Post of the Month

~ May 2006 ~

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Rhiannon/Meg/Will ~ Written by Siiri & Annie. 

Posted on the HoS Yahoo group May 2005.

Where she sat at the central hearth in Meg's cott, Rhiannon watched on as Meg toyed with the remmants of food in her bowl.

Will had disappeared - presumably gone to see Bartholomew and perhaps to drink with him. Rhiannon cared not. Her main concern was Meg and her welfare, and she could talk to Meg a whole lot better if Will wasn't around glowering at everyone because he disliked coming with her to Sedgeley.

Rhiannon glanced around her at the small single roomed dwelling. Ellie was sound asleep on the shabby bed in the corner, and not a whimper came from her. The door had been left open to admit the sunshine of the day and also the fresh air. The small fire crackled in the central hearth, over which was hung the iron cook-pot, containing stew.

Rhiannon had taken charge once inside Meg's domain, the way a good friend would. She had swept the beaten earth floor of debris, casting out a rat along with it, fetched fresh water from the village well, scoured clean old cookpots and eating bowls that had not been scoured properly clean for days. She had looked through Meg's store of food and pulled up some vegetables from Meg's garden, and adding the pigeon meat John had brought yesterday, made the stew.

Meg had meekly let her do all this. Wearied by her eight-month pregnancy, she had sat on the bed and minded Ellie, amusing her, whilst Rhiannon had worked.

Where they sat on stools by the fire now, Rhiannon watched Meg thoughtfully. She had at least eaten most of the stew given her.

Rhiannon's gaze travelled to the large stack of chopped wood stacked against one end of the dwelling, put inside to keep dry. That was one thing she hadn't needed to see to.

"See John chopped your wood for you," Rhiannon said at last out of the silence in the cott.

Meg tried to smile. "Yes. He did that yesterday. He's been good to me."

"He's a good man," Rhiannon agreed.

Meg looked down at her bowl of food. "I haven't been very fair to him. He's brought me food...come to see if I'm all right. I don't think I've been very fair to him at all."

"I think he understands," Rhiannon said. "But you know how it is. Men...they feel uncomfortable round grief. Round a baby, even. Look at how Will has swanned off to drink with the men of Sedgeley. Doesn't mean he doesn't care...he just feel uncomfortable around women's grief and babies. Like most men."

That prompted a smile to Meg's lips briefly. "And Robert?"

"Oh, Robert's different." Rhiannon sat on her heels before the fire and stirred it up. She leaned her chin on her hand and was given to thought. "When I see Ellie in his arms...he touching his face to hers in wordless love, sitting her on his knee and playing with her, talking to her....I know my man is different," she said at last softly. "Special. I can't describe it. Maybe you know what I mean." She glanced across at Meg.

Meg nodded slowly. "When you had Ellie here, and he was present when she was born....the look on his face in the glow of the firelight that evening when he cradled her in his arms and touched her face.... I was watching him..." She heaved a sigh, pushed away her bowl of food, and shook her head slowly to myself. "I'll never get to see that same look on my Adam's face with our child," she said softly. "That hurts, Rhiannon. We've been cheated. We've all been cheated. Adam's been cheated of the joy of his child. Our child has been cheated of a father. I've been cheated of a husband..." She stared hard into the fire.

"It's only been a month," said Rhiannon. "Time DOES heal, no matter how much people scoff at that saying..."

"Had he been killed in battle fighting for someone, or had he been killed by soldiers or thieves....it'd somehow be better," said Meg. "Because I could be angry with the folk who killed him. But his death was an accident, a stupid needless accident - he didn't take enough care...and so I can't be angry with anyone over his death except him.... That's not the way to think of your husband, is it?"

Rhiannon shrugged helplessly.

Meg considered everything for a while, then stiffly rose and went across to the bed in the corner. She sat on the edge of it and leaning over the asleep Ellie, looked down at her. After a moment's hesitation, Rhiannon rose and joined her, and together the two women watched the infant sleep in the shadowed corner of the cott.

"She's so beautiful," Meg whispered, putting her index finger around the curved relaxed fingers of the asleep Ellie. "Gets fairer every time I see her. Growing up fast." She stroked the fair wispy hair; the baby did not stir. "Looks a lot like Robert."

Rhiannon smiled. "He likes to hear that. And I'm glad of her resemblance to him. It silences a lot of wagging tongues....that said maybe he was not the father of her...that said maybe I had already been with child when I entered Sherwood and I was looking for a father for my child."

"You've never had to prove anything," Meg said stoutly. "Not to me."

Rhiannon touched her arm. "I know. But Ellie's resemblance to Robert silences all those suspicious little minds."

"Marian was one, wasn't she?" said Meg. "Poor Marian - is she still lapped away in Halstead?"

"Tuck came back from visiting her there yesterday. He said she's much the same."

"Poor Marian," Meg said again. "You know, though, I never did get on too well with her. Oh...she was all right, I suppose...but remote. Sometimes I think she didn't like me and John bein' together. Just the way she looked at me sometimes - a bit down her nose. Just because I was from the village."

Rhiannon smiled. "Nor was I her social equal. And I know for a fact she didn't like Robert and I being together. Especially after Robin died." She leant over Ellie and stroked her cheek. "But you know, all that was easy enough to put up with. Because I could see she...wasn't quite right. Ill in the head, Tuck said, and he's right. I hope she heals. But I doubt it will be soon. For the moment, she's best off where she is."

"Don't know if she'll ever get over Robin," Meg said reflectively. She looked at Rhiannon. "Robin was special. Just like your Robert. Something about them... Maybe because they're Herne's Sons, chosen by him. Maybe because they care about us and what happens to us. Aye, Robin was special." She reached out and pushed a stray lock of Rhiannon's hair back from her forehead, looking at her in the dim light. "You look like your half-brother, you know. Got his eyes. It's there that I see Robin....in your eyes."

Rhiannon smiled back at her, and for a moment there was silence.

"So...." Rhiannon looked down at the sleeping Ellie, "what do you want, Meg? Boy or girl?"

"Don't mind," Meg replied, "as long as it's healthy. Long as it survives.... So many children don't...."

Rhiannon nodded in thought as she looked down at Ellie. So many mothers didn't, either, she thought. Fell to fever or bled to death. She wondered if there would be other children for she and Robert - and if there was...how many of them would she see grow to healthy adulthood? Would she survive their births, come to that?

She gave a shudder.

"What's amiss?" Meg asked, seeing the look on her face.

"It's strange," said Rhiannon, "I've sometimes thought on the possibility of myself being without Robert. Of the possibility of he being captured and killed... I've not thought about the possibility of he being left without me.... If I died in childbed or the like..." She shuddered again. "You know something, Meg? I can live better with the thought of me being left alone by Robert's death than I can live with the thought of he being left alone by mine."

Meg patted her arm consolingly. "Means you love him more than you do yourself. He's lucky, and I hope he knows it."

Rhiannon laughed. "Oh, I think he does!"

They both looked up and round as a shadow fell across the bright doorway. Will was standing there, leaning against the doorframe.

"Time's getting on, Rhiannon," he said at last, "we should make a move back to camp."

Meg rose and bustled across to the fireside. "Come and have some stew first, Will. I'll wager you've drunk ale with Bartholomew, but not eaten."

She was exactly right, Will had spent an afternoon testing Bartholomew's ale, along with some other men of the village. After a moment's initial hesitation, he gave a nod of appreciation and unprised himself from the doorway to come inside the cott. He sat on the stool before the fire and accepted the bowl heaped with stew that Meg scooped out of the cook-pot and handed him.

"Pigeon," Will said with pleasure, looking at the steaming hot stew in the bowl and savouring the aroma. "No fish." He began to shovel the food into his mouth.

Rhiannon had noticed the small rough sack he had placed beside where he sat. "You got some bread for us?"

"Yeah, asked Bartholomew an' his wife," Will grunted, enjoying the meal.

Rhiannon crossed back over to the fireside and bent to open the sack. She examined the contents. Several manchet loaves of coarse grain bread and a small cheese wrapped in nettles to keep it cool and fresh. "Should keep us going for a couple of days," she said with pleasure.

"An' this." Will unslung a full skin from his shoulder where he sat and extended it to Rhiannon. She took it, and uncorking it, found it contained ale.

"Well, I'll look after that in case you're tempted on the way back to camp," she remarked. He scowled at her, she merely grinned at him and stowed the aleskin and sack of food together at her feet.

"So, did you find out anything about these other outlaws from Bartholomew and the other men of the village?" Rhiannon asked as Will ate.

"Nuthin'," Will replied. "They don't know anythin'."

Meg had been filled in on the news of the other outlaws by Rhiannon and now she darted an anxious glance at Rhiannon and Will. "That's why you're moving away from Sedgeley, isn't it."

"Yes," Rhiannon answered, "Robert doesn't want to be too near any village at this time. If we were to be found near a village....there would be repercussions. Wickham has suffered enough because of its connections with us in the past. That's why we don't go there anymore. Anymore trouble at Wickham connected with us, I think Gisbourne or the Sherriff would have Edward's head."

"Where are you moving to?" Meg asked.

"Best you don't know," Will replied bluntly. Meg merely nodded and did not press matters. She understood.

From Meg's bed in the corner of the cott, Ellie stirred and gave a restive mutter. Rhiannon rose, and went over to her baby. Picking her up, she returned to the fireside with the infant and sat with the child on her knee. Will gave the child a wary look. She, wide-awake by now, chortled and reached out her hands to him. He ignored her and continued eating. Rhiannon and Meg exchanged an amused glance.

"Who do you think these other outlaws are?" Meg asked, leaning forwards from her seat on the stool to poke up the fire.

Rhiannon shook her head. "We've no idea. Nasir suggested summer outlaws...."

"Summer outlaws don't start boastin' they're gonna come into Sherwood an' see off Robin Hood an' his men," Will pointed out. "Cos that's what they are - summer outlaws. Takin' the advantage of the good weather to hide out in the woods away from the law an' make some money. Summer outlaws tend to stay on their own patch - where they feel safe - the place they know. Not come onto someone elses patch."

Meg looked at Rhiannon. "So it's serious, then."

"I suppose we could know more when Alan and Much get back from the villages near the Lincoln Road," said Rhiannon. "That's nearer these other outlaw's "patch"....whoever they are."

Will wiped his mouth on his sleeve with a satisfied sigh, and rose. "Good stew, Meg. Got anything that needs doin' round here that you can't manage?"

"I think John saw to it all yesterday," said Meg. "But thank you."

Will gave a nod, and his eyes surveyed the inside of the cott, coming to rest on the good supply of firewood stacked against one wall of the cott. "We should go, Rhiannon. Afternoon's wearin' on."

Rhiannon rose, securing a restive Ellie in her carry sling. The baby let out a wail. Will gritted his teeth at the noise, nodded to Meg in farewell, took up the sack of food and aleskin, and headed out of the open doorway.

"John said he'll come and see you in a few days," Rhiannon told Meg as Meg rose to face her, and she hugged the young widow.

"Take care with these outlaws," Meg said, drawing back to look Rhiannon in the face anxiously.

Rhiannon gave her a smile designed to reassure. "We'll be all right. Trust Robert. Best if we go deeper into Sherwood and disappear for a while whilst we deal with these other outlaws - if they need dealing with." She patted Meg's shoulder. "Take care of yourself."

Meg nodded, managed a smile, stroked Ellie's head, then stood and watched as Rhiannon disappeared through the open doorway after Will.