“How pretty?” Elena, next to him, gasped and smacked him.

Marion gave them no heed, and kept surveying the room until she saw him. She had actively refused to believe it until this moment—her mind had closed itself off to what it meant for him to be here.

“Of all things. Robin.”

Robin of Locksley, a little older and amusingly thicker, squinted back at her. “Marion?” They had evidently not told him she was coming. He likely didn’t even know about her involvement with this place.

“I didn’t believe it when I heard, but here you are.”

“Here I am,” he said absently, and did not move to greet her. There was a beaten quality about him. She could tell he was still in the midst of dealing with what had happened here.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, feeling the utter inadequacy of those words.

Robin nodded, but he didn’t thank her, and he had not said hello. Some silent bond between them made greetings and farewells unimportant. However, she did not care for the way he asked, “What are you doing here?” As if she had no right to be here, as if she had not nearly called it home as well.

“Well, it’s nice to see you, too,” she said.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“What are you doing here?” she asked back, aiming for sarcasm. “I hadn’t heard the war was over. Did we win?”

“He’s a deserter,” Will Scarlet moaned lazily, lying down again by the fire.

“I’m not a deserter—”

“He’s a deserter,” Scarlet drowned out Robin’s protest, “and our prisoner. What do you suppose we could get for him?”

“Wait,” Alan startled, “he’s our prisoner? I thought it was the other way around?”

Scarlet blinked with his entire face. “Are you serious?”

“That’s what you told me.”

“Alan. There are … six of us. There’s one of him.”

“Right.”

“We have the weapons.”

Alan laughed. “No, I know we’re not actually his prisoners…”

“Do you?”

“Go on, I knew that.”

“God’s balls, you’re—”

“Boys!” shouted John Little, ever the father. Only now did Marion take stock of the rest of the room, finding Arthur a Bland also hiding at its edges, and Tuck kneeling by the fire. It was a bitter homecoming for them all.

“I promised you all whatever help I could offer,” Robin addressed them, “but it would seem that’s not much. There’s a cave against the rocks out past the south wall. Doesn’t look like much, but it opens up. We used to store rations there. Hard to see if you’re not looking for it, so it may have survived the raiding.”

Elena rolled forward into a stand. “We’ll have a look.” She snapped her hand out and plucked Scarlet’s ear, tugging him like a child. “Let’s go, pretty lady.”