Lion Heart (9 page)

He were silent down the hall, down the stair, down another long hall. We were about to make the courtyard, when I asked, “What is it, Winchester?”

He shook his head. “It is not my place, my lady.”

“You've been an excellent friend to me, Winchester. Please.”

“This is wrong,” he said soft. “Locksley thinks you're dead. You're lying to him—you're asking me to lie to him.” He shook his head. “More than that. You're torturing the man. A man who has seen too much torture in his life by half.”

“She's not wrong,” I whispered to him. “You know he wouldn't think of the danger. You know what he would risk for me. And I won't ask him to do it.”

“That doesn't make this right,” he told me.

We walked into the courtyard. It were clouded and dark, the sky heavy with rain like unshed tears.

“I can't make you choose differently,” he said. “But I wish you would.”

I shook my head. I mounted my horse, and David bowed to Winchester, who just looked at me with stone in his eyes.

David mounted, and I spurred my horse, looking to the roads. One went north, to Nottingham, to Rob, to the light and his love and the feel of his heartbeat melting into mine. He
would choose the north road, if it were him. He would move heaven and earth to return to me.

The other went west to Bristol. I stared at the north road, but I took the one west.

I wouldn't fix a broken thing only to see it shatter before my eyes a moment later.

I weren't close to good health yet, and we could only ride so far and so fast; it would take us three days or more to reach Bristol. We stopped at an inn that night, and David told them we were man and wife. He slept on the floor while I lay awake on the bed, staring out the window, thinking of Rob. It felt like leaving England and putting that much space between us were saying good-bye to Rob, to all the love I'd ever had for him, and I had only three days and however long it took to get a ship to figure a way to do it.

The next morning, we saddled the horses, and the stable boy brought out a third horse with him. “Boy,” David said, pointing. “That's not our horse.”

“Of course it isn't,” Allan said, coming out from the inn with a wide stretch and a yawn. “It's mine.”

“Christ Almighty.” David sighed. “I thought we got rid of you.”

“You don't wish that for a moment,” Allan said, mounting his horse. “Besides, did you really think to go to Ireland without one of her favorite native sons?”

“Clearly a foolish hope,” David muttered, mounting as well.

I swung up onto the horse, feeling my body ache as my muscles settled into place. “Play nice, boys.”

“
I
am devoted to your every request, lady thief,” Allan told me. “I cannot speak for the errant.”

“A word, my lady,” David said. “All I need is a word from your mouth and I will physically prevent him from following us.” He met Allan's eyes. “Or walking.”

“A fool for beauty, that's what I am. An utter fool. Never saw a pretty lass that couldn't spin my head three ways till Sunday. God himself crafts the lines of a pretty face, I always say, and so how could you say no? You're looking at God. God's work, even—it's like looking at
Christ
,” Allan prattled on.

“Am I supposed to be the lass?” I asked him. “Because I still don't recall asking you to come.”

“There's still time to send you home,” David added.

“You haven't listened to a word I've said. Patriotic duty? Sworn to protect my king's fair daughter, nay, his country? A man cannot say no to such things. It goes against my honor. The fiber of my being!” Allan proclaimed.

Rolling my eyes, I reminded him, “You're Irish, Allan. Richard isn't your king, and England isn't your country. And I haven't seen much of this honor you claim.”

He looked mortally wounded. “Have I ever acted dishonorably to you, fair thief?”

“It doesn't count if you suspect she'd cut your hands off,” David grunted.

“It counts,” Allan and I said at once.

“What about men?” I asked him. “Are you saying men are not crafted by God?”

It might have been the sun, but I could have sworn he colored up a bit. And as someone who hid her blushes fair often, I figured I knew better than most. “Men are the crudest castoffs of God's work, I must say,” Allan said.

David chuckled.

Allan frowned. “Are we there yet?”

I glared at him. “Does it look like we're there yet?”

He looked round us, to the cow pastures beyond the dirt road we were riding down. Our horses were in a quick canter, and Allan were frowning along.

“Do you never ride?” David asked. “Even the lady is more accomplished than you.”

“I grew up riding,” I explained. “Even if I didn't do it much for years after.”

“I ride very gracefully,” Allan said with a sniff. “You two just enjoy it more.” He leaned toward me on his horse. “We could leave him here, fair thief,” he confided in a none-too-quiet whisper. “If you can forgo your penchant for big, strong men.”

“
He
is required protection by the queen. And it has nothing to do with my penchants, Allan—I just tend to be in the same business as big, strong men, only they need to be twice as tall and twice as heavy to do what I can in half the time,” I snapped. “And if you're coming along, I hope you'll serve as much of a purpose as he does. Do you have any contacts in Bristol?”

“I have friends everywhere, my lady.”

“Well, then perhaps you'll keep your ear to the ground and your mouth blessedly shut?” I said.

David chuckled.

Allan pouted. “You know that's mostly through an extended network of people with ears to the ground, don't you? I don't like putting my ear to the ground.” He pouted further, brushing dust from his bright red cape. “In fact, I don't much care for being dirty.”

“Allan, stop, for the love of God,” I asked him. “Just stop speaking for a while.”

David chuckled again at this, and I glared at him. He shrugged in return. “I didn't comment when you called me required protection, did I?” he asked.

I sighed, but Allan weren't speaking for the moment, so I rather thought I'd try to enjoy it.

I were surprised by how much I did enjoy it. I missed being outside, I missed being away from the city. The trees were in sap, and the smell were enough to get drunk on, to let my mind swirl back to Sherwood and Nottingham and kisses in the dark woods, the rough swipe of bark against my back, and the hot swipe of Rob's hands on my front.

I shut my eyes.
Forget him, forget him, forget him.

It didn't seem near that easy.

CHAPTER

The three of us made Bristol three full days after leaving Eleanor. The port city seemed prospering and heaving, with Wales in sight across the narrow channel. It bristled the hair on my neck, having an enemy so close and my escape so near.

Escape.

It were quick work for Allan to find the next ship to Ireland that were leaving in three days' time, and we went to an inn to stay for the in-between. Riding through the country hadn't meant a lot of gentle nights, and all three of us were happy for a hot bath, even if it were expensive. I went first, and donned a set of men's clothes over my hot, damp skin.

Tucking my growing hair up under a hat, I went down to the tavern without the boys. I just wanted time to myself, and they were growing happier with each other, even if I couldn't much call their friendship
fond.

I had every intention of sitting and eating, happy and warm in the tavern, but we were back at the ocean, and I could smell it, and Rob seemed just beyond me, mocking my thought of leaving him behind. I left the tavern and went for the water, trying to find him again. Trying to be with him in these salty half moments, trying to call up some piece of him that I could take with me.

I found the port and followed the water's edge out along the city till it fell into big rocks with places to hide. Picking my way out over slippery black boulders in the gleam of the moon, I finally found one that weren't too wet and had a place I could tuck into besides.

The heat were gone from my skin, but the damp were still there, and it made the night seem colder again by half. I shut my eyes and breathed it in and wished him to me.

His hand touched my face, and water welled up in my eyes but I didn't open them, holding onto his shadow self as long as I could.

“
Come back to me, Scar. I don't understand why you won't come to me.”

“To protect you,” I whispered. “Because I love you.”

“
It's not you that will hurt me. It's Prince John. He'll kill us all, Scar, just because he wants to
.”

“Not if I'm not there. Not if I don't provoke him.”

“
Do you really believe that
?”

“Not if I kill him first,” I told Rob, overhot and fierce.

“
Then what the hell are you doing in Bristol
?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I'll kill him,” I promised Rob. “Just stay here with me a while longer.”

“
I'll never leave you
,” he told me, and I felt his arms on me. “
As long as you love me, I'll be here, hidden somewhere in your heart
.”

The water slipped out, and I tried to imagine his arms tighter on me, holding me tight enough to be real, wondering if those words were meant to comfort me or haunt me. “I'll never stop loving you, Rob. Never.”

“
Then I'll always be here
,” he said, brushing a kiss into my hair.