Page 25 of The Robber Knight's Love
“But no,” he protested, smirking. “Yourhelping me at all is a marvelous act of Christian charity. But youtaking such good and gentle care of me, that exceeds all myexpectations.”
“I'm... doing my best,” she snarled and gavethe arrow another shove. Reuben felt his chest. Good, it would soonbe out now.
“I'm sure you are. And I'm sure the peacefulatmosphere here will be of great help to my convalescence.”
For some inexplicable reason, that made herlaugh. Yet it wasn't a happy laugh. It was dark and foreboding, andaltogether too sad for one as young as her.
“I wouldn't be too sure about that.”
He frowned. What did she mean by that? Andwhy had she sounded so sad? Was there something upsettingher—besides himself, of course?
He was so occupied with his thoughts that atfirst he didn't notice when the arrow pierced the skin of his chestfrom inside. Only when the tip entered his field of vision was hisattention drawn to it.
“Stop,” he ordered. “I'll get it myself therest of the way.” He gripped the arrow just beneath the head andpulled. His fingers felt the sharp metal hooks. He had beenright—there were indeed barbs on the arrow. Trying not to think toodeeply about what would have happened had he not stopped thefoolish girl in time, he continued to pull on the missile stickingin his chest. The shaft was slippery with blood, but that wassomething he was used to. Within seconds, he had pulled the arrowout and thrown it onto the floor.
With a bright smile, he nodded at the girl.“All right. The next one.”
She stared at him, incredulous. “You've justpulled an arrow out of your chest and all you want to do is pullanother?”
“Well, there are still two left in there. Doyou think I should leave them where they are for a while?”
“No! But don't you want to... I don't know...rest a bit?”
“Rest? What for?”
“Maybe because it hurt?” she suggested.
He shrugged. “Not that much. If it's up tome, we can go on. Of course, if you need some rest...”
Her eyes blazed like blue fire. “No thanks,I'm fine,” she snapped.
Quickly, she got to work again. The secondarrow went out without any problems, too. But when she startedpushing at the third, Reuben suddenly shouted: “Stop!”
Her hands dropped immediately. “What is it?”she asked, and he was more than a little surprised at her tone. Wasthat concern in her voice? No, surely he was mistaken. “Did I hurtyou?”
“No, of course not,” he grunted. “You'regetting too close to my ribcage. If the arrow gets stuck in there,we'll never get it out. Point it further down!”
She didn't take well to his commanding tone,he could tell.
“As you wish,” she grumbled.
Silently, Reuben berated himself. Why onearth did he have to be so rude to the girl? After all, he stillhad an arrow stuck in his chest. Why couldn't he wait until it wasout of him? Then he could be as rude as he wanted.
Despite her anger, he could tell that she wasdoing her best to follow his orders. However, it was difficult tochange the direction of the arrow while it was slicing through hisflesh, and just before the head left his body, he could feel itcatching on the lowest of his ribs.
“Oh!” Behind him, Reuben heard Ayla take in aquick breath. “It's stuck, isn't it? Oh, Reuben, I'm so, so sorry!I'll...”
He started at hearing his name from her lips.It sounded strange. Maybe because she had no idea who he reallywas, and could never know. So it was strange hearing her say hisname as if she knew him.
“It's all right,” he said gruffly. “It didn'tget stuck. It just caught on the lowest rib. Push a bit harder,then it'll slide sideways, and that'll be it.”
“But... won't that hurt?”
He almost laughed. “Don't worry about that.Just push.”
He was expecting to have to argue with herfor some time, but she just took a deep breath and said: “Allright. I'll do my best.”
Hm. She really had guts.
