Everything I Do: a Robin Hood romance (Rosa Fitzwalter Book 1) by M.C. Frank

especially when she moved as if to sit on Sir Hugh’s lap. It was too early for her to have become inebriated, wasn’t it? But then again, Rosa had slightly lost track of the time, thinking of the forest.
    The girl swayed, landing awkwardly on Sir Hugh’s thigh and further proved Rosa’s assumption to be true, by an unladylike laugh. To Rosa’s surprise, Sir Hugh said nothing, neither to reprimand the girl nor to discourage her, but stood up decisively. He took the girl by the arm, rather roughly, and all but dragged her aside, where he thrust her to the support of an unsuspecting servant.
    He came back with a quite disgusted look on his face and began earnestly apologizing to Rosa, but her mind was occupied with a question. She kept watching the girl’s progress through the room, and suddenly realized where she had seen her before. For the hostile face she had noticed watching her in the garden belonged to that same girl.
    “Who is she?” she asked Sir Hugh.
    “Her name is Eloise Cecil,” he answered reluctantly.
    “Not the daughter of Lord Cecil, the Earl?”
    “The same.” Sir Hugh glanced at her sideways, and gave one of his sad smiles. “I am afraid my conquest of her interest is not something which raises me in your esteem.”
    “The conquest of her interest? I should think it is much more than that.”
    “Why do you speak thus?” he frowned.
    “Why, she positively hates me. If that is not an indication of her feelings, then what is?”
    “You should not worry. You see, I don’t think we can talk of feelings where this particular lady is concerned. Ambition, yes. But no more.”
    Rosa couldn’t help but smile ruefully at this, for it so accurately described Sir Hugh himself, in her opinion. He saw her expression immediately and leaned close to her ear, asking her eagerly: “What did that smile mean?”
    “You have suddenly begun to notice a lot,” she couldn’t help but say.
    “There is nothing sudden about it. I have paid particular attention to your every move, since the first day I saw you. It was here, in this very room, and you were but eleven years old…” he seemed lost in his thoughts for a minute.
    “But… but that’s almost eight years!” she cried, amazed.
    “So it is.” He smiled again. Then, as abruptly as it had come, the smile left his face and a look of deep concern took its place. “But you haven’t answered my question. What was that smile for?” Then he seemed to realize something, and said suddenly, “That’s what you think of me, isn’t it? You think I am devoid of feeling.” He said it calmly, like an observation, but his eyes belied his sadness at this discovery.
    Rosa tried to think of something to say, but he lifted a hand to stop her, as if he knew.
    “You needn’t contradict it. I am grateful for this small glimpse into your thoughts. All I can hope now is that I might endeavor to prove you wrong. Only tell me this, I beg you. Might I still try? It rests entirely in your delicate hands.” He took her hand in his and gently kissed her palm, his eyes never leaving her face, intense, beseeching.
    She didn’t however have the opportunity to answer him, for it was just then that the increasingly merry and loud feast all around them was interrupted into deadly silence.
    For at that precise moment, a feathered arrow flew in by way of the window and planted itself right in the fleshy part of the remaining uneaten deer’s meat, which also happened to be placed directly in front of the Sheriff.
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 3
    THE KISS
     
     
    Confusion reigned at once. Male voices calling:
    “Guards! Guards!”
    Female voices screaming. Feet running. Metal clanging. And in the midst of it all, the Sheriff’s booming, furious voice.
    “Get him, now ! I will have your heads, you hear me? He was right outside the window, you useless bastards!”
    A few soldiers rushed out the door, others tried to climb the window in an