Rowan Hood Returns (15 page)

She half expected Robin to give her a worried look and tell her to hush, but he did not. He stilled his hands, studied her face, then nodded. “In her beautiful daughter and in this place,” he murmured, glancing around him at celandine flowers like thousands of rayed suns in a green velvet sky. “A place as beautiful as she was. I have never known a lovelier.”

“There was reason, after all, for me to venture here. Father.” From her ring finger, Rowan slipped off one of the two remaining silver strands of Celandine's ring, and she held it out to him. “I feel as if Mother wants you to have this. As a token that she has not forgotten you.”

Robin Hood turned to her, his sky-blue eyes wide.

“And I know for a surety that I want you to have it,” Rowan added, “as a token of our love.” In this case, Rowan felt certain she could speak for all of the members of the band, but she added, “Especially mine.”

She felt a tremor in his fingers as he accepted the ring from her. She saw his lips move without speaking. She saw his eyes brighten into blue pools of tears.

“Everything's all right, Father. We'll go home now. To Sherwood.” Leaning toward him, Rowan placed her healing hands upon his golden head to ease his weariness and give him peace.