Page 74 of The Robber Knight's Love
Ayla stood on the guard's walkway for aminute longer, exhausted. Not so much from the shouting as from thedread. She knew him, knew what a monster he was. Yes, he would keephis promise. Death was coming for all of them.
Just not for her. For her, he had an evenworse fate prepared.
Slowly, she turned and climbed down from thebarricade.
Isenbard raised an eyebrow at her.“Impressive.”
“Thank you.”
“Though I must say I haven't heard you usesuch... inventive language before. Where did you pick up thosewords?”
“I don't recall using any special words.”
“Well, I do. I thought the part where yousuggested that he shove his surrender terms up the devil'spiliferous rear end was particularly inventive.”
“Thank you,” she said again in a tonelessvoice and swung herself into the saddle of his horse.
“Milady! What are you doing?”
“I... just need to go somewhere. Somewherequiet.”
“Girl? I know you.” Isenbard had changed fromhis vassal-voice to his kind-uncle-voice. “Something is wrong. Whatis the matter? You're not upset by what that Italian bastard said,are you? He...”
Ayla shook her head. Somehow, it wouldn'tstop shaking. Then she realized she was shaking all over.
“No,” she managed. “Not by what he said. Bywhat he looked like.”
She gave the big warhorse the spurs andgalloped up the hill towards the castle.
Behind her, she could hear Isenbard shoutingsomething after her about her not being able to control the horseand about this silly obsession females had with looks, but she justrode on. She had just come face to face with her worst enemy. Whatshe now needed more than anything else in the world was afriend.
*~*~**~*~*
Only an hour or so after Ayla had left,Reuben again heard light footsteps approaching. His heart quickenedin the hope that it might be Ayla. Part of him was slightlyembarrassed at the way he was reacting. He had known hundreds ofgirls before, and none of them had caused him to make such a foolof himself. Perhaps it wasn't her but his illness that made hisheart hammer like this...
She opened the door and all thoughts flew outthe window. Reuben stared at her. He had never seen her look likethis. Her face was pale, her beautiful eyes wide, and there was asadness in them he did not like seeing at all. It was the sadnessof someone gearing up for a battle she feared she was going tolose.
“Ayla,” he croaked. Coughing, he tried tobring a little moisture to his dry mouth. “Ayla,” he repeated.“What is the matter?”
She waved away his question. “Nothing really.May I sit here again for a while?”
“Yes, of course. It's your castle, afterall.”
She didn't reply but just came over and sat,her back to him. Reuben waited for her to speak, but shedidn't.
After a while, he started to get fidgety.“Ayla, what is the matter with you? Has something happened?”
She nodded, still not turning to him. “Ohyes, something has happened. Something terrible.”
“What?” he demanded.
“You remember the day we found you in theforest?”
“I got shot in the back. Something like thatisn't easy to forget,” he joked.
“I guess so.”
Her tone was still the same. Frightened.Defeated. She hadn't even realized he had been trying to lightenthe mood. What was up with her?
