Everything I Do: a Robin Hood romance (Rosa Fitzwalter Book 1) (41 page)

“Don’t try to talk,” Robin said, his tone sharp. “Not yet.”

Then he was lifting her out of the lake and walking towards a tree to gently lay her down on its root.

“Just breathe,” he told her, more kindly, brushing the wet hair away from her face. “Breathe for me.”

She obeyed, noticing the three men that followed him, fearful and concerned.

“Is… is she alive?” Gilbert asked, his eyes dark with fear.

“Shut up,” Robin spat at him, not getting up from where he was crouched, dripping wet, beside her. “Much and Gilbert, your coats,” he commanded. They hurried to take them off. “Now go fetch me a horse,” he continued without taking his eyes off her. “John, you stay, keep watch.”

Little John ran and climbed on a high branch and the other two hurried to obey Robin.

Robin wiped the water from his brow and drew in a deep breath.

“Rosa?” he said abruptly, shaking her, because her eyes were suddenly closed and her breathing came shallow. “Talk to me.”

“I… I’m…” she wanted to say she was sorry, but her teeth were chattering and she wanted to sleep. Another cough shook her and she was choking. Robin quickly took her in his arms and turned her in time for the water to come out. Then he held her until the spasms stopped and she could breathe again.

“Shh, I’ve got you,” he tried to say to soothe her, but his voice came out like a croak, for it tore his heart in two to see her in such distress. Impulsively, he took her in his arms, and felt her shivering.

“You’ll be better in a second,” he said, trying to rub her hands warm. Then he started talking to her calmly, as he continued to try to warm her up. “Now, I’ll take off your wet shirt and wrap you in Much and Gilbert’s coats, alright? John is up a tree, he won’t look, and neither will I, so you’re safe.”

He leaned her back down again, and she labored to catch her breath.

Robin worked swiftly with dexterous hands. “Why are you here anyway,” he muttered under his breath, “and where is that useless brother of yours?”

“I must tell you, the camp, your men… you’re in danger,” Rosa started saying, through chattering teeth, and she raised herself to put on the coat herself. Robin pressed his lips together.

“Now is not the time,” he whispered, bending down to assist her. “Come on, one more.”

He helped her get into the other coat and then stood up to ask John if the men were anywhere in sight. Rosa tried to get up, but she felt a searing pain that almost caused her to faint and she fell back on the ground, gasping for breath. In a minute Robin was beside her.

“What are you doing?” he almost shouted with suppressed anger. “You can’t walk yet, you were drowning a minute ago… Oh, God, your ankle.” he knelt beside her feet, took off her boot and examined the wound. “John, where are the blasted boys? She’s going to bleed out on me before they get here,” he shouted, without lifting his head.

Rosa knew where ‘the boys’ were, and she sighed, grateful that, even though she couldn’t convey her message, the camp would be well protected as soon as they reached it.

“I’m fine, it’s you who should…” she began, but before she had time to say what she wanted, her eyes were drifting closed, suddenly too heavy to stay open.

“No, no no,” Robin cried desperately, cradling her, “don’t fall asleep, stay with me, d’you hear?”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her voice fading, “for the things I said to you, when we last parted. Don’t be angry.”

“John!” Robin shouted. “Help me.”

The giant climbed down and together they managed to tie up the wound. Then Robin took her in his arms and started walking purposefully.

“Chief, you can’t carry her all the way to the camp,” John protested, sighing.

“Watch me,” Robin said simply.

“Master, you’re cold,” Rosa said, watching the way his drenched shirt clung to his chest, which was rising and falling rapidly against her cheek. “You’re shaking.”

“I’m not cold, little one,” he replied, looking down at her with a sudden tenderness in his eyes. “I’m frightened.”

Then the darkness enveloped her once more, but this time she felt safe, rocked to sleep as Robin ran in long, measured strides. He was alive, he was safe, that was all that mattered. And the men would be too. She was sure of it. She closed her eyes, only regretting that she hadn’t had time to say her goodbye, as she’d planned.

When she awoke again the night was black outside the little window of her cabin.
The camp is safe
, was her first thought.
Thank God.

Robin was at her side, still soaked through.

“My only consolation,” he was saying to Will Scarlet in a low voice, while surveying the scratches on her neck and chin through dangerously dark eyes, “is that Julian’s remorse may kill him before I have the chance to.”

“You’re scaring her, Rob,” Scarlet replied kindly, nodding towards her.

“Paul, she’s awake,” Robin said immediately.

He cursed under his breath and got up, tearing a piece of clean cloth he found near her pallet.

“Your wound has opened again.” He swiftly pressed the cloth to her shoulder, wincing at the pain he must be inflicting. “How do you fare?”

Rosa realized that she was in warm, dry clothes, a small fire crackling in the corner, and it all felt so familiar and safe that tears prickled her eyelids. Of all her dreams, in all her prayers, never had she imagined going back to the forest to be as heart-warming as this.

“No,” Robin exhaled sharply, wiping her tears with his fingertips. “Don’t cry. You… you must be in immense pain…”

“Is everyone safe?” she asked anxiously.

His mouth curved around a sad smile. “Everyone except you,” he said.

“I… I keep dreaming of the dogs,” she whispered, after a moment, swallowing with difficulty. “Don’t leave me,” she sighed through white lips.

He grasped her small hand in his fiercely.

“Never,” he vowed, bringing it to his lips.

“Talk to me,” she said after a moment of silence. He was panting as though after a long run. “Don’t let me think. Talk to me of the forest.”

“You’re here now,” he said. “You’re finally here.”

Then he began to talk to her of how Julian, Gilbert and Will Scarlet had tricked the Sheriff’s men into thinking that the entrance to the camp was closed, quickly blocking the narrow passage of the waterfall with felled tree trunks and green branches. He told her in a gentle, soothing voice of how they had sent an old man, disguised in blood and bruises, to lead them into an altogether different part of the forest, claiming that he’d barely escaped Robin Hood’s camp with his life, and come to tell them about it.

He’d then flown, leaving the Sheriff’s men baffled and clueless in the fast approaching darkness. 

Rosa closed her eyes and focused on his voice until her breathing calmed and the bleeding stopped. Then she leaned back, smiling. Robin placed a hand on her hair, frowning slightly. His heart inside him was beating like a drum.

In a few minutes Paul came to redress her wounds and left, leaving her panting from the effort not to scream in pain, and Robin grabbing a fistful of his wet hair in desperation.

“Excuse me,” Robin said to Rosa as soon as they were alone in her little cabin and got up. He went to the corner and she had just enough time to avert her eyes before he stripped down and rubbed the water off his skin with a fur.

She caught a glimpse of his lean, muscled back, as he raised his arms over his head to take off his clinging wet tunic, and she suddenly felt her entire body grow hot. At the same time a shiver traveled down her spine, and she trembled all over, thinking of how glorious it would be to run her fingers down that smooth skin, to tangle them among his dripping curls, to smooth down the small stubble on his chin.  

In a minute he came back to her, fully dressed, his hair hanging in wet locks over his forehead and ears, and she was quickly jerked from her daydreaming by the realization that his eyes were absolutely smoldering with anger.

“You
are
angry,” Rosa said.

“Angry? I am livid!” he exploded. “Livid! How could you do such a foolhardy thing?”

Rosa was silent, waiting for him to vent his feelings. Robin got up suddenly, as though the small room couldn’t contain his emotion. She noticed the graceful way his long legs unfolded, his feet bare, and her heart constricted to think that he was as far away from her now as he had ever been.

“That moment when I realized the boy was you,” Robin went on, bringing his first to his mouth, “and when I saw you going under I… I couldn’t take it, I thought I’d die. I…” he stopped to catch his breath, closing his eyes. “I vowed I would stay under there until I found you, or drowned with you myself.”

“Master, please…”

He lifted a hand to interrupt her and then he realized what she had said.

“Are you still calling me that?” he asked, almost smiling. “Or are you afraid of me?”

“I am a little, right now,” she admitted.

He knelt on one knee next to her and brushed a finger along her lips.

“You should be,” he said softly, all trace of anger leaving his voice abruptly, “you should be afraid of me, my rose. Because even though I am so mad at you for what you did, for actually coming to my aid, alone and weak like this, and putting yourself in danger in the most horrible…” he stopped himself, and smiled, a tight pained smile. “Forgive me,” he said. “I do not mean to preach at you. God knows I owe my life to you ten times over. What I wanted to say was...”

“What?” she asked in a whisper, mesmerized by his voice.

“What I wanted to say,” he continued, stroking her hair absent-mindedly, “was that even though I am so mad at you, I am also madly happy that you are here. My heart leapt at the sight of you, and still does, even though I’m sorry that you are in pain.”

“Master,” Rosa said, her voice sounding a bit breathless, “Robin,” she added, “I couldn’t leave without seeing you once more. I knew it would probably hurt you more to see me, but I was so lost and I thought I would feel better if I came here to…”

“To say goodbye?” he asked in a strangled voice.

“Yes.”

He shook his head immediately.

“You were lost?” he whispered hoarsely. “I left you alone, didn’t I? Again.”

“I am not lost anymore,” she said simply.

Robin took her fingers in a tight clasp and leaned close.

“Say it,” he said, his lips trembling. “Say that you’ll stay.”

“I will stay, if you want me to,” she answered with no hesitation. Then, suddenly she tensed. “I haven’t seen Julian, is he…?”

Robin smiled ruefully.

“I may have said I hope the guilt kills him, but I didn’t really mean it, my rose. Your brother is safe and sound, and would have been in here with you all this time if I, in my anger, hadn’t banished him from your side. How could he leave you alone like that, how could he...?”

“You know there was no other way,” Rosa breathed, reaching out her hand to lightly touch his arm. “Besides it was my decision.”

He nodded. “Of course it was,” he said. “As for there being no other way, I’m not sure of it. All I know is that once more I owe everything to you.”

“And I to you,” she retorted, looking up into his eyes.

Robin saw the love and devotion that shone in her gaze, and he couldn’t help but crush her to him with a force that took even him by surprise. His arms, starved for the feel of her, wanted to touch her everywhere, but he knew he had to be careful with her after her ordeal.

She sighed, and her breath stirred the hair at the nape of his neck as she lay her head on his shoulder. Her small waist felt so fragile and precious as he circled his hands around her, burning to peel away the covers and touch her skin, the desire almost rendering him demented. Yet he controlled himself with a huge effort, and settled there, kneeling with Rosa in his arms, lodging her between his knees as though he himself was the only home she’d ever need.

He held her against his heart, his own beating like crazy, and pressed his lips to the tender spot between her collarbones, trying to check himself from devouring her lips. He took a deep breath.

“I am yours,” he said. “I am yours already. Marry me.”

She drew back and his heart stopped. He took in the dark circles under her eyes, the pallor of her skin.

“Maybe this is not the time…” he said, beginning to get up.

“Do you mean it?” she asked, her voice full of wonder.

He took her arms in his hands and held her tenderly.

“My Rosa, my heart,” he said, the words coming out with difficulty, because his lips were trembling, and he was feeling the tears stinging his eyes. He didn’t try to wipe them away.

“I will not hold you back, Robin,” she said, and there were tears in her eyes also, but her voice was full of force and determination. “What you’re doing is bigger than both of us, and I refuse to be the one to hold back your work…”