Page 61 of The Robber Knight's Love
Could the devil be a woman? He rolled hiseyes. What a silly question. Of course he could. But with all theother indications pointing to this not being hell, he was willingto have a look. The chances of him receiving a poke in the eye witha red hot pitchfork were pretty slim.
There indeed was someone in the room withhim, and it wasn't the devil. It was a girl—notthegirl, not Ayla, justagirl. But hehadseen her before. Frowning, he tried to get his mind to work. Ifonly his head didn’t feel this fuzzy...
“It's you,” he croaked, realizing who it was:the silly maid who had brought him the disgusting soup.
When she heard his voice, the maid jumped,threw him a look not unlike a frightened rabbit who was sneakingpast a sleeping wolf only to discover he was, in fact, wide awake,and retreated into a corner.
Reuben scowled. “You don't need to be afraidof me, you know. I'm not going to eat you. I'm no monster.”
She swallowed. It was obvious she wasn'tconvinced on this point. “Y-you walk around with three arrows inyour back as if there is nothing wrong with you,” she accused.
“Only on the weekends.”
“That's unnatural!”
Reuben gave her a devilish grin. “You thinkso? I could do it on Wednesdays instead.”
She pouted. It was probably supposed to be afrown, but she was far too harmless to manage one. Now, she lookedlike an angry bunny about to steel herself for a one-on-one withthe wolf and not liking it one bit. “That's not all. You made LadyAyla cry!”
She made it sound as if this was an offensecomparable to mass murder. Reuben was inclined to agree, but therewas no way he was going to admit that. So instead, he justshrugged, wincing when he almost couldn't get his shoulders tolift. It was humiliating to be so infuriatingly weak!
“I probably did. I'm so terribly sorry forfalling down the stairs and almost breaking my neck because thatdistressed your mistress. I promise to do my best to avoidsomething similar in the future.”
“Don't youevertalk about something in a seriousmanner?”
“Not if I can avoid it.”
Her pout returned. “You made her cry! Howcould you? After everything she has done for you? She saved yourlife, and you only hurt her in return!”
“Why the hell do you care?” he asked angrily.“I thought you'd be glad, the way she has been treating you, andall her serfs!”
He waited for an answer, but none came. Witheffort, he focused his blurry sight on the maid and saw that shehad stuffed her fingers in her ears.
“Take your fingers out,” he mouthed ather.
“Only if you stop cursing, you villain! Don'tuse the 'H'-word again!”
Rolling his eyes, he nodded, and she removedher fingers from her ears.
“Why would you care if I think ill of yourlady?” he repeated his question in a calmer tone. “This castle isabout to be besieged, and she's feasting, snatching food from themouths of people who are desperately going to need it.”
The maid's warm brown eyes flashedindignantly. Apparently, the bunny had finally decided on a frontalattack. “She is not feasting! She's on reduced rations, the same asthe rest of us!”
“But... you told me yourself that...”
“She told me to tell you that.”
A confused frown appeared on Reuben's sweatyface. “Why would she do that?”
The girl shrugged. “I think she liked theidea of that thought being served to you as the dessert for yourfennel soup.”
For a moment or two, Reuben wavered, askinghimself whether he should be angry. Then a wide grin appeared onhis face, dispelling the frown in a heartbeat. “What a woman,” hesaid, shaking his head in wonder.
The maid nodded, her jaw set. “She is. Do youknow what else she did, besides imposing the same restrictions onherself as on her people? She ordered a barricade built so that notjust the men and women in the castle but everybody would beprotected. When it turned out that there wasn't room for them allin the village, she took in the families of the farmers from theother side of the river. And when the Margrave's men attacked, sherode out herself to face them!”
She took a breath and continued: “She's thesweetest, bravest, most kind-hearted lady in the whole world! I'mgoing to fetch her now because she said to wake her the minute youwoke up, but if you ever do anything to upset her again you'll...you'll...”
She floundered around for something fittingto say. It was obvious she wasn't very practiced at making threats.“...Well, you'll be sorry!” she finally finished. Glaring at himone last time from her safe corner, she gathered her skirts andfled from the room.
