Page 39 of Rogue of the Greenwood
“You didn’t run him all the way out here, did you?”
“Of course not! It was just a ways back when he heard a dog barking and it spooked him.”
“Ugh. The dog…”
“Your dog?”
“No! It’s my… well, I’m sort of keeping it for a while.”
She cocked her head and eyed him suspiciously. “Keeping it where?”
“Somewhere.”
“Well, you’re obviously not keeping it very well if it’s out running through the forest.”
“And obviouslynobodyis keeping you! Shouldn’t you be back in Nottingham?”
“I can be wherever I like to be.”
“Don’t you have some big dinner with your friend Gisborn to get ready for?”
“That’s not for a couple days! But… how do you know about that?”
“Let’s just say I’m working very hard to know what Gisborn is up to.”
“Well, you ought to work harder. He acts as if he’s master of Locksley now. Does he still think you’re dead?”
“Unless you’ve felt compelled to tell him otherwise.”
“I’m compelled to do very little where Mr. Gisborn is concerned. Now where did my bonnet go?”
“Is that it, caught in this tree?”
“Oh, drat. It’s probably ruined.”
“Not to worry,” Robert said and went to pluck the crumpled straw bonnet from where it had snagged when the mule reared up and threw her. “It doesn’tlook any worse than your hair.”
He handed the bonnet to her while she fumed. She snatched it and tried—in vain—to tame her wild curls and make the misshapen bonnet sit on her head. Eventually even she had to laugh.
“I must be a mess.”
“You are,” he assured her. “Since the day that I met you. But come along. I’ll help you find your way out of here before the skies completely open up.”
“It is rather raining now, isn’t it?”
“It is. Your bonnet is probably going to get a bit more ruined before the day is out. Now… I believe we should go this way.”
“You believe?”
“Yes, I believe.”
“But you aren’t sure?”
“It’s a very large forest, Miss Maidland,” he pointed out. “When a person has to constantly endanger one’s life to gallantly rescue another, you can see that a person might get a bit twisted around.”
“You mean to tell me we are lost?”
“I mean nothing of the sort! I just mean that I believe we should go this way,” he said, taking Clarence by the bridle and leading him—hopefully—in the direction of the nearest road.
