Page 11 of Peregrine's Call
“Well done, Sir Octavian,” he heard from behind him.
Chapter 5
She wore the hood ofher capuchin up, so it wasn’t immediately obvious that she was a girl. But Tav recognized her form all too well.
“What in God’s name are you doing here?” he asked in French, on the off chance the others wouldn’t understand.
She responded in kind. “Just at this moment? Saving your life, which I do from time to time, if you’ll remember.” Robin smiled. “The day we retook Cleobury, that time when Angelet got kidnapped…”
“Enough,” Tav snapped. Seeing Robin so calm and self-assured annoyed him to no end. What was shedoing, dressed as a boy and armed for a battle? The last time he’d seen her, she’d been the model of a proper lady. “We’ll address your presence later.”
“The fight is over,” she said, gesturing to the restrained bandits.
“Not yet. I need to track the others. One stole my pack horse.”
Robin raised her hand to stop him. “I stole it back. It’s tied up safely with my own horse. Shall we retrieve them and ride on?”
He grabbed her by the arm and led her out of earshot of the tied-up men. When they were far enough from the captured men, he stopped and turned to her.
“Ride on where?” he asked in a low voice.
“To wherever you’re going,” she said, sounding quite reasonable despite it being a completely unreasonable proposal.
“You will return to Cleobury immediately. I’ll take you there myself and see that Alric locks you in a room for your own safety.”
“You won’t,” she said bluntly. “It would mean the loss of many more days. You can’t spare the time. Besides,” she added, “it’s not as if this is the first time we’ve traveled together alone.”
In a flash, Octavian remembered the other time, over four years ago. By complete accident, he’d encountered Robin not far from Cleobury. She’d been less than a year into her new life, and she wasn’t adapting well. In fact, she’d decided to run away.
She cursed him the moment she saw him in the town where she was riding through—and Robin knew how to curse very well, thanks to a rough upbringing among some rather dubious people. But Octavian, still a young knight with more ideals than sense, refused to let her continue with her mad plan to run away to London.
Instead, he’d argued, then ordered, then begged her to return to Cleobury with him to escort her there. Robin was barely fifteen then, and though she’d been dressed as a boy—naturally—she didn’t look like one. But Tav was not going to let her roam the countryside of England completely undefended.
Over two days and nights, they journeyed back to Cleobury. It was nerve-jangling for Tav to be in the company of Robin because he was constantly worried that someone would see them, realize Robin was a girl, and accuse him of mistreating her. Not that any man mistreated Robin—she always made men who tried regret it very quickly.
Tav strained every inch of his being to making sure nothing he did over those few days could be misinterpreted. He never touched her, and he certainly never took advantage of her. Anyway, Robin was a scruffy little kitten at that point. There was nothing alluring in her appearance, other than her sparking blue eyes, and her laugh, and the way she took nothing seriously—a counterpoint to Tav, who took everything seriously.
All he wanted was to get her home safely, and in secret. They managed it, somehow. Robin returned to Cleobury with a story that worked. She swore she’d never tell anyone of Tav’s involvement, and she even apologized at the end, promising she’d behave in the future. And he thought she kept that promise. Until now.
“I don’t want to ever think of that incident again,” he warned her. “And you can ride back to Cleobury on your own this time.”
Even as he said it, he knew that he also couldn’t let her do that. Robin got this far unscathed, but the chance that she would return to Cleobury without coming to harm in some way was too slim. Tav couldn’t concentrate on his own task if he wasn’t certain she was safe. “You waited till so long to reveal yourself for just this reason, didn’t you?” he asked.
Robin shook her head. “I revealed myself now because there was no guarantee that you’d win that fight without getting injured.”
“I needed no help,” he retorted.
“You did,” Robin shot back. “You could at least be gracious about the fact that I prevented that man in the blue tunic from stabbing you while you were attending to the red one.”
Tav thought back to the skirmish and realized that Robin was correct on that count. “It wouldn’t have been a fatal blow,” he hedged.
Robin huffed out, “Oh, men really are intolerable.”
He took a breath. “All right. Thank you.”
She paused, considering him with those big blue eyes. “You’re welcome. You see? You’ll be better off now that I’ve joined you.”
Tav sighed. “You cannotjoin me. We’ll find some other solution.”
