Page 58 of The Robber Knight's Love
“He isn't... isn't... d-dea—”
The old knight knelt and checked the man'sheartbeat. “He's alive.”
Ayla sank against the wall. “Thank God.”
“Hey, you!” Isenbard called to two guards whowere passing the keep outside. “Come here!”
The two men hurried inside, and at a gesturefrom Isenbard, picked up the unconscious fellow on the floorwithout asking questions. The old knight pointed towards thestaircase and the guards started upstairs, needing no furtherinstruction.
Isenbard's mind was hard at work trying tofigure out Ayla's response to seeing this fellow Reuben being hurt.It was natural enough, he supposed. She had been through a lottoday, seen death and destruction. Having it follow her to her ownhome had probably been too much. Yes, that had to be it.
Isenbard didn't want to consider thealternative explanation—that her distress had nothing to do withfinding a badly-wounded man, but rather with the fact that it wasthis particular man. That look in Ayla's eyes...
He pushed away the thought. He had otherthings to worry about at the moment. Anyway, maybe Ayla'ssurprising behavior didn't need any logical explanation. After all,although mildly sensible, she was a girl.
The surprises of the day weren't over yet.Two castle guards carried the fellow called Reuben up the stairswhile Isenbard, supporting Ayla, brought up the rear. Halfway upthe stairs, one of the guards almost stumbled over a half-eatenblack pudding and chicken leg which lay on the steps. When Ayla sawthem, first a smile flickered on her tearful face, then she moaned,“That cheater! That scoundrel of a cheater!” and broke into anotherfit of tears. Not knowing what else to do with a crying female,Isenbard tried to maneuver her, as gently as possible, into herroom.
However, in spite of all the tears blockingher sight, Ayla's eyes still seemed to work fine. She caught on tothe fact that she wasn't going the same way as the two guards andwouldn't move another step. So Isenbard just shoved her in afterthem, into the room where they had put the fellow, and then went insearch of some female able to cope with this situation.
*~*~**~*~*
When Reuben opened his eyes, everything wasfuzzy for a moment. Once his sight became a bit clearer, he saw aby now very familiar stone ceiling. Slowly, he began to turn hishead sideways—an action which took a lot more effort than usual—andhe spotted a slender figure in a brown dress with brown hairsitting beside him, her face in her hands, turned away fromhim.
He squinted. No, the dress wasn't actuallybrown, and neither was the hair for that matter.
“Ayla?” he croaked.
At the sound of his voice, the girl spunaround, and her hands fell from her face.
“Reuben? Reuben, you are awake? How areyou?”
Reuben ignored the question, continuinginstead to stare at her astonishing brownishness. “Why are youcovered in mud?” he inquired.
“What mud? Oh, that... Isenbard threw me downand jumped on top of me in a muddy field, that's all.”
“What?”
Reuben's eyes almost emitted sparks at hercasual statement. That creepy old bastard! Maybe he hadn't been sofar off the mark with his first suspicions after all.
Seeing the look on his face, Ayla's eyesbegan to sparkle. “Does that bother you?” she asked in a teasingtone.
“No,” he grunted. “Why should it?”
“Oh, I don't know.” The sparkle in her eyesincreased and now he could see that it stemmed from the moisturewhich threatened to spill down her fair face. “Personally, I'm gladhe did it, because otherwise, I might have been shot today. But Idon't know whyyouwould care aboutthat, I really don't!”
She hid her face in her hands again and beganto cry quietly. Reuben tried to raise his hand—somehow he wanted tocomfort her, though he didn't know how. His hand didn't move aninch. His whole body felt incredibly overheated and sluggish.
With great effort, it seemed, Ayla appearedfrom her hiding place and wiped her face with her sleeve. Stillsniffling, she demanded: “Now are you going to tell me how you areor will I have to beat it out of you?”
“That might be interesting to see.”
“How—are—you?”
“Not too bad...”
“Don't lie to me!”
“Well, all right.” He sighed. “I feelterrible. Weak and hot and unable to move a muscle. Never feltanything like it in my life.”
