He began stripping off his clothing, not answering me.
“Gisbourne!” I yelled again.
“Your parents have come to the castle,” he said after a moment, stripping off his tunic. “They expect an audience with you tomorrow morning.”
“My …” I dropped into the chair. My parents. I had been so long gone from them it seemed easy not to think of them at all. A thousand thoughts twisted through my mind. Did they hate me? Were it all forgotten and forgiven now I had done what they first asked? How would I explain leaving them at the first?
Christ, how would I explain Joanna?
He chuckled. “I thought that might shut you up.”
Chapter Nineteen
When I woke up, Gisbourne were sleeping and there were early, gray sun in the room. I called for Mary and when she set about pulling fabric round the bandaged hand, she stopped but didn’t say nothing. Gisbourne grunted and sat up in bed, watching me and yelling for Eadric.
My head were running fast, thinking on my parents. What would I say? How could I possibly say anything? What if my parents wanted to know—anything. Everything.
“You’re quiet,” Gisbourne said.
How much time had passed? I weren’t sure. He were dressed. I realized Mary weren’t flitting about, and I were dressed too. “Thinking,” I said.
He went to his coffers, shuffling through until he found something. It were a long, black-sheathed boot knife. He drew it half out and showed me a wicked-looking blade. He pushed it back in the sheath and tossed it to me. I caught it and looked at it; I couldn’t even draw it out of the sheath the way my hand were bandaged, so I just stared at him.
“Does that help?” he said.
Silent, I nodded slow.
He nodded once, sharp. “Good.”
And then he left.
I wedged it into the edge of my kirtle in the back, hoping it would hold snug enough that I could pull just the blade with one hand. Not that I expected to draw a knife on my parents; having it near me, a reminder of who I really were, helped in true.
It were strange both that Gisbourne knew it and allowed it.
I went out behind him, starting for my parents’ chamber. Sucking in a breath, I changed my mind.
I went to Rob’s room, and the guards let me in without a word or a harsh look. He were awake, lying in bed, and he half sat up, looking at me.
“Scarlet,” he murmured.
I came forward without a word, tucking myself into the bed beside him. I laid on his chest and shut my eyes, trying to wish the world away. His heartbeat were leaping out at me, beating into my skin till my heart beat back, matching the tune.
“I slept,” he marveled to me. His lips touched my forehead. “All night, as far as I know.”
I pressed my face to his chest and let my eyes close. “The sword fights are today,” I said. “Individual matches.”
His neck bobbed a bit as I felt him nod. “And I’ll fight,” he told me soft. “There’s no running.” His hand dragged along my back. “Or, rather, I could always run—but I want to fight for you more than I want to run.”
Inching up, I raised my face to kiss him. I shut my eyes into it, trying to forget what would happen today, for him and me both. “Just lose in the sword, Rob,” I told him. “You don’t need the prizes or the money. You only need to win the archery for sheriff. Anything more ain’t worth the bruises, the punishment.”
He sighed. “Maybe. Will you be there?” he asked. His nose nudged my cheek. “You should probably stay warm and rest.”
I took a breath like could draw his strength into me. “My parents are here. They want to see me.”
“Your parents?” he asked, looking at me.
Lying on his chest felt like home. “I don’t know what to say to them.”
“I visited them,” he said soft.
I pushed up off him. “What?”
“After you married Gisbourne. He became the landholder, and I wanted to make sure he wasn’t hurting them. You would have never forgiven yourself if he had, and my father always liked your parents. I spoke to them. I never told them I knew you.”
Blinking, I stared at him. “And?”
“They were lovely people. They’ve kept their lands well and protected their tenants from the worst of the taxes. They were very kind to me.” He swallowed and touched my cheek. “I had this fantasy that I could return to ask them for your hand in marriage and explain I’d been protecting you from harm when they hadn’t been able to. They would hug me and tell me that if they weren’t there to love you, they were glad I had been.”
My chest felt tight to bursting, and before I could stop it, tears ran down to kiss his hand. “I love you, Rob,” I told him, swooping in to kiss him.
“I love you too,” he told me. “Go, before anyone discovers you here.”
I kissed him once more, the kind of kiss that burned through me and made my whole heart fill with him.
Leaving Rob, I went to the room the servants told me were my parents’, and I stood outside. Then I paced. Then I stopped, for pacing made me dizzy, and stood there still.
I left. I had no idea what to say to them.
I had missed the first several sword fights, but Isabel informed me that Gisbourne destroyed his first opponent. Eleanor quietly let me know that Rob won his first contest as well. My heart were still pounding at the idea of talking to my parents, and it took long for it to quiet.
Gisbourne came up again and turned to the prince to bow. He caught my eye and frowned.
His partner were de Lacy, and I found that I were hoping my husband crushed the man who called me a wild animal the first night at court.
Gisbourne came at him hard. He were all power, my husband; fierce and overwhelming, but no speed and little finesse. He had footwork when he needed it, but it weren’t his skill. He knocked the sword out of de Lacy’s hand and gave him a moment to reach for it when he brought the heel of his boot down hard on de Lacy’s other hand, stretched flat on the ground.
Despite the pain, it gave de Lacy the space to grab his sword and bring it up to Gisbourne’s neck. The match was over; de Lacy had won.
“Quite cunning,” the queen mother murmured to me.
“My husband?” I asked. “He lost.” I looked back to the field where de Lacy nursed his hand and sucked in a breath. Gisbourne had sacrificed the fight to take out de Lacy’s hand—because de Lacy were favored in the archery, from what I heard. While he could still use a sword with his right hand, he could never hold a bow without them both. “Cunning indeed,” I muttered.