The Unpayable Debt

Chapter 7

VII

"The outlaw life seems to suit you Sir Guy."

The Knight had carried Sarah down to the river, gently set her down at the riverbank and was now dabbing at her injured wrists with a wet cloth. He stopped briefly with his ministrations to give her a sceptical look.

"Really!" she was smiling but had to wince as he dabbed at a particularly painful spot. "You're much more..."

"Sober?" he offered,

"Tender." He looked positively baffled at this insight of hers. He continued dabbing.

"You can spare me the flattery Sarah, I don't have any money." His voice was hard - much more the tone of voice she was used to hearing from him.

"I know. I saw that the moment we got here." She replied. He nodded, it was a bit of a come down since the last time she had seen him and that was putting it mildly.

"I had a knife at your back yesterday and I'm responsible for this." he gestured to her injured wrists "I would hardly call that tender." She had to agree but figured that calling him out on the events of yesterday, (his tying her up and bringing her to the forest – certainly not something she'd been happy about), were not going to get her out of there any quicker and so decided to not go there.

"But now you are letting me go and..." her voice trailed off. He raised his eyes to hers to find that a nervous expression had taken over her features: she was young but at that moment looked younger than ever.

"And...?" he prompted.

"And you never used to kiss me." She looked to the floor blushing and so did not see the amusement that flashed in his eyes before it gave way to the emotion that seemed to follow him like a shadow these days; regret.

"Sarah, I know that I wasn't good to you." He did not remember much but he knew enough of his behaviour at the time to know that he had been an absolute brute. He could feel his face burning with shame.

"Ah well, being jilted at the altar will do that to a man I suppose. It's not really an event to make a tender lover out of a man is it?"

Guy sighed. He wished the ground would swallow him up. Her being nice about it just made him feel worse.

Oh yes, you might feel wretched Gisborne - you should...

For a long time they sat there in silence, both lost in their thoughts before he cleared his throat and looked down to the hem of her skirt. "Show me your ankle."

She blushed; it seemed such a personal request, which was strange for he had seen far more of her body in the past but somehow now it was different. She smiled nervously and moved her foot towards him. He lowered himself so that he could push her skirts a little way up her calf to get a look at the damage, but before he reached out to touch her, he looked up at her; silently asking permission. She blinked once to signal her assent. He then very gently took her foot in his hand to get a closer look at her injuries.

It was all she could do at that moment to stop herself from closing her eyes to savour his touch. The look he had just given her had made her chest tighten and now his fingers were so soft upon her...

"We need to clean this as well, it's a mess." He looked up at her ruefully. "It should heal well though, once we've got it clean that is." He leaned over to reach for the cloth, scrambled over to the water's edge to wet it through and then very slowly and gently began dab at her ankle. Despite his care not to press too hard, she jolted as the cloth made contact with her ankle, hissing in pain.

He released her foot instantly, his eyes full of concern.

She looked down upon him once the pain had receded and began to laugh. She just couldn't help it. The situation was so strange that she could do no other.