Millitimed to about a day before Episode 1x09, locked to <lj site="livejournal.com" user="landlesslo

[queenofmay]

[Once upon a time Guy of Gisborne asked Marian to show him the lands surrounding Milliways. Sometime later, betwixt time leaps, through fault of depression, tenderness, lack of sleep or perhaps the strange concoction Bar made, Marian reminded him of that request.]

Marian had spent the last hour readying her horse, grateful that Caspian wasn't around that hour, and troubled at least firstly by the empty placard next to her stall reminding her that the horse, that she still thought of as her father's, still had no name except 'beautiful'.

She'd walked the grand beautiful lummox out to the field, all set up and was waiting for Sir Guy to magically appear so that they could go riding off alone. Between the two of them, she was the only one looking spooked as the horse just continued to eat the grass at her feet. Holding the reigns she waited quietly, not fidgeting with her dress and trying to ignore how so little a pretty ring could feel like so large a weight on her finger.

And, perhaps, just a little confused from their last interaction gone well.

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[landlesslord]

"Lady Marian."

Guy smiled, glad and anxious all at once. There had been few times that he could remember when he had had the oppotunity to spend time with her on his own and certainly it was not exactly proper in their time.

"So this is your horse?" He reached a glove hand out to stroke his neck carefully and ran his eye over its features. "He is much like what I remember of my father's horse, Gazala."

[queenofmay]

The impropriety of the situation struck Marian more than once; though as a girl who walked through the forest and night lighted with merry men in her house it didn't bother her as much as it might any other in her small world.

"A very strong sounding name," Marian said, petting the large black horses nose softly watching him stroke the horse respectfully. "He and I are still getting to know each other."

While she was still trying to figure her way out of this engagement before marriage, there was the fact that if she didn't she'd be spending a grand deal of time with him alone soon. Thus, it couldn't hurt to see what being alone with him was like (even as she tried to plot how to get out of everything).

"I was thinking we would start with the far hills that way." The gestured beyond them beside the forest but not within it quite.

[landlesslord]

"A strong name for a strong horse." His eyes darkened slightly and his voice lowered. "For a once strong man."

For a few moments, Guy's mind was far away, roaming over the promises he had made to his mother when they had heard of his father's death, the promises he had made to her on her deathbed and then to thoughts of the promise he would soon make with Marian.

"It is better to name a creature once you know it's nature." He commented, turning back to the present and then turning to see where she had indicated. More cheerfully, he continued. "Then we shall start we the far hills over there."

[queenofmay]

Marian was quiet, petting the horse, while Guy mentioned his father. His family was a rare topic for him to touch on; and she could count on one hand how many times he'd mentioned them over the years.

She knew the rumors, but she knew better than most in Nottingham how rumors were seldom the matters truth.

"He is watchful, and finicky," Boosting herself up into the saddle, she settled her skirts and flicked the reigns lightly so that they started in one direction.

"Large, quiet, and yet not be directed with order or cajoling. Something still and yet present would have to be in his name."

[landlesslord]

"But it does not do well to dwell on the past."

Glad of a less painful topic to occupy his mind, he though over the horse's characteristics.

"Perhaps the name of a great river or mountain would suit him."

[queenofmay]

"That would probably be best for him."

Marian nodded, with an absent smile. It was a nice piece of advice though not the reason she smiled. That was that the day before them was sunny and bright green; with those things before her she could hardly not smile.

"After the foot hills there are larger ones. Then some plains fields and far beyond it there's a rather crystaline stream which flows."

[landlesslord]

It was only when Marian smiled that Guy realised that he had not seen her smile often, perhaps never in his company, and seeing it now gladdened him. He knew that Marian had her doubts about him, but her smile gave him hope that those might one days ease.

"When we reach the stream, we could stop for a while to rest, perhaps." And maybe talk for a while too. There was seldom any oppotunity to talk of anything but the business of Nottingham at home, objections to the orders of the Sheriff or polite smalltalk. "Though of course, you are my guide, Lady Marian and it is up to you."

[queenofmay]

"That would probably be best," she agreed, not because she was thinking of walks and resting, but of the horses who would need some watering by the time that happened.

"Lets be off then."

Marian's words were not a request, as she tapped her heels and the black horse took off faster now than he had been going. She glanced back once through the windblown curls around her to make sure he was catching up.

[landlesslord]

Marian is some way ahead before Guy reacts to her command, unused to being ordered by a woman. It does not take long for his own borrowed horse to bring him close enough for speaking.

"You ride well."

And she did ride well, though he would prefer perhaps for her to ride well towards him, rather than away from him.

[queenofmay]

Marian didn't mind offsetting him. In fact, she actually was quite glad he seemed to be catching up. It meant that in later offsets he might not be so surprised.

And there were a great many things he did not know about her.

The compliment was well received, in her amused smile. "Thank you, Sir Guy. It is one of the things I do love greatly, and something, when not in Milliways, I don't usually get to experience simply for the pleasure of the act."

[landlesslord]

While it's a rare occasion that a woman might command him, it's a rarer one that Guy says something that causes Marian to smile and as such, he is loathe to say anything more, in case it breaks that smile.

After a short pause and a few moments riding in silence, he has to say something. Or he would be a poor conversationalist. The lack of other people to say things when he had no words had not been something that he thought of before entertaining the idea of spending time with Marian on her own.

"It is not a thing that is encouraged for the young ladies of our home."

At which point Guy realises he might be appearing to disapprove of Marian's pleasures.

"Not that I would be an authority on the riding habits of women."

Perhaps it is time to change the subject.

"Have you returned to Nottingham since we last spoke?"

[queenofmay]

She didn't pause in her horses, but she did almost give him a look of consternation. It was broken off by her looking away, as she rarely gave Guy a real reaction for things, but she was looking back just as soon when he crossed his own statement, admitting to a weakness for knowledge of women to press her about home.

Her awareness settled to the ring on her finger, she felt her thumb inward to touch it, even as she shook her head.

"My door has not returned since the time period I spoke of the night you stayed in Milliways. Have you? Is there news of some kind?"

[landlesslord]

He held his breath as she turned, but breathed again when she did not dwell on the former topic.

"I have been back to Nottingham, yes." Her small movement caught his eye. "But I see that you must already know what happened there."

He did wonder, though, about the ring. "I am glad you were able to retrieve it."

[queenofmay]

Her mind filled with the possible lies she might have to tell for how it was gotten back to her....with no less than five that did not involve Much in her house followed by Robin.

"It was returned to me, though I do not know why," Marian admitted.

It was some part lie and some part truth. She didn't know why Much felt he had to give it back. It really could have lost itself and she wouldn't have cried over.

Even if her eyes did linger on her hand bout it now.

[landlesslord]

Guy's brow furrowed slightly, but unknit as he decided that he was not going to concern himself with the how.

"Still. I am glad."

He rode on quietly for a few moments, taking in the grass, the trees, the sky and the birds, before speaking again.

"It was my mother's ring. I do not think that she would be pleased to know that I had lost it."

[queenofmay]

Marian stilled first, even though her heart gave a strange muddled....well, something, and then turned in her seat, expression still surprised.

"Your mother's?"

[landlesslord]

Guy does not see Marian's surprise, nor hear it in her voice. He is far away, thinking of a time when he was still a child - though he did not think so at the time - and his mother, through no fault of her own, was leaving him. Dying.

"Yes, my mother's." He snaps back to the present and to Marian's wondering with a rueful smile. "She never took it off, all her life. My father gave it to her on their engagement, she told me. She told me..."

He was silent again.

[queenofmay]

Marian found herself ill equipt to deal with the token he'd past on suddenly, and spooked because of it. He'd forced the ring on to her hand and shown her hand to a group of people gathered....and now he was pointing out it was an article of a woman, and not even just anyone woman but his mothers, great love.

"It is.."

Far too great? Too precious? To accept? The things felt suddenly smaller and tighter on her finger. Like it might burn her. It was wrapped in mangled sweetness, and, looking at it, still simply it was there.

She fumbled with the only truth that hit her then.

"...quite beautiful."

[landlesslord]

"So was she."

Though the loss of her husband had left a part of her ever broken and the manner of her loss, a part ever twisted, a mother is forever beautiful in her son's heart.

But this was not the time to dwell on sad memories of the past, nor let the feelings they roused be exposed. Guy gathered his thoughts and stepped back a little from them. In control.

He looked at Marian and stated simply, "On her deathbed, she made me promise that I would give this token of my father's love for her to the one that I myself would marry."

Guy's eyes fell to the ring on her finger. He did not think of how he had just said in so many words that he loved Marian. He did not think of how Marian's eyes almost matched the blue-grey ones that had watched over his dreams and soothed his nightmares. Most of all, he did not think of how he was revealing the secret places of his heart, leaving them in the open, maybe to be easily wounded.

[queenofmay]

It should have been heavier on her hand with that knowledge than it had ever been hanging on the chain before she could convince herself to wear it. But it wasn't, which also confused her, and she found herself looking down at her hands, holding the reigns, at the ring while he spoke.

Guy might have missed what he said, but she did not. Her stomach feeling like it had turned sideways. He was being earnest and, with no better modifier for it, if strange, sweet.

And she was so false. Because she wasn't going to marry him and she didn't love him. Right? That was the plan?

It jangled sharply inside. She almost felt sick, but she did her best to keep her head high, as she said kindly, "I'll take kind care of it then."

[landlesslord]

Despite the kindness in Marian's voice, her response earns a quick, slightly bewildered look. "I did not think you could do otherwise."


Guy took a moment to look about him, at the trees, the grass, the sky, Marian.

"If I did not know better, I would say we were near Nottingham."

[queenofmay]

Marian did not always take kind care of things, clothing and jewelry combined in that. She was hardly kind in care to much other than her embroidery or weapons.

She was glad for his second comment, so she didn't have to expand on her own habits.

"Indeed." She said, a little joy creeping into her tone. "It is part of why, when I first arrived and was bound, I spent much time riding and walking in the forest."

[landlesslord]

Guy also was glad for his second comment and its welcoming lead away from baring his soul into the safe, familiar territory of small talk.

"It is a marvel to find nature thriving here at the end of all things." The warm glow in Marian's voice makes the beauty of the woods, grass and sky all the more infectious.

"I should not have remained inside the Bar for all the time that I was bound here."

[queenofmay]

"It's lovely there, but at times I find it stuffy," she made a movement with her hand, and turned them so they were going between two large hills rising before them now.

"The crowds and chaos sometimes get to me, compared to the silence and spaced out villages back home. Out here you can just breathe more."

That sounded silly.

And once that thought passed, she was startled to find herself investing her own personally true thoughts in Guy of Gisborne of all people. Even if he did put his mother ring on her.

[landlesslord]

"I can understand that. It seems less like a gaol out here than it does inside, when you are trapped here." Though it was hope that had kept him inside before, when he was Bound. "And it seems at times that the populations of several villages are residing there."

"It is more peaceful out here."

The idea that so many people could 'get to' Marian near-astonished Guy. She was always so composed and serene on the surface.

[queenofmay]

And the so many things that got to her guy might never know, as she appeared serene even now with a thorn under her skin partially on her ride.

"It will never be home though," Marian said softly. "This could never replace Sherwood, or Nottingham."

She added the last two words hastily, not sure she wanted him to feel the full brunt of how truly she did love the forest back home. She really owed him no roads into her heart or her loves.

"But it is a nice place to visit through," she said nodding her head, so the horses turned right after the hills parted around them.

"We're almost to the stream."

[landlesslord]

"No." He looked at her and then at the world around them thoughtfully. "The air here tastes different, the light isn't the same."

And of course, her father was not here too.


"That is it." Half-smiling, he agreed. "A place to take a break from the duties and worries of home."

[queenofmay]

Marian felt skeptical of his worries comment, though she did hazard a small glance in his direction because of it.

Guy hardly seemed so worried about the pressures at home.....he was usually the one making the pressure on a problem.

"Here we are," she said with some triumph, distracting herself for the image of Guy being more human than he let on to.

The larger hills had parted on a bank of trees which clung together, swaying in the wind, and through them, hallowed in the glint of sunshine was the burbling stream she'd been talking about.

[landlesslord]

Guy halted and sat quietly for a moment, enjoying in the view, the whisper of the wind through the trees and the rush of the water.

The weight of his cares felt even less in this place than it did when he normally found himself forced to take a break from daily life in Nottingham.

[queenofmay]

Marian did truly feel an affinity for this land, though it would never be her true heart land, but she at the moment she was staring more furtive glances at Guy staring at it than truly taking it in herself.

He seemed at ease and to truly enjoy the site before him, which made her stomach do little confusing somersaults. And it seemed the only honest thing to comment on for the moment, so she looked outward toward it; keeping her voice soft.

"I'm glad you like it."

[landlesslord]

Guy turned to look at Marian. There was always something distant about her and he wondered if that would pass with time and with marriage.

"I'm glad you brought me here."