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.

Was this the same man? He was so altered she could hardly recognise him. If somebody had told her a few days ago that Guy of Gisborne would be looking after her like this; gently cleaning her wounds, taking such care not to hurt her, she would never have believed it for a second. And yet here he was…

"What?" He looked offended. She smiled: now that was familiar; he always had been quick to take offense.

"I'm sorry Guy; I just can't get over how different you are now." He scowled. He had always been quick to dismiss compliments as well. He continued with the job in hand trying not to dwell on her words as he did so.

She watched him enraptured. He had always had a certain hold over her. She remembered the first time she had seen him, she could not believe that somebody so beautiful existed. She knew that beautiful was not a word commonly used for men but she could not find a better one to describe him. She had been so young and the sensations she had felt had been so new, so foreign, so overwhelming - she had not been able to understand what was happening to her. At first, she had been unable to look at him and had taken pains to keep her distance. She had been terrified that he could see what he was doing to her, how he was making her feel. She had been an innocent in every way back then, a child, a girl, a maiden.

Of course, it didn't last.

She knew she should've been repulsed by his manner, his drunken boorish behaviour and his destructive self-pity but who could see such a beautiful creature in such pain and not wish to relieve it's suffering? What a fool you were Sarah, to fall for such a man... …and oh, how you fell...

"Guy?"

"Hmm?" He didn't look up, merely carried on cleaning her wounds.

"I have something to confess." Her voice was mischievous; he inwardly groaned wondering what it was she was going to make him feel uncomfortable about now. He looked up and tried not to look too impatient with her.

"Yes?"

"I can't leave. I don't know the way out of here." She lowered her head and then looked up at him from under her lashes, using her big beautiful dark brown eyes to full pleasing effect, giving him a look to make men weak. "Maybe you could show me the way back?"

He smiled. He knew exactly what she was doing. He decided to play along. "Well I could…"

"But…?"

"Well… it would cost you." His look was as 'innocent' as her own. She sighed. She had an idea what was coming. She quirked an eyebrow.

"What do you want Guy?"

"Well let me see…" He brought his attention away from her ankle now to draw level with her, tilting his head so that now his eyes were the ones being displayed to full pleasing effect. "…how about a kiss?"

She rolled her eyes.

Not bad Gisborne! Could've been a slap!

He was looking at her with a certain nonchalance, as if what he was proposing was not something he wanted fervently but he did not fool her - she could see how much he wanted it. That he was pretending otherwise amused her greatly.

She nodded.

He smiled and no sooner had his lips found hers that she felt a smirk of triumph against her lips. She was briefly irritated by this but what he did after that left no room for irritation whatsoever: He kissed her so slowly and gently that she found herself melting. His lips worshipped the upper bow of her mouth and when he tilted his head to do the same for her bottom lip as well, she realised that she was gone; he had her now – she had never experienced a sweeter kiss in all her life.

He slid his fingers all the way up her back, with one hand sliding forwards to cup her jaw and cradle her face, the other resting at the nape of her neck pushing her closer so his mouth could take more of hers. He continued to be gentle: this was not the hungry demanding kiss he had forced upon her yesterday as he'd disarmed her, with his lips pressing hard, angry and insistent upon hers – no, this was something else, something much more like a beginning he hoped, a kiss to make her want more of his kisses and maybe more besides…

He broke the kiss to look down at her and the expression on her face was just as he had hoped. He dipped in for another but she stopped him. He sighed; she might have been holding back but her lips told him another story - there was no hiding the sweetly satisfied smile upon them.

"Can't blame a man for trying…," he whispered huskily, pressing a soft kiss upon her temple before releasing her from his embrace. She smoothed down the front of her dress and adjusted her mussed-up hair.

"So now you will show me the way back."

It wasn't a question.

"Ah… well, now that you mention it, we might have a small problem there…" Why did that not surprise her? She was annoyed but not surprised. No, she might have guessed that when it came down to it he wouldn't keep his word.

"You had no intention of letting me go did you?" Her face darkened, all sweetness gone.

"I did... I do... You are free to go... You can go anytime." He leant back and raised his arms in submission, "And I promise I would show you the way if I could, but that's the problem; I can't. Maybe during the daytime I could, but not now, in the dark, I haven't been staying here long enough. Ask Allan if you don't believe me, he'll tell you but I wouldn't go waking him right now – I don't think he will appreciate it…"

She studied him closer, trying to discern if he was telling the truth.

"Look I promise if you wait until light we will take you back; you have my word."

"You said before you would show me the way!" She was still angry.

"I know and I will, I just didn't say when…" He bit back his amusement at her frown, God she was sweet, so sweet he just had to taste her again. "Sarah please, it is the middle of the night, let us go and sleep for a few hours and then we'll see about getting you home yes?" He held out his hand to her. She sighed and reluctantly took it.

"Good girl." He smiled at her but received no smile in return. He shrugged and walked her back to camp.