To be Worthy

Chapter IV

SUMMARY: Betrayed by his latest master and mocked by the cruel hand of destiny, Sir Guy of Gisborne returns to Nottingham twenty years after his banishment determined to reclaim the life which should have been his.

AUTHOR: Lexie aka lillianschild

RATING: PG-13/R (probably in later chapters)

FANDOM: Robin Hood

PAIRING: Guy/Marian

GENRE: Romance

Disclaimer: Tiger Aspect Productions and the BBC are free to claim whatever they own of this piece, except Guy's thoughts and my words which are ours to keep. lol.

A/N: Set in an alternate Series 1 where Guy has never met Vasey before his arrival in Nottingham, this fic will explore what impact an earlier acquaintance with Marian might have had on Guy's life and ultimate fate.

Chapter IV

Mounted on his destrier, Guy scanned the men on the opposite side of the field and made a quick assessment of the contenders as he waited patiently for the charge to begin. Stormbringer, used to the battlefield like his master, remained quiet as well; only the occasional flicking of the animal's ears revealed its urge to see action again.

Then Gisborne trained his eyes on Sir Edward, waiting for the signal to begin. Most of the knights were young and eager and Guy had learnt from experience how easy it was to fall prey to them if one hesitated even a millisecond when the lord's arm was lowered.

The Sheriff, dressed impeccably though not ostentatiously, was sitting at the side of the field. However, just like the previous night, he seemed to be absent in every way but bodily.

Guy remembered his father and how much his parents had loved each other. Roger of Gisborne would have mourned the loss of Ghislaine just as deeply as Sir Edward was mourning his wife. Unlike the Lord of Knighton, though, fate had spared the head of the Gisborne family, and the reaper had taken both husband and wife during the fire, leaving their defenceless children to cry over them.

The memory was still painful, an open wound that hadn't healed, and the feeling of guilt haunted Guy even now. He knew better than to let old baggage and sad recollections unsettle him the day of the tournament when any distraction could mean not just defeat but many a time death. It was better to think pleasant thoughts; there had been so few of those lately... until Lady Marian.

Her graceful beauty and the passionate nature he'd spied hidden behind the mask she was being forced to wear had captured his heart in the hall. She'd brought his anaesthetised senses back to life, stirred emotions in him he'd believed long dead after years of hardship and loss, making every intimate encounter in his life pale when compared to the yearning brought about by the mere sight of her unbound hair or the brush of his lips against her knuckles.

Last night had been the realisation of a dream, a folly he wouldn't dare to repeat. No matter the warm and unexpected feelings she'd awoken in him, he should have never approached her, least of all touch her, aware as he had been of her unchaperoned state. He ought not to have lingered in her company for so long, beguiled by her magnetic aura.

It was foolish to delude himself; once she learnt about his past, whatever attraction she might have felt towards him last night would be crushed. He'd considered telling her he was no stranger to Nottingham, that he'd been born and raised here, that had it not been for the cruel hand of fate and Nottingham's complicity, he'd now be sitting at the Council of Nobles and free to woo her away from Winchester's clutches. Sharing his history and his old and strained relationship with Huntingdon might have earned her sympathy, but he still had too much self-respect to welcome anybody's compassion or pity. As things stood, nothing serious could ever happen between them. Therefore, there was no point in opening up and revealing his conflictive rapport both with the King and her late betrothed, not even when he knew himself to have been the unjustly injured party both as a child and as a grown-up.