Much Secret Sorrow — L.J. Hutton

Robin Hood: you know the stories, you know the hero â€" or do you?
How did he elude so many sheriffs? Overcome so many adversaries? Alone ...or was there a man on the inside?
History has painted Sir Guy of Gisborne blacker than black, the enemy of a great English hero, but away from the legends, real men are rarely so easily defined. As he lies on his death-bed, an old man, Guy reveals to his confessor the secrets of his double life â€" as spy and covert enemy of the very sheriffs he served!
Guy has grown up on a typical Norman manor of the twelfth century by the Trent, far from Gisborne, alongside his cousins Allan, Baldwin and John, but fate separates them before they are barely old enough to be considered men. For Guy this means leaving Nottinghamshire far behind and travelling to the borders of Wales, where he will find a wholly different life serving the infamous sheriff, William de Braose. Thrust into the role of huntsman and a life far below his station, Guy has to adapt and learn to survive â€" skills he will come to rely on later in life!
Yet just when he believes his life is settled, a chance encounter in the forest leads changes the course of his life once more, and he finds himself in London at the summons of King Henry himself. Fearing the worst, Guy is astounded to be granted the manor of Gisborne as a reward, and equally as shocked to discover that he will now serve a very different sheriff â€" the Sheriff of Nottingham! Thrilled to be returning home to where he might once again meet his beloved cousins, Guy's life is still far from easy. As one of those charged with enforcing the dreadful new laws of the royal forest, he sees injustice and cruelty everywhere. Yet few can hope to evade King Henry's miriad of fines and charges, and when the fate of Jerusalem hangs in the balance, the weight of the extra Jerusalem Tithe and the Saladin Tithe fall heaviest on the hard-pressed folk of the royal forests, and alone Guy can do little to help.
However fate intervenes, and first amongst new friends from England, and then with men who return from the crusades, Guy finds allies â€" and amongst the crusaders someone he once knew but who is now a very changed man, Robin Hood. Together they begin to covertly help the poor folk of the royal forest around High Peak Castle, but it will be the events in York in 1190 which will seal the fate of one famous outlaw, his cousin, and a legend!