Read Once Upon a Romance 03 - With True Love's Kiss for Free Online

relax;
barring sudden changes in direction she wouldn’t fall from the saddle.
    While
Isabelle dozed and Robin led the way, Bianca brooded on Robin’s revelation. He
had been sent to keep her safe? By whom? She wanted to know who this mysterious
benefactor was, and what interest they had in her. As she turned his words over
and over in her mind, another thing he had said struck her. She resolved to ask
him about it, when she got the chance.
    As the last
of the sun’s rays fled from the sky, Robin pulled up in a clearing and swiftly
stripped the saddle from his horse.
    “The moon
will not rise until close to midnight. We shall rest here until then, and head
out once there is enough light to see our path.”
    Isabelle
groaned as she all but fell from her horse, but made no protest. Instead she
tried to tend to her palfrey. Bianca stopped her and sent her to lie by the
fire Robin was starting.
    “I can see
to your horse. Go sleep, Isabelle. We’ll wake you to eat something in a little
while.”
    The Albian
queen didn’t have enough energy to argue. She tossed her blanket on the ground
and collapsed down onto it, falling immediately into a deep slumber.
    Bianca took
the saddles off both their horses, and made sure each had a nosebag of food.
Then she filled a small pot with water and nestled it near the fire, crumbling
strips of dried meat and vegetables into the pot. When the water boiled, it
would quickly become a stew. Then she took a deep breath and braved the dragon.
    “I suppose
it’s no use to ask you if we can stay here until morning.”
    Robin put
down the small piece of wood he was whittling and looked at her in
exasperation. “Have you no sense of self-preservation? Do you care for nothing but
her safety? Let me make it simple, then. If they find us, they will kill you
both. True, it is a risk, forcing Isabelle to ride, but it is far safer than if
she is found.”
    Bianca
decided to change topics. There was nothing to be gained by them yelling at
each other. They’d only wake up Isabelle, who seemed to agree wholeheartedly
with Robin. “That reminds me. You said something like that earlier. That, if we
were caught, we would both be lost. What about you? Are you not in danger?”
    Robin
laughed, the first sound of real humor she’d ever heard from him. “I am only in
danger so long as I stand between you and the king. If you and Isabelle were
killed then I would simply vanish into the forest.”
    “With the
king’s best hunters and trackers looking for the man that had betrayed him?”
Bianca was skeptical, but Robin just smirked at her.
    “There is no
man alive that can hunt me in the woods. I would never be found, were I not
burdened with two hinds.” He stood abruptly and strode off into the blackness
that ringed their fireside. His voice came floating back. “Finish your stew.
Then get some sleep. I will wake you when the moon rises.”
    Bianca
stared into the shadows where he’d disappeared. She heard his words echoing in
her head. I am only in danger so long as I stand between you and the king. What
was to stop him from vanishing in the night and leaving them to be found by the
king’s trackers? After all, he had never planned on helping Isabelle escape. What
if he decided it wasn’t worth the risk? What bond kept him at their side, when
he so clearly resented his task?
    When she
turned back to the fire, Bianca saw that Isabelle’s eyes were open. “He’ll be
back, Bianca. Don’t worry.”
    “How can you
be so sure?”
    For answer,
she got nothing but silence. Isabelle had drifted off again. Bianca went to
check her friend, and for a time, forgot her worry over her mysterious
protector.
    In the cool
air of the spring night, Isabelle’s face had started to burn.

Chapter 7
    Robin looked
down at the women sleeping huddled next to the fire, and the doubts and worry
he did not allow himself to speak raced around in his mind. They were moving at
a snail’s pace through the old forest. True,