:cD Warning!! Extreme mushyness ahead!!

So if you don't mind the lovingness, read on!

TrudiRose: Thank you soo much! I'm so glad you love my story.

Brunette-Beauty: Thank you!

Mistyqueen: Yes, I tried to keep the creepy vibe out of it. So my logic goes like this. Robbie does see her through his heart's eye, so he loves her on a subconcious level. So when he goes into a semi-conscious state, his true feelings come out. (A good thing too!)

EreshkigalGirl: :cD

Black Sheep Alone: My mobs do. ;c) But seriously, that mob wasn't really out for her blood. Only Quincy was. The townspeople were convinced (by Quincy) that Robbie had been kidnapped, so they were only there to really see that she got what she diserved and Robbie was returned home. But whenRobbie said that hewasn't unhappy, they all just went home.

Elven Hearts: Thank you! I think I've read that version too. I hope you'll continue to read!

Shards of Dawn: No! Not that! I don't like anyone dying! :c( Here's the update! Juste pour vu!

See you next update!

-Lulai

Chapter Nine: Truths

All Robbie could see was red. The sunlight was streaming through the window and over his closed eyes. He started to throw his arm over his face, but something seemed to restrict his movements. He gingerly opened his eyes into the midmorning sun.

Suddenly, all the memories of the prior night came back to him in a giant rush. The mob, Lia, his brother stabbing his shoulder. He opened his eyes and looked down. His shirt had been removed, and his arm was bandaged tightly against his chest. Using his good arm, Robbie pushed himself up into a sitting position.

Across the room in Lia's rocker, sat a young woman with fiery red hair, reading one of Lia's books and humming to herself softly. He cleared his throat to get her attention. Her face shot up out of the book.

"Robbie!" she exclaimed happily, laying the book aside and rushing to his side. "I'm so glad you're awake."

Before Robbie could even move, the woman leaned down, cupped his face in her hands, and gave him a kiss right on the lips. While it wasn't unpleasant, it was very nice really, Robbie couldn't help but feel a little unsettled about kissing a stranger. Especially when it felt so right.

But then the woman's warm lips were gone before he could contemplate his emotions further. She began to bustle around the cottage, leaving Robbie sitting on the bed, his mouth slightly agape.

"I was so worried when you didn't wake up this morning, but I told myself not to bother you, as you had just got stabbed through the shoulder. I wondered if I had added to much Mostren to the tea. It would make anyone sleep through the apocalypse, Mostren would!" Amidst her talking, she had made a fresh poultice and gathered new bandages. Watching her, Robbie couldn't shake the feeling that he knew her. He just couldn't place her. She sat on the edge of the bed and using a small knife, cut away the bandages that wrapped him, carefully. All the while she never stopped talking.

"After that brother, Quincy? stabbed you I had to haul you back in here. You were bleeding something fierce and only half-coherent on top of it." She placed the bloodied bandages on the floor. He turned to look at his wound, but she caught his chin in her fingers and kept his head straight. "Don't pull at the wound, else you might re-open it! And after all my hard work too! You aren't a willowswitch, and in retrospect, I probably should have had you drink your tea after I bandaged you, but you were probably in a great deal of pain."

She leaned in close to examine his wound and he could smell her hair. She smelled like roses and... goodness, he guessed. He couldn't explain it any better. She looked up at him with a smile, and again he half-recognized her.

"This looks good," she said, dipping a cloth in warm water. She began to clean the blood off his shoulder. Even though she was being exceptionally careful, Robbie couldn't hide a wince when she touched the open sore.

"I'm sorry!" she said, immediately contrite. "This is a nasty wound. I have half a mind to go give your brother a nasty lashing. Here. I'll bind this and just put your arm in a sling for the day. When you were asleep, I didn't want you flinging your arms around and prevent it from healing, but now that you're awake, you can be careful." She applied the poultice and wrapped the bandages around his shoulder quite efficiently. She washed her hands in the bowl and dried them on her apron.

"Finished," she said, slipping his shirt over his head and carefully pushed it over his injured shoulder. He pushed his good arm through as she tied his other arm in a sling. "You were better than most of my patients, but then you know about that." She began to stand up.

"Who are you?" Robbie blurted out. A slow flush began to creep up his neck when she looked at him with her uncanny grey eyes. Wait, grey eyes? he thought, a strange suspicion taking hold of him.

"You mean you don't recognize me?" she asked. Her face twisted a little. "Well, I guess I shouldn't have expected better." She turned away from him. Robbie couldn't help but feel that he had been insulted.

Robbie stood up angrily. "Now, I want some answers. Who are you, and where is Lia?" He grabbed her shoulder with his good hand and spun her around when he was struck by an intense feeling of déja vu. Suspicion bloomed into full-force realization.

"Oh God... Lia?" That would explain why he felt as if he knew the young lady. He did know her.

"What?" she asked peevishly, glaring at him, her arms folded over her chest.

He opened his mouth, but no sound seemed to be to be issuing from it. He knew he probably looked like a simpleton, but he couldn't help it. "How?" he finally strangled out.

She looked down at her toes. "Well, I don't know," she muttered, seeming embarrassed.

"What do you mean you don't know?" he asked irritably. "You must have some inkling why you were an old woman of fifty yesterday and a young woman of what, sixteen? today."

"Nineteen," she said petulantly.

"Still," he said. He tried to look into her face, but she kept her gaze on the floor. He decided to use a different tactic.

"Lia," he said, squeezing her shoulder. "You don't need to keep secrets from me. Haven't we told each other all about us? You even know my deepest secret."

Finally, finally, she looked up at him. "How you're afraid of spiders?" she asked, a touch of humour in her voice.

Robbie laughed, in relief as much as anything else. "Yes. Can you imagine. Me? Afraid of spiders? I'm far bigger than they are but they just give me the willies. Do you know how much that could damage me and my reputation?" he joked. "That's how much I trust you. I wish you could place the same trust in me."

He looked deep into her eyes and his voice lowered to a whisper. "Whatever it is, you can tell me. I won't stop loving you."

His last words seemed to be her undoing. She burst into tears, heart wrenching sobs that Robbie almost couldn't bear. He gathered her into him, and she grabbed his shirt in her hands and cried into his chest. Slowly her sobs died into little sniffles.

"Oh, Robbie, I'm sorry," she said, mopping up her tears with the back of her hand. She looked up into his face and gave a watery chuckle. "I was being foolish. I kept thinking that you would recognize me immediately and not care about why I changed, but that was silly. You see, I don't want you to get hurt, and by telling you, I will drag you into the middle of this."

"I'm already hurt," he said with a wry grin. "So, no need to worry. If I can handle my brothers I can handle anyone."

She looked at his shoulder. "See? You were already hurt in my defence. I simply don't want that to happen again. What if they miss your shoulder and get your heart? I don't think I could bear it."

"But, I wouldn't be able to sit around while you were in trouble and still feel good about myself," he retorted softly. "Surely you understand that."

"Yes," she said, smiling at him. Her smile shot straight through him in a warm zing of pleasure. "Your loyalty is one of the things I love about you." She took a deep breath. "I don't want to tell you because I'm afraid you will treat me distance yourself from me and I love you too much for that to happen."

"I will never do that," Robbie promised. He lowered his head to hers. "Never," he whispered against her lips. He kissed her soft mouth, trying to say in actions all that he felt. He tightened his arm around her waist, pulling her towards him, until it felt as though they were a single unit. Lia responded in kind by sliding her hands into the back of his hair, pressing his lips more firmly on hers.

He pulled back slightly, pressing loving kisses all over her face.

"So?" he said, brushing her copper locks out of her slightly flushed face.

"About the kiss?" she asked breathlessly, her arms around his neck.

Robbie laughed and touched his nose to hers. "Actually, I was talking more about you."

Lia took a shaky breath and let it out. "I was cursed by sister. She thought I was stealing her fiancé," she said, rolling her eyes.

"And you weren't," Robbie expanded.

"Of course not!" she said, slightly affronted. But then she relaxed again. "The man kept throwing himself at me."

"No wonder! A pretty girl like you," Robbie said in a teasing voice.

"Silence, you wretch!" Lia said back with a grin. "Anyways," she continued, "she cursed me to look like an old woman until someone could see me 'through their heart's eye'. And I guess you did that," she said with a shy smile.

He gave her a smile in return. "Your sister?"

She bit her lip, uncertainty. "Princess Clarissa," she said quickly. "Or I guess Queen Clarissa as she now calls herself, although I was sure that my father was still alive. Perhaps – "

"Lia," Robbie interrupted, "are you telling me that your sister is the Witch Queen?"

Lia nodded, hesitantly.

"Does that mean that?" Robbie left the question unfinished.

"Yes," she said, uncertainly, "I'm the Princess Annalia."

There was a moment of silence as Robbie absorbed this. This day had been crazier than any other day of his life. In fact, the last week felt like his life was turned up side down. But he felt happier at this moment than he had ever rembered feeling.

"So what are we going to do?" he asked. Lia's face relaxed into a sunny smile.

"Well," she said, "I would really like to see what happened to my father. So I would like to travel to the capital."

"But isn't that where your sister is?"

"Yes, but we don't need to even see her. Just try and find out information." She looked at him pleadingly.

"Alright," he said, kissing her nose. "We'll leave tomorrow."