hurts the most. Not that she was giving away his plans to Robin, but that she would lie to him about it and would still lie to cover her deeds when he had trusted her so wholeheartedly, not suspecting that giving orders to his men in her presence would endanger them.
"The truth is this country is being choked to death." A speech to buy more time, no doubt. He settles against the dresser, half hearing her words, but not really listening. "The truth is honest people are being forced to lie and cheat and steal and if you really want to know the truth, you should know that I..."
The break in the soft drone of her voice brings him back to the room, paying attention once more.
Quietly he asks, "What?" to find out why she has stopped and then he looks up to see her turn round to reveal the necklace in her hand. Guy almost can't comprehend what he is seeing, even as he knows what the glint of silver against her fair palm means. His mind races to the girl wearing the necklace in Locksley, to her admission that Robin had given it to her, to George taking it from his own hand.
It cannot be the same necklace, but getting up to draw closer to Marian, he can see that it is. Looking up at Marian and then back to the necklace, transfixed. "It is not possible." She shoves it into his gloved hand, offering him tangible proof of its being there. He looks down at it confused and almost does not hear her saying that he owes her an apology.
"Sorry." He is miles away, thoughts racing round and round inside his head. Trying to think how he could have seen the necklace on the other girl and now it was here and he is wrong. How he had doubted Marian.
How the Sheriff knows of her supposed betrayal.
Oh God. What has he done?
Alarm and worried panic course through his thoughts, now void of the other girl and the necklace.
"Marian, I told the Sheriff that you betrayed us." Oh God.
"Tell him you were mistaken." She speaks so easily, as if that would be enough?
"He is expecting news of your arrest." Oh Holy Mother.
"Show him the necklace." She doesn't understand the danger she is in, does she? What pit he has trapped her in?
"No necklace will persuade the Sheriff." Oh Blessed Child Saviour.
"How could he trust you after this? I... I cannot protect you." He has failed her. But she is right, he must protect her. But how? "You have already defied the Sheriff once. Suspicion will cling to you and your father." Her father! The one person she treasures most! "You must prove your loyalty, beyond all doubt."
And as she asks how, one bright shining solution leaps out to him. One desperate, grasping idea that could save Marian.
"Marry me."
This will surely save her and saving her is the paramount instinct driving him as he proposes. No thought of status or respect. The preservation of her life is the one motive that fuels what should have been, what he had always dreamt would be a romantic moment, brought on by a suitable period of courting and not the hurried flailing to save her from harm.
"It is the only way. As Lady Gisbourne, I could protect you. What do you say?"
She hesitates. She wants time to think? Doesn't she realise the urgency?
"I am loyal, but..."
"But what? ...I know you were betrothed to Robin Hood."
She may have been a girl then, but maybe she still has some feeling for him? Her hesitation surely means this is true, but she claims to despise him! That she could never marry him and to Guy, this is the greatest news in the world. She does not love Robin! There is some chance for him, maybe one day, to have a place in her heart!
"So what about me? Will you marry me?" Each of those four last words spoken carefully and deliberately. It would mean nothing for her to despise Robin, yet there never be a hope of her marrying him. And the question is no longer driven solely by her salvation, but also out of the desperate yearning for her love.
And she says yes! That she will only marry him when the King returns is of no consequence. She will marry him! Guy does not care that he will have to wait - the promise is there, the hope is there. His desperation, his half-blind panic softens, though clearly she is not ready to show any affection towards him.
In time, though...
She reminds him that her father is downstairs, asks if they will go and tell him the good news and he remembers the harsh blow that he dealt the man to stop his interference.
"Yes. I have an apology to make." He says solemnly. It would do no good to leave this injustice between him and his future father-in-law.
