The Robber Knight's Love (The Robber Knight Saga #2)(6)

She gasped, and the next thing he knew, she had renewed her banging on his helmet with increased vigor. He could have sworn that one of her blows actually dented the metal.

“You…you…Let me go, you monster! You fiend from hell! Let go!”

Reuben wasn't too sure about that. He was rather enjoying himself and thought he would hold on for a little longer. But, he thought, sighing, the purpose of this exercise was to get her horse out from under her, not to get himself on top of her. And preferably, he didn’t want to get his helmet dented in the process.

So he just finished his work with the stirrups, ignoring the continued protestations of the girl, and presently deposited her on the ground, where she stood, breathing heavily and shooting glares at him that could have pulverized granite.

Carefully, Reuben felt his helmet. No dents. Excellent! He swung himself into the saddle of his own stallion again, grabbed the reins of the girl's horse, and started checking his armor for fingernail scratches. There were a few, but nothing a bit of paint couldn't repair.

“Lecher,” the girl hissed up him.

“Oh, please!” Reuben rolled his eyes. Who did this wench think she was? Did she really think Sir Reuben Rachwild would be interested in a slip of a girl like her? Especially one so annoying and cantankerous? “If you think I purposefully touched you there, you are very much mistaken. I only meant to grab you around the waist.”

“Well, you aimed a bit too high for that!”

“My hand slipped.”

“So you say! I bet you did that on purpose!”

Reuben snorted and picked a few long golden hairs from his breastplate. “You wish!”

The girl gaped up at him with a bit too much indignation. Yes, she was overdoing it a bit. She had probably enjoyed his groping her. Women usually did. True, he mostly didn't wear armor in those situations, but he was Sir Reuben Rachwild, after all. His good looks and charms were surely enticing enough to penetrate a few layers of steel.

Ha! And now she was blushing! Yes, oh yes.

Having finished with checking his armor, Reuben looked down at the girl and laughed.

“You look funny when you blush, do you know that, girl?”

“I can't find anything amusing about the situation,” she snarled between gritted teeth.

“Just wait.” He bent forward and patted her on the head. He didn't know exactly why—it was just that she looked rather adorable, standing there in all her outraged impotence. “In ten years or so, you'll tell this story to your friends, and it'll make the long winter evenings seem that much shorter.”

“If they've found and hanged you by then,” she snapped.

“Ha!” Reuben threw his head back and barked in laughter. “You'll have to wait a very long time to hear that news.” He had only been captured once before—and he would die before he repeated that experience.

“Blackguard,” the girl muttered.

Reuben shook his head thoughtfully. “You know, I was robbing another woman only three days or so ago, and she was much nicer than you.”

Something glinted on the girl's cheek. What was this? Oh, she was crying now? Capital! This was really the best robbery he had had in a long time.

“Until this day,” she said, her voice quivering, “I had always thought knights to be men of honor. Apparently, I was mistaken.”

Reuben grinned. Should he? Should he not? Oh, hell. He just couldn't resist. “Oh, I do have honor, Milady,” he said. “A lot.”

“But you…”

“It wasn't mine originally,” he explained. “That sort of honor is, as I said, bothersome. The sort of honor I like is the one you take away from pretty maidens.” He winked at her lasciviously. “And I have heaps of that.”

Reuben grabbed the reins of the girl's horse more tightly and raised his hand in farewell.

“Good day, Milady.”

He spurred on his horse and the mighty stallion sprang forward, bearing his master away. Reuben grinned. No second horse could gallop like his black stallion, Satan. The mare, though, didn't seem to do too bad a job keeping pace.

Behind him, he heard the girl shouting, “I'll find you, do you hear me? I'll find you, and when I do, I'll have you hanged from the highest tower of Luntberg Castle! That I swear by all the bones of my ancestors!”

Reuben laughed. Catch him? Not in a million years!

~~*~~*

Reuben sighed, resurfacing from the sea of memory.

I'll find you, and when I do, I'll have you hanged from the highest tower of Luntberg Castle! That I swear by all the bones of my ancestors!

He had thought the girl's words very funny at the time. Now, sitting in the girl's castle, surrounded by the girl's guards and revealed as the girl's enemy, he didn't think they were quite so funny anymore.

With a grim smile, Reuben stared at a stone in the wall opposite him. How arrogant he had been back then, believing he had all the power. Now, he was in her power. It would be easy for her to send her guards with orders to do with him whatever she desired. Not that Reuben didn't feel confident about dealing with a couple of castle guards—but whether he died or survived the encounter, he would still be a prisoner. A prisoner of this castle, and, more effectively, a prisoner of his love for its lady.

He had only himself to blame, he supposed, sighing. Why couldn't he have fallen in love with a nice, ugly, old, compliant hag? No, it just had to be Ayla, a young girl with a spirit like an untamed filly and eyes like sparkling sapphires. At least 24 carats.