Intercomm fic: Stained Glass
Title: Stained Glass
Author: railise
Word Count: 606
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Robin, mentions Much
Disclaimer: I claim no rights toward the show Robin Hood or the characters portrayed therein, and mean no infringement by my little tale.
Notes: For robinsociety in rh_intercomm, based this image prompt.
Robin had grown up as a churchgoing Christian. His father was not quite so strict about it, but it was important to his mother, so the menfolk went weekly with her. There was a priest in permanent residence at Locksley Chapel, who performed masses for the villagers, as well as those from nearby areas. The chapel was nothing grand, not like the one in Nottingham Castle, and certainly nowhere near the grandeur of Kirklees Abbey, but it was right there, beside the manor, and the lady of Locksley was often found there.
The priest, Father Theo, also served as Robin's tutor, and for a brief time when he was six years old, Robin thought he might join the clergy, himself.
Everything changed when his mother died. The illness had taken so long to claim her, and the only time Malcolm left her side was to go pray in the chapel. For all the hours she had spent there, as many prayers as she had offered up, surely prayers made for her there would see her suffering eased.
It worked, but not in the way he had intended. Her funeral was the last time Malcolm ever set foot in the building, as well as the last mass he ever allowed performed there, sending Father Theo away after the burial. He hired a new tutor for Robin, a secular one, and the heir to the earldom did not attend another service for over a year-- when a funerary mass was held in Malcolm's name, at Nottingham Castle.
He had never entirely reconciled the two facets of his upbringing, and while Robin considered himself Christian, it was a more circumspect form of belief than what his mother had encouraged. Not that he felt it was a bad thing, especially now, as he sat in the silent church in Hungary, staring up at the elaborate glass above the altar without really seeing it. With all that he had witnessed the last five years, all he had experienced, he was feeling less circumspect and more at sea. As he and Much were making their way home, he occasionally stopped off at churches which caught his eye, hoping he could reconnect with that part of himself, the part his mother had tried to influence.
Something unexpected was beginning to happen, however. While he still did not have that same sense of connection that had happened when he was at mass with his parents, or at prayers with Father Theo, he had another sense. A warm one, a comforting one...
One that felt very much like his mother.
As he thought of that, two figures in the window caught his eye. On the left, a boy stepping forward, a woman behind him, gently guiding him onward, her hand on his back so light that it was probable he was not even aware of it.
Robin was still gazing at them awhile later, when Much came to retrieve him for supper. Even after they left the church, after they ate, slept, and moved along-- even a week later, Robin could still see them. After a month had passed, the image in his mind had altered a bit, the red-haired boy now a brunet, the veiled woman now with burnished gold curls. But, one thing had not changed, and that was the sense that a hand hovered just behind him, at his back, guiding him forward.
Never had he needed to move on from a point in his life as badly as he did right then. Perhaps, it was just his imagination trying to assist him in that.
Perhaps, it was something more than that.
Author: railise
Word Count: 606
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Robin, mentions Much
Disclaimer: I claim no rights toward the show Robin Hood or the characters portrayed therein, and mean no infringement by my little tale.
Notes: For robinsociety in rh_intercomm, based this image prompt.
Robin had grown up as a churchgoing Christian. His father was not quite so strict about it, but it was important to his mother, so the menfolk went weekly with her. There was a priest in permanent residence at Locksley Chapel, who performed masses for the villagers, as well as those from nearby areas. The chapel was nothing grand, not like the one in Nottingham Castle, and certainly nowhere near the grandeur of Kirklees Abbey, but it was right there, beside the manor, and the lady of Locksley was often found there.
The priest, Father Theo, also served as Robin's tutor, and for a brief time when he was six years old, Robin thought he might join the clergy, himself.
Everything changed when his mother died. The illness had taken so long to claim her, and the only time Malcolm left her side was to go pray in the chapel. For all the hours she had spent there, as many prayers as she had offered up, surely prayers made for her there would see her suffering eased.
It worked, but not in the way he had intended. Her funeral was the last time Malcolm ever set foot in the building, as well as the last mass he ever allowed performed there, sending Father Theo away after the burial. He hired a new tutor for Robin, a secular one, and the heir to the earldom did not attend another service for over a year-- when a funerary mass was held in Malcolm's name, at Nottingham Castle.
He had never entirely reconciled the two facets of his upbringing, and while Robin considered himself Christian, it was a more circumspect form of belief than what his mother had encouraged. Not that he felt it was a bad thing, especially now, as he sat in the silent church in Hungary, staring up at the elaborate glass above the altar without really seeing it. With all that he had witnessed the last five years, all he had experienced, he was feeling less circumspect and more at sea. As he and Much were making their way home, he occasionally stopped off at churches which caught his eye, hoping he could reconnect with that part of himself, the part his mother had tried to influence.
Something unexpected was beginning to happen, however. While he still did not have that same sense of connection that had happened when he was at mass with his parents, or at prayers with Father Theo, he had another sense. A warm one, a comforting one...
One that felt very much like his mother.
As he thought of that, two figures in the window caught his eye. On the left, a boy stepping forward, a woman behind him, gently guiding him onward, her hand on his back so light that it was probable he was not even aware of it.
Robin was still gazing at them awhile later, when Much came to retrieve him for supper. Even after they left the church, after they ate, slept, and moved along-- even a week later, Robin could still see them. After a month had passed, the image in his mind had altered a bit, the red-haired boy now a brunet, the veiled woman now with burnished gold curls. But, one thing had not changed, and that was the sense that a hand hovered just behind him, at his back, guiding him forward.
Never had he needed to move on from a point in his life as badly as he did right then. Perhaps, it was just his imagination trying to assist him in that.
Perhaps, it was something more than that.