The diversions they had to take to avoid running into any of the guards or the sheriff's men who had arrived in the meantime cost them a lot of time. The route through the forest was exhausting, and more than once, Marian wondered whether Robin knew the way or whether they had lost their way.

To her, in any case, Sherwood Forest looked almost the same everywhere. Her body was still more than clearly complaining about the preceding fall and the panic-stricken chase. Robin and Marian strolled side by side, although their eyes roamed the surroundings vigilantly. But nothing but the endless green of the forest met them on their way.

A soft breeze rose, rustling a few leaves and cheekily tugging at Marian's hood. Only a few small red strands of her hair dared to peek out from under it and sometimes fall into her features. In the meantime, both had pulled down the scarves in front of their faces and were enjoying the fresh air they were thus granted in free breaths.

Marian turned her head to glance at Robin. After they had parted company with the highwaymen, Robin's mood went through various phases.

First, he had been offended in his honor and pride and could not believe that Marian believed a simple thief like Will Scarlett could take him on. He was outraged by this for about the first half hour.

Then, with chin up, followed visible arrogance. After they had moved a little distance away, he had been the first to remind Marian that, as a former heir to what was, after all, a not inconsiderable noble line, he had received an extensive education but had also fought - and survived - in the war. Marian assured him several times not to doubt his abilities at all.

"You learned to fight in the war, Robin Hood, but obviously nothing about tactics," she had finally teased him, noticing that he had not been in much of a joking mood just then. The look he gave her would have made any woman with a less fortified spine duck her head.

"You can help these people, Robin. You can train them, and you can support the rebellion with the raided supplies or the tax money. We can get them better equipment AND give something to the people of Nottingham."

Robin sighed and shook his head at these words. "Marian, as much as I hate to admit it, that imp of Will's was right: the people don't want to listen to a disgraced son of an earl."

"But only because many of the lords have mistreated them. Once you prove yourself to them and show what kind of man you really are, they will soon realize the advantage of having someone with your training under them. Of that, I am sure." Marian smiled at Robin and pulled an arrow from her quiver, waving it demonstratively. "And if Will gets too cheeky for you again later, you can just put an arrow up his arse and say you missed."

"As if Robin Hood would miss!" outraged Robin, yet unable to prevent the corner of his mouth from twitching treacherously.

"Of course, he wouldn't. The great, wonderful Robin Hood would never miss," Marian said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I could be wrong, of course, but I seem to recall that there was once a spoilt little noble scion whose shots landed in the outer ring several times in archery, and who did the worst of us?"

Robin pursed his lips in a mock-insulted expression. "I don't know what you're talking about!" he opined, then let out a laugh. After all that had happened and passed between them over the years, he hadn't expected ever to be able to talk to Marian like that again, let alone joke.

"I hate to remind the great Robin Hood, but I am the Queen of Arrows, remember?" At this, Marian wiggled her eyebrows.

"Hrmph. That was just luck then, nothing more," at this, Robin snorted less amusedly and folded his arms behind his head as he pierced the treetops with glances. "Even then, Guy was always hanging on your coat-tails."

Marian turned her gaze to Robin and raised her eyebrows. "You noticed that? Fascinating, and here I thought you only had an eye for other girls' skirts," she returned flippantly. "Guy, unlike you, wasn't all broads, wine, and nonsense."

Robin screwed up his face. Her words infuriated him in the same way that they struck him. But he had to admit she was not wrong: he had been a wealthy, spoilt nobleman's son seeking adventure. As the son of an earl, early expectations weighed down his shoulders. Even more so because his old master had cursedly high standards for his only son and heir. It may have been loving austerity, but austerity nonetheless.

"When I was young, I would have done anything to impress my father," Robin said softly, the lightness of the moment gaining noticeably in additional gravity. "I trained in everything he wanted or expected. Languages, horse riding, sword fighting, or archery. But I was just never good enough." Robin's voice sounded quiet and calm. As if the pain of many years had already sanded away all the rough edges of those memories. But anyone who held a shard in their hand knew how deeply even smooth surfaces could cut.

"It depressed me that the son of a simple knight from the north constantly outclassed me. In swordplay, in archery. Guy was always better. I even think the maids found him more dashing than me."

Robin wavered so much between moods and behaviors that he seemed to her as if he were standing on a tightrope over a black, bottomless abyss, and he was always doing what it took to keep from falling. Laughing, bickering, being angry or hurtful and cold.

"When I got engaged to you, we were both just kids. I don't think either of us knew the true implications. To me, you were this one girl I was suddenly supposed to visit all the time and who lived in my castle for months."

Robin knew he had not been an easy man; that had not changed to this day. He was torn within himself, dissatisfied with himself and his life. And what he had seen and experienced did its bit to give him a difficult character.

"You'll never be able to beat me at archery, Locksley. Talent comes to you just like a title," Guy had often teased him in the past.

"I want to try too!" twelve-year-old Marian had begged at the time, quelling the heated tempers of the two pubescent men.

"Girls don't shoot the bow," Robin had retorted, but Guy had him completely upended, "Is your fine lordship afraid that a girl might defeat him?"

Of course, they knew they would all be in trouble if anyone overheard them putting a bow in the little Lady's hand. But the boys had gotten themselves into bigger trouble without really regretting it.

"Don't be sad if you miss," Guy had said while Robin showed the young girl how to hold the bow, which was far too big for her, and how to place the arrow.

The first shoot - of course - missed by meters and drilled into the grass somewhere behind the target.

"It's normal that girls are not so good at this," Robin had said.

From then on, they occasionally let the girl shoot with the bow. Marian had talent and got better frighteningly fast. And Robin would never forget that day when the arrow whizzed towards the target with a hiss and split Guy's in two. The two young boys had stood there with open mouths, unable to believe it. Neither of them had ever seen anything like it, and they realized that a girl had trumped them.

"Don't be sad," she had said, laughing at the top of her lungs, "Talent just comes to you just like a title!"

This was the day Robin vowed to himself that he would become the best marksman the world had ever seen. Not because it bothered him that Marian was better. No. He wanted to impress her. Just as she had done.

"I think we have a winner, Locksley. My Lady, you are the only Queen of Arrows, Maid Marian." Guy had bowed so low that blades of grass tickled the tip of his nose. He took her hand and gave it a little kiss that flushed Marian's cheeks.

At that moment, Robin felt the sting of jealousy for the first time in his life.