Part Two
Chapter Five~Kidnapped!
Archer~The Artful Dodger
Traveling from place to place had been my existence for as long as I could remember. I never knew my parents, only that my mother had died in a fire and my father was, who knew where.
A family would take me in for a while, but only as a stable boy or to have me help with the farming. A man took me on as apprentice when I was 10 or 12, in his blacksmith shop. I had become quite good with forging steel. At 14, I took off to find a ship that needed a cabin boy. That’s where I learned the art of the con.
Relieving people of their money was great sport for me and I was an excellent pickpurse.
I became a traveling merchant of goods that no one else had. I would-be show some of the goods, get the money and run. Leaving without delivering the rest, I would live off that booty for a while until the next con.
At twenty years old (I think I was twenty because I didn’t know when my birthday was) I had quite an eye for beautiful, rich, unhappy married ladies and they fancied me as I was tall and strong and considered rather handsome.
My conning caught up with me back in England, having just returned from the Orient. I conned the wrong man whose cousin was the sheriff of York and who had a beautiful, but dissatisfied wife. The sheriff threw me in jail and while awaiting execution, the sheriff’s wife would have me brought to her for some fun and frolicking.
That was when I found I had, not one, but two brothers. Robin Hood of Locksley and Sir Guy of Gisborne. Thinking I had it made, I let them break me out of jail. But as it turned out, Robin had given his fortune to the poor and became an outlaw to help them and Guy was an outlaw for trying to kill Prince John. I chose not to go with them to Nottingham, but went on my own since Guy’s sister, also MY sister was sheriff there. I thought I could deal with her and make some money so I could leave England for good. But it was not to be. I ended up fighting with Robin and Guy against the injustice my sister, Isabella, and Prince John waged on the people of Nottingham and the surrounding villages.
We had been on a mission to rescue Guy’s wife, Aylaina, a little spitfire of a woman, from the clutches of Prince John. Aylaina’s instincts had been right; the prince was up to no good. He was holding his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, prisoner to try to get her to give the kingship to him in absence of his brother, King Richard. Our mission was a success and now we were taking the queen mother back to France to barter with Leopold of Austria for King Richard’s release.
Aylaina and Guy had a son, but Guy only learned of him recently because Aylaina was sent away as a young girl to marry a man from another clan in Scotland. When she returned to Locksley she told Guy about Elliot. He and I met on the road to Portsmouth, the two of us had become fast friends. We both had some resentment toward our parents for being untruthful. Elliot felt that Guy had used his mother disgracefully, because the other alternative meant that she willingly gave herself to a man she was not married to. As it turned out, she had. The same was true for me as I discovered from Robin and Guy that Robin’s father and Guy’s mother fell in love and had an affair before finding out that Guy’s father was still alive.
Traveling to Portsmouth, we stayed the night in a tavern near the port. We were ready to leave the tavern for the ship when I spotted two lovely young ladies smiling at Elliot and me from the doorway.
“Elliot,” I said, “See those two pretties over there? Let’s go talk to them.”
“Ye don’t have to ask me twice!” Elliot exclaimed. As we walked out the doorway, we spotted them walking round the corner of the building, Two large men grabbed us from behind and a third man socked us each on the jaw.
When I regained consciousness, I realised that we were on a ship. It was a Cog ship. A broad beamed merchant vessel. Not the fastest ship on the water but it had a hold large enough for two prisoners.
My hands were bound so I had to give Elliot a shove with my boot to wake him.
“Where the devil are we?” He asked as we both tried to sit up.
“We’re on a ship. Probably kidnapped to become slaves.” I replied.
Elliot said, with conviction, “I’ll nay be a slave to no man.” He tried to free himself from the rope tied around his wrists.
“The men who grabbed us were French.” I told him. “I could hear them speaking to each other before the other man knocked us out.”
“Do ye speak French?” Elliot asked.
“No,” I said, “but I’ve heard your mother and Guy speak it to each other. I recognised it right away.”
“Then they’ll be taking us where we were going anyway.” Elliot reasoned.
“Shh,” I whispered. “Someone is coming.”
A large man came down the ladder, turned and said in French, “Parlez- vous Francais?”
“No.” I replied. “English.”
“My English not good.” He stated. “”We take to France. Important person to have you. No try to escape, we kill you.”
He went back up the ladder. Elliot and I glanced at the man then at each other.
“Who could want us in France?” queried Elliot.
I could only think of one person. My lovely half-sister, Isabella. After we had captured the castle at Nottingham, Guy wanted her sent back to France. Robin was all set to have her tried for treason, but Guy insisted that he had done enough damage to her already and wanted to show mercy by having her brought back to France. Apparently, she had come up in the world, if she was the one that had us kidnapped and I was pretty sure that she was. I told Elliot as much.
“But she does not know about me.” He said. “Why take me, too.?”
“Probably just incidental, since we were together.” I answered.
“Let us try to loosen these ropes.” Elliot said, while he scooted to me.
With our backs to each other, we tried to loosen each other bindings, but that proved a difficult task. Finally, Elliot was able to tug on the knot of my rope and it gave a bit. Then I did the same for his. We didn’t want them completely off so as not to alert our captors to our plan which was nothing, yet, except to have our binds loose.
There was a commotion topside and we could hear the sound of running feet and oars splashing in the water. We felt the ship jolt and the ride got pretty bumpy. I’d been on boats and ships before and Elliot was a strong young man so neither of us got seasick. Just jostled about as the ship was rowed faster over the water.
After several hours there was a great THUD as the ship came ashore. The two men who grabbed us back at the tavern pushed us up the ladder, then off the ship and onto a wagon that immediately took off. We were banged and bashed against the sides of the wagon as the horses that pulled it ran at a full gait. Finally, we came to a stop. The two large men once again grabbed hold of us and threw us into a large room with many rugs and some fine furniture. We were pushed to our knees in front of a lady seated on an upholstered couch. Our captors stood behind us.
“Archer,” Isabella said. “Still odious as ever, I see.”
“Nice to see you, too, Sis.” I replied. She got up and slapped me across the face.
“That’s no way to treat your brother.” I said, with a smile in my voice. I wasn’t going to let her get to me.
She turned her gaze to Elliot. Lifting his chin with her fingers, he shook his head from her hold, but not before she got a good look at him.
“So, Guy has his own bastard child!” She seethed.
“What makes ye say that?” Elliot asked, defiantly.
“You look so much like him as a youth, how could I not know. He is my brother.” Isabella replied, thoughtfully.
“I suppose Aylaina is your mother?” She asked, with scorn.
Elliot said nothing and kept his face blank.
“That’s alright. You do no need to answer for I can tell that you are the right age for the time my brother was so stupidly in love with her.” Isabella’s continence was haughty. She knew she had the upper hand and was playing it to the fullest.
“Hey, Sis. When can we get something to eat? I asked, as though we were having a nice visit. “I’m famished.”
“Shut up, dog vomit!” She exclaimed. Then to our captors she said, “Take them away!”
The two men hauled us off to a room with a heavy door, threw us in and locked the door.
Elliot~My Father Was an Axe Murderer
When I was told Conor MacLaren was not my father, I was so angry. How could my mother do such a thing! All I could think was that HE, the man who was my father, must have forced himself upon her. But, nay. She had been in love with this man and they both were very young at the time. My mother told me that was why she always taught me to be in control of my emotions. Now I knew it was because she had given way to her own emotions. Conor was a good man. He reared me as his own son, never letting on that I was not. After he was killed in the clan wars, my grandmother and aunts sent my mother back to my grandfather for they knew she had been with a man before my father, and this was a shameful thing. But they continued to care for me, when I returned from the war. I think I knew Conor was not my father all along because of the whisperings in the town and there was a lady who my father, was supposed to marry, but didn’t because the families were to unite in battle and Ian MacLeod’s daughter was the way for them to achieve this.
The man who WAS my father had done much evil and I was ashamed of my mother for having anything to do with him.
My grandfather, Ian and I were coming to Locksley as my grandfather knew my mother would return there to find Guy of Gisborne, the man she loved, my real father.
We met them on the road. They were traveling with the legendary Robin Hood on a quest to return the queen mother of England back to France after she had been kidnapped by her son, John. My grandfather decided we would help them and so we journeyed with them. I was not happy about this because now my mother was married to Gisborne and I wanted nothing to do with him. I confronted him, but he was not to be goaded. He even scolded me for speaking ill of my mother, a thing I was sorry to have done. Then my mother gave me a tongue lashing so I thought it best to keep my thoughts to myself. She told me to be respectful to my elders and I always had been before so I gave in to her request.
We stayed at a tavern near the port where Grandfather’s ship was moored. That night, I decided to have a wee chat with my ‘father’. He was sitting watch as I stepped from my room. I was all set to really have it out with him, but something about his posture made me hesitate and rethink my words. I asked him how could my mother love such a man as he. His reply unbalanced my feelings. After we talked a while, I began to change my opinion of Guy of Gisborne, though I wasn’t ready to call him father just yet.
The next morning, as we were getting ready to depart, Archer, Robin and Guy’s brother whom I’d become friends with, saw some pretty young lasses making eyes at us so we ventured out to have a chat with them when we were taken captive by some foreign men and thrown on a ship headed for France.
Now we were in the parlor of Archer’s half-sister, Isabella. The thought that she was my aunt never crossed my mind until she recognised me as being Guy’s son. It seems I look a lot like he did as a young man. She had the large men take us to a room and lock us in.
Both Archer and I removed the ropes that bound us and walked around the room to find a way out.
“Look up there.” Archer said. That’s a window.”
“Nay.” I said. “It be too small.” Neither of us could get out of it.”
Moments later, there was the sound of the key in the lock. A man with a heavy accent shouted, “Get back!” before he opened the door all the way. We moved to the back of the room.
“You,” he said, “come with me.” Archer started but the man said, “No, not you.” And he pointed at me. Archer and I exchanged glances, then the man pushed me out the door, his sword pointed at me.
I was shoved into a room and seated at a table filled with food. Soon, Isabella joined me.
“Go on.” she said, gesturing with her hand, “Eat.” But I just sat there. I knew how to play chess, so I wanted her to make the first move, which she did.
“You know of all your father’s deeds?” She asked, and I decided to play along.
“Yes,” I replied, with a look of disdain.
She then said, “He sold me to a brutal man when I was thirteen! Did you know that?”
Feigning shock, I said, “I did not!” My mother told me of all the things Guy had done, but said that he was sorry for them and was trying to make amends. I was still working these things out in my head, but I was not going to let my aunt know my true feelings. I wasn’t sure of them myself.
“How does it make you feel, knowing that a man you’ve never met is your father? Hm? And one so evil that he even killed Robin Hood’s wife, Marian?”
This information was not new to me. I knew that Robin and Guy had come to a place where they could work together and perhaps Robin HAD forgiven him. However, I did not let Isabella know this.
“Shut it!” I yelled. “I hate him. He’s not my father!”
“Calm down.” she said. “Here, have some wine.” She poured some for herself and drank from the goblet. “Mm. See, have some.”
Pouring wine into my own goblet, I drank for my throat was parched. Picking up a loaf of bread, I tore it in half and began eating. I thought I might as well keep my strength up.
“I know that you were traveling with my brother and Robin Hood to bring Queen Eleanor home, but Prince John has asked me to help him get his mother back.” Isabella was using a conversational tone as she told me all she knew.
“You could help me in this endeavor, if...”
“I interrupted her by saying, “What about my mother. She is with them.”
“Yes, yes, as is your grandfather. They will not be harmed.” She replied. “I just want Guy, Robin and the queen and everyone else can go unharmed.”
“I could care less for Robin and the queen. And Guy can go to the devil for all I care.” I knew she had some scheme planned for the three of them, but I had to find out what it was and try to get the information to Archer. “How will ye get just the three of them?” I asked.
She drew closer to me. “You will lure them away from the rest of the group and I will have Prince John’s men waiting on the sidelines to capture them before anyone knows they are missing.”
Getting back to talk to Archer was not going to happen. Isabella did not want me to have any more contact with him. I think that perhaps he was to have the same fate as Robin and Guy, though I wasn’t sure. Eventually, I was locked in a different room to await the time of ‘betrayal’ that Isabella had planned.
Aylaina~Dreams and Visions
It was a beautiful sunny day and I was walking home through the forest when I sensed somebody following me. Stepping off the road, I peeked out from a hedgerow and saw Guy walking some distance behind me. “I wonder what he is up to”, I thought as I climbed up the nearest tee. ‘He has been following me every day now.’ Just at the right moment, I jumped down from the tree, landing right in front of him. ‘I must be dreaming,’ I thought, ‘I don’t know this boy,’ but it felt like I’d known him all my life. Someone far away was speaking to me.
“Aylaina.” It was my dad. He was peering intently at me, but he looked strange. I tried to raise my hand to touch his face, but found I had no strength. He took my hand and said, ‘Now, lass. Do not tax yerself. Ye need rest.”
“Where’s William and Aiden?” I asked. “And Brandon? Why aren’t they here?” If I was ill, my brothers would be here. We were very close.
“Who do you speak of, Aylaina?” My father asked, puzzled. “Ah, it must be the fever.” He was speaking to someone. “She is delirious.” He stood up and put my hand into that of a strange man’s hand. No, wait. I know him. I looked around where I lay. It was my house in Scotland! And Guy has found me!
“Guy,” I said, weakly. “Ye have found me and come to take me away?” He peered down at me with a look of pain, then turned to my father. Father tipped his head and Guy spoke
“Yes, Aylaina, I’ve come for you.” Tears started falling from my eyes and Guy lifted me from the bed and held me. Soon everything went dark.
It was so hot. I tried to push the covers off me and realised I was sitting in a classroom. The professor was writing an equation on the board. Trying hard to see what he was writing, I fell to the floor. I thought the whole class would think I was crazy or had fallen asleep, but I felt strong arms lifting me and I tried to push them away.
“Let me go!” I shouted, but someone was restraining me. I called out to the ladies standing in the room, “Help me!” They came over to me saying, “Everything is fine, Aylaina. Let Guy help you back into bed.
“Who? What’s happening?” I was confused. Then I saw Guy’s face as he lifted me to the bed. I smiled and fell back into another deep sleep.
My eyes opened and I was aware of people standing and sitting nearby. I must have slept for days! Thoughts were flooding my mind. It seemed that everything my ancestor lived through was now in my memory. I could recall ALL the events of Aylaina’s life. I could see my father, Aylaina’s father just as he was when she was growing up, but it was my memory.
I remembered the sadness of losing my mother and Aylaina’s mother. I lived each moment of her life in that feverish sleep that held me down for so long. All the childhood memories of my days spent with Guy were as real to me as my memories of my brothers and my college days. I was two people in one, our personalities joining together to make one.
Sitting up in bed, I called to the two women in the room.
“What does a girl have to do to get a drink of water around here?’
Kate ran to my bedside as Eleanor was getting the water.
“How are you feeling, Aylaina?” Kate asked, touching my forehead.
“Like I’ve been run over by a truck!” I exclaimed. Eleanor handed me the goblet filled with water. Neither seemed to hear my ‘truck’ reference.
“Drink slowly.” Eleanor said. “You’ve had a terrible fever and could eat nor drink anything for the last two days.”
Sipping the water, the taste which was familiar and awful at the same time, I said to Kate, “Please help me out of this bed. I feel the need to stand or walk or do something. My back aches from lying down too long.”
“Just try sitting, first.” Kate replied. As I began to sit up, my father walked into the cabin.
He rushed over to my side and sat down. Putting his arms around me, he exclaimed, “Oh, my wee lass! I thought ye would never come out of that fever! Are ye alright?”
“Yes, Father, I am well.” and throwing my arms about his neck I began to cry with joy. This was my father! I really knew this man as my father!
Then Father said, “Don’t try to do too much, Aylaina. I will go fetch Guy.”
I wanted to stand up, but became quite dizzy, so I remained sitting on the edge of the bed. Kate took out a hairbrush and began brushing my hair. It must have been a matted mess, for I felt my head being tugged and pulled all the while she was brushing.
As Guy approached, everyone left the room. For some reason I felt shy at the sight of him. It must’ve been my 12th century memories because that Aylaina had not seen him for twenty years. Since her memories were now mine and, I suppose mine were hers, she was trying to get used the Idea that Guy was her, my husband. Wow! This was going to take a little getting used to.
Guy sat beside me on the bed and took my hand. “The fever has passed.” He said touching my cheek. “I was concerned that you may not come out of it,” His expression was loving and tender and I believe I must have blushed because he asked if I was sure that I was feeling better.
“I am, yes.” I stammered, feeling like a school girl sitting with the boy she had a crush on and he had no clue. ‘Come on, Aylaina, this is your husband.’ I told myself. ‘don’t be so silly.’ It was as though I was having a conversation with another person. I could almost hear a voice say ‘He’s your husband!’ Shaking off this silliness, I turned to Guy and put my hand on his cheek.
“My love, I am well now.” I said, softly. Then I kissed him. He drew me close to him and all my shyness fell away. Things would be getting back to normal soon. Then I remembered where we were and why.
Pulling back from Guy, I inquired. ‘What news of the ship that Elliot and Archer are on?”
“It must have made shore by now.” Guy answered. “Do not worry, Aylaina. We are not far behind them. We will reach shore soon.”
“Help me to stand.” I ordered. “I must be fit before we reach land!”
Elliot~Schemes
I was summoned to the large parlor where Isabella awaited me.
“Their ship has arrived.” Isabella informed me. “You’ll be taken back to the port to tell Robin and Guy that Archer has been abducted.” She was right giddy at the prospect of having her brother and Robin captured, so I continued to play along.
“What do ye wish me to do?” I asked, as though I was excited.
“You must find a way to get Robin and Guy separated from the rest of your party.” She explained. “Some of my men will capture them quietly, while no one is looking. Then get the queen away from the group and she will be captured as well.”
At this point, Isabella stood with her hands on her hips and smiled a very satisfied smile.
“Prince John can have his mother,” she seethed, “but Guy and Robin will be mine to do with as I please!”
Several of Prince John’s men escorted me back to the port. Lagging aways behind, they sent me forward to set the trap for Guy and Robin. As I made my way to where my party was gathered, my grandfather ran toward me, having seen me first.
As we embraced, Grandfather cried, “Where ha’ ye been, laddy?” But I gave him no chance for more questions.
“Grandfather,” I whispered, as we held the embrace. “Guy’s and Archer’s sister has set a trap for Robin and Guy as well as the queen. I am to lure them away so that Prince John’s men can take the queen, and Isabella can capture Guy and Robin.”
“I’ll let them know.” Grandfather replied, “while ye go to yer mother. She will protect the queen. My men and John can follow Robin and Guy.”
As I headed for my mother, I saw Grandfather speaking to Robin and Guy.
Mother looked pale and somewhat weak. I wondered what happened to her, but there was no time for questions. I finished telling her of the trap just as Guy and Robin walked toward me.
“Go do what ye have to do, Elliot. They’ll know what they should do.” My mother said, anxiously.
As they approached me I saw John and my grandfather head into the woods to my left and his soldiers to my right. Aha! They were going to flank the prince’s men.
Speaking loudly, I exclaimed, “Isabella has abducted Archer,” Robin and Guy stood on either side of me as I spoke. “Come,” I said. “I will show ye where. I only managed to escape when the guards were sleeping.”
The three of us headed into the woods.