She felt his pain. That might have been the first time Marian could say she felt exactly what someone else was feeling. Perhaps it was how well she knew him, or maybe it was the connection between them. But as her words registered and their meaning flickered across his face, she felt the pain, the agony, and the shock that ran through him.
Briefly, as if to try and call up a memory long forgotten, though it still felt like it was just that day, she closed her eyes. When she looked back up at him, it was with tears in her eyes. "I tried to kill the Sheriff," she admitted softly. "I failed. He captured me...we went to the Holy Land so he could kill the King. With me as his prisoner." She still wasn't sure she understood why. What purpose did she serve to him?
She didn't mention the bit where she'd believed him dead. Where she'd offered herself and her good word to Guy in exchange for him killing the Sheriff. The ultimate betrayal had been enough and Robin would have more than enough to take in.
"You and the gang...you'd found out. I sent...a messenger to warn you." Best to leave Allan out of it as well. He'd find that out some other way, she was sure. The computer, possibly, or maybe Gisborne would tell him. "You were there as well. He left us all to die, tied up out in the desert. We escaped and stopped the initial plot to go after King Richard but..." If she let herself, she could still be there. The hot sun burning down on pale skin, the rush of the horses' feet, the sand kicking up into their faces. It was such an intense memory that she had to hold her breath for a moment. When she continued, her voice was even softer. "They followed us. The Sheriff and his men. The King was wounded. Gisborne..." Even saying his name hurt her. She'd known he'd be angry. But never enough for this. "He went to finish him off. I stood in his way."
It had been foolish, yes. She knew that. She always had known she was just a foolish, silly girl with some overdone sense of bravery. "I told him I couldn't love him. That I loved you." And her secret life living in both worlds was more open than ever. And it had unraveled him. "I didn't suffer for long. And you were there. That made it...better."
As if dying could ever be better. Even being held by the man she loved couldn't remedy the fact that she'd been cold and in pain and that she could actually feel life draining from her. But if it could offer him any comfort in what she was saying, she had to try.