Fic: Hope for Healing - Chapter 16
Title: Hope for Healing - Chapter 16
Author: wastingyourgum
Characters/Pairings: Marian, Matilda, Little John
Mentions: Guy, Vaizey, Robin, Sarah
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama
Words: 2712
Disclaimer: BBC & TA own anything you find familiar.
Notes: I was going to split this into two chapters. Instead you get this nice big one now but nothing on Monday - deal? Thank you again to my lovely, lovely betas jagnikjen and robinfanatic.
Summary: The great escape...
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Previous Chapter
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CHAPTER 16
John was lying on his back with his arms by his sides. His large chest showed no sign of movement.
Matilda and Marian rushed over to him, praying they weren't too late...
Marian gasped as the torchlight showed her the full extent of John's injuries. The John she knew was tall and solid; a dependable presence in a large leather coat. The pale figure lying before her was stripped of nearly all his clothes, with deep bruises on his body and face. His wrists, ankles and neck were rubbed raw from manacles and ropes.
"Don't worry - it's worse than it looks," Matilda said grimly, with no trace of a smile at her 'joke'. "You should see his back." She placed the torch in a sconce on the wall beside them. "Mind his fingers."
Marian looked down and saw the hand nearest to her - that same large hand he had laid so gently on her shoulder - had its ring and little fingers broken.
Surely Guy could not be capable of such... such concentrated barbarism, such... inhumanity. She could have sworn she had seen a change in him recently. He had risked his own neck and Vaizey's wrath when the Nightwatchman had "escaped". He could have asked her for almost anything in return yet his only request had been for her to stay. He had returned to the castle when Sir Jasper and Prince John's forces were on the brink of razing it to the ground...
He had burned down her home. He had stabbed Winchester low in the gut so he would not die quickly.
But that had been so long ago now. She was sure she had been getting through to him but maybe... maybe as long as he was under Vaizey's control it did not matter what she did; it would all be in vain as long as the sheriff could simply order him to perform like the ruthless and obedient hunting dog she knew he wanted Guy to become.
Marian hesitantly reached out and stroked the back of John's hand. His skin was cold. "Is he...?"
Matilda placed her head on John's chest and listened carefully. "No - no, he's still alive," she said, with great relief.
Marian sighed thankfully as well. She stepped around the end of the table and reached underneath, pressing the two knots of rope up against the wood. The rope looped out on either side of John's head but remained stuck across his throat.
Matilda carefully worked to loosen the rope from John's neck and then pushed it back over his head. She rustled in her bag and took out a small vial which she opened and held under his nose.
For a second nothing happened then John snorted and his eyes blinked open. He took a second to focus on her face. "Maddy?" he croaked.
"Hello, John," she replied.
He looked at her almost accusingly. "Please... just let me go." It was barely a whisper but both the words and the pain contained in them were clear.
Marian was confused for a moment until she realised what John was really asking for and her heart went out to him. They were clearly not a minute too soon in reaching him.
Matilda gently stroked his face as she smiled down at him. "That's exactly what we're here to do, John. We're getting you out of here."
"What? 'We' who?" He started to lift his head but Matilda pressed lightly on his chest.
"Shh, lie easy, John. Soon have you out of this..." She started to remove the metal pins securing the bands down John's left side while Marian squeezed round behind the table to do those down his right.
Marian leaned over him as she worked to free his hand. She tried to force a smile, though she was sure there were tears in her eyes. "Hello, John."
John smiled back but his face was confused. "Lady Marian? Where's Robin?" he asked, hoarsely.
"I couldn't get a message to him, John, I'm sorry," Marian apologised. "And I'm sorry I couldn't make it here myself sooner."
"Not your fault," Matilda said, reasonably. "Besides, if you'd not been ill, I would never have got to see you in the first place."
John lifted his head and looked down at both of them as they freed his feet. "You mean... it's just you two?" he said, incredulously.
"'Fraid so, John," Matilda replied.
John's head dropped back to the table. "Too risky. You should... go back...before you're caught. Put me back."
"Don't be daft. It's much too late for that now, John," Matilda told him as she straightened up. "Now get your stubborn arse up off that table, because the one thing Marian and I can't do is carry you."
Marian came back round to the front. She and Matilda helped John slowly sit up and swing his legs round. He swayed slightly with dizziness and gripped the edge of the table as best he could.
Marian leaned forward and put her hand on his chest to steady him. She coughed and blinked her eyes as the strong smell of John's body and clothes hit her.
John lowered his head and looked embarrassed. "Sorry - must be pretty ripe," he said apologetically.
"It's fine, John." Marian smiled reassuringly at him. "I didn't expect you to smell of rose petals." She looked at the dark curls of hair pressed under her hand as John closed his eyes and breathed slowly, trying to get his balance back. She was surprised by how wiry they felt under her fingers and noticed that, like his beard, some of his chest hairs had turned white, betraying his age. I suppose Robin's will do likewise one day... She smiled at the thought just as John opened his eyes again and it was Marian's turn to blush as she quickly removed her hand and stepped back.
"Nothing a good wash won't fix, but that can wait - this can't." Matilda quickly shared out the food she had taken from the kitchen between John and Marian. "I know we're in a hurry but you both need to eat something before we move. Wouldn't be helpful to have either one of you faint on me - least of all you, John." She grabbed the water and poured the wine she'd taken into it. "Here." She soaked John's bread in it to soften it and fed it to him in small morsels.
"I'm not... a child, Maddy" he protested between mouthfuls.
"I know, you're a big strong man," she said condescendingly. "But you're a big strong man who's not eaten for three days and if I gave you this you'd eat it all in two bites which would be bad for you. Now shut up and finish the rest the same way."
Marian tried hard not to smile at John being lectured as Matilda turned to her. "That goes for you too. Eat it slowly. You're still recovering."
"Are you feeling better now?" John asked Marian.
"Well enough to deal with your guard pretty handily," Matilda interrupted before Marian could reply.
"Yes, John, I'm much better, thank you - thanks to Matilda."
"You and me both," John agreed. "Is he all right?"
"Who?" Matilda asked, frowning.
"The guard. He was just a young lad and he... he was fairly decent to me."
Matilda shook her head and gave John a puzzled look. "Oh, him - he'll be fine. He'll have a headache and a half but nothing worse... and he's learned a valuable lesson," she said, with a smirk.
John nodded, seemingly satisfied, and finished off his food.
Marian also finished eating and brushed the crumbs from the front of her dress. "We really must go. I don't know how long the cart will be left there."
"Cart? What cart?" John said, curiously.
"Wait and see," Matilda replied as she and Marian helped John to his feet.
"I'll check the coast is clear," Marian said.
Matilda nodded. "We'll be right behind you."
Marian headed up the corridor and checked the guard was still unconscious. She looked back to see John and Matilda slowly climbing the short flight of steps up from the lower area then crept up the stairs towards the door...
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"Thank you, Sarah!" Marian muttered under her breath, heartily relieved to find everything was where she expected it to be. She returned to the door leading back into the castle.
Matilda and John were standing in the shadows just inside the door - or rather, Matilda was standing and John was slumped against the wall. His breathing was laboured and he looked on the point of collapsing.
She ducked inside the doorway and motioned for them to follow her.
John caught her arm as she was about to step back outside. "Marian, please - you'll never get out of here with me in this state, " he wheezed. "Let me distract the guards and you can at least get yourself and Matilda out."
Matilda made an exasperated noise and Marian shook her head. "Absolutely not, John. We are all getting out of here. It will take all three of us for this to work."
"For what to work?" John asked.
"We're going to walk you out the front door, John," Matilda replied. She put her arm round him and gently but firmly guided him outside.
"You're what?" He looked between the two of them as if they'd suggested he flap his arms and fly out.
The door opened in the side of one of the towers, around the corner from the main entrance and by the back door to the kitchens. There was a small handcart standing there; a simple wooden platform, about six feet long and a couple of feet wide, mounted on two wheels with two supporting legs at the back. The legs were shorter than the wheels so when the cart was resting back against them, both the platform and the long crossbar out front for one or two people to pull it, were on a slight angle.
"Here - get up on this with your feet at the back," Marian told John.
John hesitated and Marian suddenly realised the cart looked not entirely dissimilar to the table they had just released him from.
"John, please - we're too exposed out here. We need to hurry."
John shook himself and they both helped him climb up onto the cart where he lay down. Marian pulled a large blanket over him then climbed up and sat beside him on top of the blanket. She dug in her cloak for one of the two small bottles Matilda had given her earlier.
"What's that?" John asked.
Now it was Marian's turn to hesitate. For an instant she considered telling John it was something that would give him some additional strength in case they had to fight or run but she knew if the tables were turned she would not appreciate being so deceived. "Do you remember when Djaq made a potion to make Robin appear dead? So Carter could deliver him to the sheriff for the reward?"
John nodded. "This is the same?" he asked.
"Yes."
He eyed it warily. "Did Djaq make this?"
"No, Matilda did. I told her the recipe."
"Which Djaq taught you?"
"Yes."
"If something goes wrong I'll not know anything about it, will I? And I won't be able to help."
"No, John, you won't - but I promise this is our best chance at getting out of here. Trust me, please."
John held her gaze briefly then opened his mouth.
Marian poured a few drops in and put the stopper back in the bottle.
John made a face at the taste of the potion. He took a few breaths then his eyebrows knitted together and he frowned at Marian. "It didn't take this long with Robin, did it? Are you sure you got it.. got it..." His eyes glazed over and then started to close.
"I'm sure, John - there's just a little more of you than Robin." Marian gently smoothed the hair away from his face as his eyes shut.
"How long 'til he's dead?" Matilda asked in an urgent whisper from the front of the cart.
"It should be very quick once he's unconscious." Marian leaned over and placed her cheek next to John's mouth. There was no sign of breathing. She shuffled down the cart, put her head to his chest and listened for a heart beat but could hear nothing. "That's him gone already." Marian slid off the side of the cart and pulled the blanket up over John's head to cover him.
"Not for good we hope," Matilda said grimly. "Although it's the one that wakes him up again I really hope you remembered correctly. Right - give me a push off then you start crying and I'll start pulling!" Matilda yanked down on the cart's crossbar then leaned against it.
Marian moved round to the back of the cart where John's large feet stuck out from the bottom of the blanket, over the edge of the platform. She gave the cart a firm shove to help Matilda get it moving then walked alongside it, crying quietly but audibly and wiping her eyes with her headscarf.
They headed round the corner then across the courtyard towards the portcullis. The guards at the gate stepped in front of them as they approached, eyeing the cart suspiciously. "What you got 'ere then?" the taller of the two guards asked.
"I've got what used to be a good man and a decent husband till that bloody sheriff got his claws into him," Matilda replied venomously.
Marian sobbed a little louder, hoping Matilda would take the hint to be less confrontational.
The guard threw back the blanket covering the body and held his torch up to John's face. He grimaced at the state of the corpse then frowned as he took a closer look. "Here... I'n't that the outlaw we killed the other day? 'e looks pretty fresh..." He looked up curiously at Marian.
Marian wailed piteously into her scarf, holding her hands over her face.
"No, it's the outlaw the sheriff pretended to kill the other day and then tortured to death later," Matilda replied bitterly. "They wouldn't let us claim the body till today and now we know why - he only died this afternoon. The sheriff said me and his niece here could claim him as long as we took him away quietly in the middle of the night - so are you going to let us do that?"
The guard frowned. "I don't know anything about that." He turned to his comrade. "Did you know this? I thought Sir Guy cut 'is throat?"
The other guard shrugged. "No... but it wouldn't be the first time we were the last ones to hear about sumfin'."
"That's true."
"You better check 'im just the same," the second guard suggested.
Marian and Matilda exchanged worried glances as the first guard put his head near John's mouth then against John's chest.
"Naah - e's defn'ly dead all right," the first guard confirmed. He stepped back but still looked reluctant to let them pass.
"Look," Matilda reasoned with him. "We'd hardly be trying to steal a dead, naked outlaw in the middle of the night, would we? And if we were, we wouldn't be walking him out the front gate. How do you think we got him on the cart in the first place? Carried him? The dungeon guards helped bring him up and then they buggered back off downstairs." She softened her tone somewhat and gave the guard a surprisingly pathetic look. "Please - let us take him back to his family. We've missed him these years he's been outlawed - let us have him now."
Marian held her breath as the guards looked coldly at Matilda. Perhaps that last sentiment had been a bit too much.
The guard relented. "Yeah, s'pose so," he said sheepishly. "Can't see the 'arm... Get on with you then." He stepped back as Matilda strained against the crossbar again. Marian tugged the cover back over John's face, still sobbing and sniffling and wiping her face with her headscarf.
As they crossed under the portcullis and out into Nottingham, Marian's eyes met Matilda's.
Matilda gave her a surreptitious wink.
Marian was glad the scarf hid the smile she could not keep from her face.
Only one more gate to go and then... the forest - and freedom...
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Next Chapter
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Author: wastingyourgum
Characters/Pairings: Marian, Matilda, Little John
Mentions: Guy, Vaizey, Robin, Sarah
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama
Words: 2712
Disclaimer: BBC & TA own anything you find familiar.
Notes: I was going to split this into two chapters. Instead you get this nice big one now but nothing on Monday - deal? Thank you again to my lovely, lovely betas jagnikjen and robinfanatic.
Summary: The great escape...
>>>------------------------------>
Previous Chapter
>>>------------------------------>
CHAPTER 16
John was lying on his back with his arms by his sides. His large chest showed no sign of movement.
Matilda and Marian rushed over to him, praying they weren't too late...
Marian gasped as the torchlight showed her the full extent of John's injuries. The John she knew was tall and solid; a dependable presence in a large leather coat. The pale figure lying before her was stripped of nearly all his clothes, with deep bruises on his body and face. His wrists, ankles and neck were rubbed raw from manacles and ropes.
"Don't worry - it's worse than it looks," Matilda said grimly, with no trace of a smile at her 'joke'. "You should see his back." She placed the torch in a sconce on the wall beside them. "Mind his fingers."
Marian looked down and saw the hand nearest to her - that same large hand he had laid so gently on her shoulder - had its ring and little fingers broken.
Surely Guy could not be capable of such... such concentrated barbarism, such... inhumanity. She could have sworn she had seen a change in him recently. He had risked his own neck and Vaizey's wrath when the Nightwatchman had "escaped". He could have asked her for almost anything in return yet his only request had been for her to stay. He had returned to the castle when Sir Jasper and Prince John's forces were on the brink of razing it to the ground...
He had burned down her home. He had stabbed Winchester low in the gut so he would not die quickly.
But that had been so long ago now. She was sure she had been getting through to him but maybe... maybe as long as he was under Vaizey's control it did not matter what she did; it would all be in vain as long as the sheriff could simply order him to perform like the ruthless and obedient hunting dog she knew he wanted Guy to become.
Marian hesitantly reached out and stroked the back of John's hand. His skin was cold. "Is he...?"
Matilda placed her head on John's chest and listened carefully. "No - no, he's still alive," she said, with great relief.
Marian sighed thankfully as well. She stepped around the end of the table and reached underneath, pressing the two knots of rope up against the wood. The rope looped out on either side of John's head but remained stuck across his throat.
Matilda carefully worked to loosen the rope from John's neck and then pushed it back over his head. She rustled in her bag and took out a small vial which she opened and held under his nose.
For a second nothing happened then John snorted and his eyes blinked open. He took a second to focus on her face. "Maddy?" he croaked.
"Hello, John," she replied.
He looked at her almost accusingly. "Please... just let me go." It was barely a whisper but both the words and the pain contained in them were clear.
Marian was confused for a moment until she realised what John was really asking for and her heart went out to him. They were clearly not a minute too soon in reaching him.
Matilda gently stroked his face as she smiled down at him. "That's exactly what we're here to do, John. We're getting you out of here."
"What? 'We' who?" He started to lift his head but Matilda pressed lightly on his chest.
"Shh, lie easy, John. Soon have you out of this..." She started to remove the metal pins securing the bands down John's left side while Marian squeezed round behind the table to do those down his right.
Marian leaned over him as she worked to free his hand. She tried to force a smile, though she was sure there were tears in her eyes. "Hello, John."
John smiled back but his face was confused. "Lady Marian? Where's Robin?" he asked, hoarsely.
"I couldn't get a message to him, John, I'm sorry," Marian apologised. "And I'm sorry I couldn't make it here myself sooner."
"Not your fault," Matilda said, reasonably. "Besides, if you'd not been ill, I would never have got to see you in the first place."
John lifted his head and looked down at both of them as they freed his feet. "You mean... it's just you two?" he said, incredulously.
"'Fraid so, John," Matilda replied.
John's head dropped back to the table. "Too risky. You should... go back...before you're caught. Put me back."
"Don't be daft. It's much too late for that now, John," Matilda told him as she straightened up. "Now get your stubborn arse up off that table, because the one thing Marian and I can't do is carry you."
Marian came back round to the front. She and Matilda helped John slowly sit up and swing his legs round. He swayed slightly with dizziness and gripped the edge of the table as best he could.
Marian leaned forward and put her hand on his chest to steady him. She coughed and blinked her eyes as the strong smell of John's body and clothes hit her.
John lowered his head and looked embarrassed. "Sorry - must be pretty ripe," he said apologetically.
"It's fine, John." Marian smiled reassuringly at him. "I didn't expect you to smell of rose petals." She looked at the dark curls of hair pressed under her hand as John closed his eyes and breathed slowly, trying to get his balance back. She was surprised by how wiry they felt under her fingers and noticed that, like his beard, some of his chest hairs had turned white, betraying his age. I suppose Robin's will do likewise one day... She smiled at the thought just as John opened his eyes again and it was Marian's turn to blush as she quickly removed her hand and stepped back.
"Nothing a good wash won't fix, but that can wait - this can't." Matilda quickly shared out the food she had taken from the kitchen between John and Marian. "I know we're in a hurry but you both need to eat something before we move. Wouldn't be helpful to have either one of you faint on me - least of all you, John." She grabbed the water and poured the wine she'd taken into it. "Here." She soaked John's bread in it to soften it and fed it to him in small morsels.
"I'm not... a child, Maddy" he protested between mouthfuls.
"I know, you're a big strong man," she said condescendingly. "But you're a big strong man who's not eaten for three days and if I gave you this you'd eat it all in two bites which would be bad for you. Now shut up and finish the rest the same way."
Marian tried hard not to smile at John being lectured as Matilda turned to her. "That goes for you too. Eat it slowly. You're still recovering."
"Are you feeling better now?" John asked Marian.
"Well enough to deal with your guard pretty handily," Matilda interrupted before Marian could reply.
"Yes, John, I'm much better, thank you - thanks to Matilda."
"You and me both," John agreed. "Is he all right?"
"Who?" Matilda asked, frowning.
"The guard. He was just a young lad and he... he was fairly decent to me."
Matilda shook her head and gave John a puzzled look. "Oh, him - he'll be fine. He'll have a headache and a half but nothing worse... and he's learned a valuable lesson," she said, with a smirk.
John nodded, seemingly satisfied, and finished off his food.
Marian also finished eating and brushed the crumbs from the front of her dress. "We really must go. I don't know how long the cart will be left there."
"Cart? What cart?" John said, curiously.
"Wait and see," Matilda replied as she and Marian helped John to his feet.
"I'll check the coast is clear," Marian said.
Matilda nodded. "We'll be right behind you."
Marian headed up the corridor and checked the guard was still unconscious. She looked back to see John and Matilda slowly climbing the short flight of steps up from the lower area then crept up the stairs towards the door...
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"Thank you, Sarah!" Marian muttered under her breath, heartily relieved to find everything was where she expected it to be. She returned to the door leading back into the castle.
Matilda and John were standing in the shadows just inside the door - or rather, Matilda was standing and John was slumped against the wall. His breathing was laboured and he looked on the point of collapsing.
She ducked inside the doorway and motioned for them to follow her.
John caught her arm as she was about to step back outside. "Marian, please - you'll never get out of here with me in this state, " he wheezed. "Let me distract the guards and you can at least get yourself and Matilda out."
Matilda made an exasperated noise and Marian shook her head. "Absolutely not, John. We are all getting out of here. It will take all three of us for this to work."
"For what to work?" John asked.
"We're going to walk you out the front door, John," Matilda replied. She put her arm round him and gently but firmly guided him outside.
"You're what?" He looked between the two of them as if they'd suggested he flap his arms and fly out.
The door opened in the side of one of the towers, around the corner from the main entrance and by the back door to the kitchens. There was a small handcart standing there; a simple wooden platform, about six feet long and a couple of feet wide, mounted on two wheels with two supporting legs at the back. The legs were shorter than the wheels so when the cart was resting back against them, both the platform and the long crossbar out front for one or two people to pull it, were on a slight angle.
"Here - get up on this with your feet at the back," Marian told John.
John hesitated and Marian suddenly realised the cart looked not entirely dissimilar to the table they had just released him from.
"John, please - we're too exposed out here. We need to hurry."
John shook himself and they both helped him climb up onto the cart where he lay down. Marian pulled a large blanket over him then climbed up and sat beside him on top of the blanket. She dug in her cloak for one of the two small bottles Matilda had given her earlier.
"What's that?" John asked.
Now it was Marian's turn to hesitate. For an instant she considered telling John it was something that would give him some additional strength in case they had to fight or run but she knew if the tables were turned she would not appreciate being so deceived. "Do you remember when Djaq made a potion to make Robin appear dead? So Carter could deliver him to the sheriff for the reward?"
John nodded. "This is the same?" he asked.
"Yes."
He eyed it warily. "Did Djaq make this?"
"No, Matilda did. I told her the recipe."
"Which Djaq taught you?"
"Yes."
"If something goes wrong I'll not know anything about it, will I? And I won't be able to help."
"No, John, you won't - but I promise this is our best chance at getting out of here. Trust me, please."
John held her gaze briefly then opened his mouth.
Marian poured a few drops in and put the stopper back in the bottle.
John made a face at the taste of the potion. He took a few breaths then his eyebrows knitted together and he frowned at Marian. "It didn't take this long with Robin, did it? Are you sure you got it.. got it..." His eyes glazed over and then started to close.
"I'm sure, John - there's just a little more of you than Robin." Marian gently smoothed the hair away from his face as his eyes shut.
"How long 'til he's dead?" Matilda asked in an urgent whisper from the front of the cart.
"It should be very quick once he's unconscious." Marian leaned over and placed her cheek next to John's mouth. There was no sign of breathing. She shuffled down the cart, put her head to his chest and listened for a heart beat but could hear nothing. "That's him gone already." Marian slid off the side of the cart and pulled the blanket up over John's head to cover him.
"Not for good we hope," Matilda said grimly. "Although it's the one that wakes him up again I really hope you remembered correctly. Right - give me a push off then you start crying and I'll start pulling!" Matilda yanked down on the cart's crossbar then leaned against it.
Marian moved round to the back of the cart where John's large feet stuck out from the bottom of the blanket, over the edge of the platform. She gave the cart a firm shove to help Matilda get it moving then walked alongside it, crying quietly but audibly and wiping her eyes with her headscarf.
They headed round the corner then across the courtyard towards the portcullis. The guards at the gate stepped in front of them as they approached, eyeing the cart suspiciously. "What you got 'ere then?" the taller of the two guards asked.
"I've got what used to be a good man and a decent husband till that bloody sheriff got his claws into him," Matilda replied venomously.
Marian sobbed a little louder, hoping Matilda would take the hint to be less confrontational.
The guard threw back the blanket covering the body and held his torch up to John's face. He grimaced at the state of the corpse then frowned as he took a closer look. "Here... I'n't that the outlaw we killed the other day? 'e looks pretty fresh..." He looked up curiously at Marian.
Marian wailed piteously into her scarf, holding her hands over her face.
"No, it's the outlaw the sheriff pretended to kill the other day and then tortured to death later," Matilda replied bitterly. "They wouldn't let us claim the body till today and now we know why - he only died this afternoon. The sheriff said me and his niece here could claim him as long as we took him away quietly in the middle of the night - so are you going to let us do that?"
The guard frowned. "I don't know anything about that." He turned to his comrade. "Did you know this? I thought Sir Guy cut 'is throat?"
The other guard shrugged. "No... but it wouldn't be the first time we were the last ones to hear about sumfin'."
"That's true."
"You better check 'im just the same," the second guard suggested.
Marian and Matilda exchanged worried glances as the first guard put his head near John's mouth then against John's chest.
"Naah - e's defn'ly dead all right," the first guard confirmed. He stepped back but still looked reluctant to let them pass.
"Look," Matilda reasoned with him. "We'd hardly be trying to steal a dead, naked outlaw in the middle of the night, would we? And if we were, we wouldn't be walking him out the front gate. How do you think we got him on the cart in the first place? Carried him? The dungeon guards helped bring him up and then they buggered back off downstairs." She softened her tone somewhat and gave the guard a surprisingly pathetic look. "Please - let us take him back to his family. We've missed him these years he's been outlawed - let us have him now."
Marian held her breath as the guards looked coldly at Matilda. Perhaps that last sentiment had been a bit too much.
The guard relented. "Yeah, s'pose so," he said sheepishly. "Can't see the 'arm... Get on with you then." He stepped back as Matilda strained against the crossbar again. Marian tugged the cover back over John's face, still sobbing and sniffling and wiping her face with her headscarf.
As they crossed under the portcullis and out into Nottingham, Marian's eyes met Matilda's.
Matilda gave her a surreptitious wink.
Marian was glad the scarf hid the smile she could not keep from her face.
Only one more gate to go and then... the forest - and freedom...
>>>------------------------------>
Next Chapter
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