[WATTYS2023 - GERMAN WINNER/Most Engaging World] ** Marian, a thieving nobleman's daughter with too big a heart, meets Robin Hood, a daring thief with a huge ego. Will they be able to overcome pain, longing, and, finally the cruel Sheriff of Notting...
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The youth was a strange time. Feelings blossomed and withered; vows made as children shattered like glass against the stark harshness of reality.
When they were children, you couldn't put a leaf between Robin and Guy, so honest, intimate, and bonded in friendship, were they. They spurred each other on, dreamed together of journeys and heroic deeds, did stupid things, and both stood up for them. For years Guy lived with Robin, far from his family in Gisborne, as squire to the Earl of Huntingdon. Then they grew older, their interests changed, and eventually, Guy had to return home. The bond of their friendship was broken thanks to time and distance, and when they met in Palestine years later, during the war in a field hospital, they had become strangers.
And then there was Marian, the young thing he was supposed to marry one day. With her unruly red hair, blue eyes that were far too big, and small nose, she had been an unparalleled nuisance to the young lad. She constantly nagged at him, squealed her pranks at the servants, and tried to attach herself to the two boys whenever possible.
"You need to spend time with her, Robin," his father had said. "A marriage needs trust, and you only build that with togetherness. Believe me; one day, you will look at her the way I look at your mother."
What a gross nonsense.
But time passed, and with each passing year, Marian became more adorable. They began to find common ground they didn't know existed. They loved archery, walks through the nearby forest, and the same stories about faraway lands.
An unfamiliar feeling spread through Robin's chest whenever he looked at her. And as always with lads of that age who didn't want to be aware of their emotions, he tried to hide them behind vicious jibes and crude jokes. Until the event when he stole her hair ribbon and hurt her. The hair ribbon he had adorned one of his bracers ever since.
For fear of ever hurting her again, Robin avoided Marian from that day on. But instead of his feelings for her dwindling as a result, they grew a little more with every look they gave each other, with every smile.
When he was in the distance, between whirring arrows and the sound of cracking bones as the vultures came in the night to feast on the fallen, Robin had only one name and one face he longed to return to: Marian.
He wanted to tell her many things, apologize a hundred times, and make many things better when he returned. He wanted to confess that it had never bothered him if she didn't ride sidesaddle or if he liked it when she wrinkled her cheeky, snub nose. That he didn't mind that she shot better with a bow.
Robin himself didn't know what to do with the feelings that raged inside him. When he left Marian, she was just becoming a woman. Too young for him to speak of love. Still, it was more than friendship. But wouldn't that have been enough? Many marriages were made with less affection. He would have treated her well, provided she had given him a chance. But it did not come to that.
