Chapter 14
"So you've been back here." Robin gathered as he replaced the canteen and looked about the room.
"I brought a few things and spruced up a bit, yeah." Maria replied. She looked down and noticed she was now standing in a puddle of water from all the dripping of her garments.
Maria swept her hair over to one shoulder, leant forward and wrung the water out. Robin laughed in surprise at just how ridiculously wet she really was. "Don't laugh, Robin! I'm just really wet and you...you are nearly completely dry!"
"No. My hat is quite wet actually." Robin teased . Maria took off his jacket and flung it at him. Then she turned and began to pull down the collar of her dress, exposing her shoulder. He caught the jacket in surprise, confused at what Maria was planning. "Now if you really are the gentleman I believe you to be, you will have a good mind to turn around." She instructed and walked over to the bed and gathered up the quilt.
Robin turned to face the door, still not quite sure what Maria had in mind. He entertained an idea or two. He heard a rustling sound and he sneaked a glance over his shoulder. He saw Maria standing next to the bed facing away from him. He watched as she slipped her dress down from her shoulders. Her porcelin skin looked so delicate and soft and his eyes traced the curve of her body. He quickly turned away, grinning to himself.
"There, you can turn around now, Robin." Maria instructed. Robin turned around to see Maria perched on the trunk at the foot of the bed. With a quilt wrapped around her small frame. Her burgundy velvet gown was in a heap beside her. It was dripping down the side of the trunk and creating a small puddle on the dirt floor next to her boots. And her feet were poised elegantly on a small braided rug.
Robin quickly ascertained that Maria would be covered in mud due to the dirt floor if she were to walk across it. "Here," He said crossing the room and reaching for Maria's sopping wet gown, "Let me hang that by the fire," He picked up her dress and wrung it out in the corner before hanging it by the kettle hook in front of the fire. He grabbed her boots, noting how petite and dainty there were, and placed them next to his hat on the hearth.
Then he poured Maria some tea from the kettle. Steam flowed from the little cup as the heat hit the cold air. He handed it to her and a little shock of warmth flowed through them both as Maria's fingers brushed against Robin's, when she took the cup from him. Robin cleared his throat and sat in one of the chairs at the quaint table across the room.
They were both warmed from the inside out as they sipped their tea and rested by the fire. Maria felt awkard sitting under a quilt with nothing but her corset and undergarments on and in a room alone with Robin. She kept glancing at her dress on the hook by the fire, wishing with each look that it would be dry by the next time to looked again.
After a long while Maria and Robin settled into a nice conversation. Learning a great deal of eachother. "I never knew my mother either, she also died when I was very young." Maria replied to Robin after he explained how his mother had died when he was born. They felt connected and were pleased to have someone their age to trust and befriend on this deeper level.
The sun broke free and streams of light made it's way through the roof of twisted tree roots above them, "The rain has stopped!" Maria exclaimed, the excitement was evident in her voice. "I really wanted to return to amphitheatre on the bluff today and look out at the sea. Will you come with me?" She asked Robin enthusiatically. "Hmm...I suppose so." Robin teased.
"It's lucky the fire has died out," Robin began as he picked up his hat from the hearth and placed it over his mop of curls, "since taking the tunnels would be the fastest way to get there." For a moment Maria had forgotten that the fireplace had doubled as a secret passageway to the tunnels that led to the bluff. She stared into the glowing embers, becoming mesmorized by the smoldering golden hue.
Robin tossed Maria's dress toward her and she was awakened from her trance as the it landed in her lap. Maria blinked up at him. " Get dressed Princess," He laughed at the irony of his comment. Never thought I'd hear myself say that. Robin thought to himself with a smirk.