The Robber Knight's Love

69. To Rob the Maiden

Reuben's long legs carried him quickly down the stairs, and soon he was around the bend of the stairs and out of Ayla's sight.

"Reuben! Stop!"

She heard low, diabolical laughter drift up the stairs towards her and hastened her steps. He was waiting for her in the room at the bottom of the tower. Ayla had a well-thought-out speech prepared by the time she reached it—a speech that detailed exactly what she thought of Reuben for almost giving her father a heart-attack. The speech was of impressive length, impeccable logic and made use of several rhetoric devices.

The problem was that when she stepped out into the room, he was standing there with that smile on his face, the smile that made her heart thud and her knees go weak. The speech just flew out of her left ear and fluttered out through the window, to seek the company of millions of other lost ideas among the stars.

What had she been about to say?

Ah. Yes.

Raising an admonishing finger, Ayla advanced on Reuben, but stopped several paces away from him. She couldn't go near him. Not while he had that smile on his face. She didn't know exactly what she would do if she got close enough for him to touch her, but she definitely wouldn't do what she needed to do right now: yell at him!

"You..." she said, shaking her finger at him from a safe distance. "You..."

"I what?" he asked, his grin widening a fraction.

"You were going to..."

"Going to do what, Milady?"

"Don't try to deny it!"

"Deny what exactly?" His voice was shaking now just a little. But not in fear of her threatening finger. He was laughing at her!

"You know what I'm talking about!"

He pursed his lips, as though in deep contemplation. "Just assume for the moment that I am very, very slow-witted."

"You! You and my father! You wanted to ask him... to ask him to..."

To ask him for my hand.

But she couldn't get the words out.

"You were going to ask him for you-know-what!" she finally spat out.

Suddenly, there was concern on Reuben's face. Ayla could almost have believed it to be genuine. "Do you think the request I had in mind was excessive?"

"I... I don't... I'm not..." She couldn't get out two words strung together. It was infuriating!

"Of course, I realize it might have been a bit much to ask," Reuben mused, nodding. "I see that, now that you mentioned it."

"I didn't mean..."

"After all, they are quite expensive to make. I'm not sure I should be asking something so costly."

"I didn't..." Ayla stopped herself, as she realized what he had said. "What? Expensive to make? What are you talking about?"

"Gloves." Reuben's eyes glittered with mischief. "You see, my gauntlets became rusty from the rain, and they have been damaged in the fighting anyway. And when your father offered to fulfill the deepest wish of my heart, I was looking at your hand and remembered. I thought that maybe he would pay for a new pair of gloves. After all, he said that I could name anything that was in his power to give."

"Reuben..."

"But as I said, now that you have mentioned it, I see that I was excessive. Greedy, even. I should have thought of something more moderate. A nice handkerchief, maybe. Or a bottle of wine."