Everything I Do: a Robin Hood romance (Rosa Fitzwalter Book 1) by M.C. Frank

answered.
    Soon she reached the water, and all thoughts of prayer flew from her mind as she concentrated on trying to fill the pail. It was harder than she had thought possible, for as soon as she lowered it into the gently flowing stream, its weight became unbearable for her slender arms, and she had to turn it sideways, or she would drop it. Thus, she didn’t collect more than three inches of water. She bent down and tried to summon all her strength, and by the third effort she managed to stagger upright with the pail full of water. Now she had to carry it, though. She took a deep breath and, lifting it with all her might, she tried to take a step. And then another.
    Walking like a drunkard, swinging this way and that under the great weight, she’d made little progress, when she felt the weight lifted off her shoulder and a strong hand supporting her as she stumbled and almost fell. She turned around in surprise and her heart leaped inside her. It was him.
    She almost threw her arms around him in her joy, but stopped herself just in time. The gentle smile that was hovering in his eyes told her that he must have seen her sudden movement, but underneath his mouth was hard and a deep frown was marring his fine brow.
    “Master, you’re back!” she said, almost dreading the news he brought, even in the midst of all her joy.
    “Who made you carry this, is what I would like to know,” he said angrily, as if he hadn’t heard her. “Is this now they treat you when my back is turned?”
    “No, I wanted to help…” she began to say, surprised at his words. Of all the things she had expected to be on his lips when he returned this was not one. “I would hate it if I were treated like some kind of weakling, or worse, like a lady who-”
    “You are not a lady,” he interrupted her, towering above her, his black eyes fixed on hers in a way that made her heart stop beating for a few seconds. “Not a mere lady,” he continued, easily balancing the heavy pail in one hand while he spoke. “You are a princess.”
    Fear gripped her at his words, fear that he had found out her secret. Had he met someone in the woods today who had given her away? Was this the reason that the words came out of his lips with so much intensity and anger?
    “I am hardly that, master,” she said cautiously, but he spoke again before she was through.
    “Yes, you are. In this forest, among Robin Hood’s men, you are a princess.” He swore softly. “Contrary to how we may treat you,” and he emphasized the ‘we’, for what reason she did not know, “you are a true lady here, and far above that.”
    Relief flooded through her, for even without understanding the exact meaning of his cryptic words, she knew he meant something else than her true status and her birth. Her knees sagged as the panic of discovery passed, and he quickly put the pail down with a loud splash to catch her in his arms, for he mistook her relief for weakness and fatigue.
    “Rest awhile,” he said, his voice a gentle whisper close to her ear, as he eased her on the soft grass, “while I refill this accursed pail and then you’ll tell me what these brutes have put you through during my absence.” He took off towards the stream and was back a mere blink of the eyelid later, shaming all of Rosa’s previous efforts to fill the bucket.
    She smiled wryly to herself, but her mind was still flooded with questions and worries.
    “I would rather know what passed in the forest today,” she said as soon as he had settled on the ground beside her.
    He turned his face away from her slightly, not speaking at once, and as he did she saw a slight scar running the length of his jawbone. The blood on it was dried and it did not appear to be deep, but it was fresh and that fact bespoke of a danger close enough that frightened her even though it was, for the moment, passed.
    Watching him, she suddenly realized that a tear was trickling down his sun-burnt cheek and his jaw was working, in