Harlow took a glance at him, his hair teasing his eyes gently. It had grown slightly within the past couple of weeks. "Fine," She answered, still smiling contentedly as she looked back toward the lake. "How are you feeling?"
The sides of his mouth twitched upward gently, "Fine," he said, sighing and looking around. "I brought you some stew from yesterday," he said, picking up the bowl and holding it out to her, "since you hadn't eaten anything."
Harlow's smile grew. "I was really hoping you'd bring me some," she said, taking the bowl gratefully and starting to shovel the food into her mouth.
Enders chuckled, watching her momentarily before returning his gaze to the lake.
Harlow was halfway finished when she looked at the bowl, taking in its intricate detail. "Where did we get this bowl from?"
"The raid from last week," Enders said, looking down at the lake water. "I saw it fitting for royalty."
Harlow chuckled. "Thanks."
Enders smiled, still staring out over the lake. "You're welcome."
This is how things had been for the last couple of weeks. Enders had been especially generous and nice, bringing Harlow food and supplies whenever she needed anything. She would feel her heart ache to see him every day, unlike it had been previously between them. She would have to stop frequently and make sure that she knew that he was under the impression that she was a man. Enders wouldn't possibly feel anything toward her, but it didn't stop her heart from speeding up and skipping beats whenever he was around.
Enders suddenly sighed as Harlow silently ate her food. "How is the wound?" He asked, turning his eyes to her own.
She shrugged, still chewing on her food. She swallowed before answering, "It's okay. It still hurts sometimes, but I can move now."
"I figured when I saw you out here," Enders said, his smile still apparent on his lips. "Be careful, though."
Harlow raised an eyebrow, a smile plaguing her lips. "I'm not sure I'm familiar with that word."
Enders laughed loudly. "Yeah?"
Harlow nodded, earning another laugh from Enders.
"How do you like being the Commander of a unit?" Harlow asked, pushing aside the empty bowl and leaning backward.
Enders sighed. "It's not easy," he turned his eyes to hers, "but if you could manage it, I can too."
Harlow nodded. "You're right," she said, making sure her hat was still on tightly, "it's really not easy."
Enders fought the urge to smile at her before he took in a sharp intake of air and stood up. "Speaking of the Unit, I've got to go brief them on our next raid," he brushed off his pants as he stood.
Harlow took one more bite of her food before, looking up to him, "I'll walk with you."
Enders raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure you can do that?"
Harlow chuckled, getting to her feet awkwardly, and trembling slightly. "Aye," she said, as Enders put one hand on her arm so she wouldn't fall.
"When is the next raid?" Harlow asked as the two walked down the pier, Harlow's bowl in her hand, her eyes pointed to the cabins ahead.
"None of your business," Enders said, smiling as he looked toward the ground.
Harlow laughed, nudging Enders' arm. "Come on, tell me," She looked toward her feet, feeling a slight pulsating in her midsection.
Enders was silent for a few seconds before he spoke, "Tomorrow night is the raid for our unit."
Harlow nodded, a small smile playing on her lips. "Be careful, then."
Enders smiled deviously, "I'm not sure I know the meaning of that word."
Harlow started chuckling as they reached the end of the pier. She raised her eyes, as the sound of Enders laugh echoed in her memory.
That's when she saw him.
Her heart froze. Panic and fear resonated throughout her stomach and threatened to spread through to her limbs.
A man stood before the two outlaws, staring angrily at Harlow, although due to Enders' presence, seemed to hold back the rage he had held. His short brown hair gleamed in the sun, although gray strands had invaded the color. His strong physique suggested he'd been healthy and active in her absence.
Harlow felt her blood run cold: "Father."
Chapter Fourteen
The man stood, his arms crossed, his eyes filled with rage as he stared down at Harlow.
Harlow could feel Enders tense up beside her as she stood in the older-looking, sad, angry eyes of her father.
"Henry?" Her father asked, trying to seem as if he was just capturing his child's attention.
"Yes?" Harlow answered, her heart beating a million beats a minute. Her eyebrow raised as she acted nonchalantly. “What brings you to Sherwood, Father?”
Harrison McBride's lips twitched gently, as if he'd thought she was being funny. “I was simply passing through Sherwood and heard that my son was doing quite well.” He said, anger apparent in his voice, “Except for the run in with King Wesley's General recently, that is.”
Harlow felt her face blush red with fear as her hand instinctively hovered over her wound.
"Can I speak with you privately?" He asked, motioning for her to enter the cabin behind him, which had been her sleeping quarters since her arrival.
"Don't you need to speak with Robin Hood first?" Harlow asked, trying desperately to prolong the death sentence she faced.
"I already have," Her father said, impatiently, "Now if you don't mind." He motioned again to the cabin.
Harlow looked backward at Enders, and forward again to her father. "My Unit needs to be briefed on the next raid tomorrow afternoon," Harlow said, trying not to lie, "I'm afraid this matter is a very pressing one."
"Ah," her father had said, crossing his arms and looking at her, "That's odd. From what I've been told, you haven't been involved in any raids for eleven weeks now."
Harlow sighed, silently cursing at Robin Hood in her head. She nodded and turned to Enders. "Excuse me, Enders," she said almost inaudibly, before sulking into the cabin.
Her father paused only for a moment before storming into the cabin and slamming the door shut behind him.
*~*~*
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Harrison McBride shouted at his daughter as she leaned up against the door frame. He placed his hands on his hips as he stared at her.
"What am I doing? What are you doing?" Harlow asked, leaning back on the door post.
Harrison raised one hand to his forehead and rubbed his face. "Take off the hat. I want to speak with my daughter, not my son."
Harlow stood silent for a moment. "No. I can't," she shook her head, "I wont."
Harrison McBride shook his head at her defiance. "Why are you here? Don't you understand how dangerous it is here?!" He exclaimed, unknowing where to put his hands.
Harlow stayed quiet, looking at her arms folded across her chest.
Harrison sighed, exasperated. "Why, Harlow?"
She turned her eyes upward. She shrugged, biting the inside of her cheek. "There were a lot of reasons."
Harrison again sighed, "Like what? What could possibly make you want this?"
Harlow found her blood begin to boil in frustration. "You'd already been in one war. You shouldn't have had to do this again. How could Robin ask you to do this again?! That was the main reason. No one liked me in the village, anyway. They all wanted me to leave, but that would mean you would leave too, and they couldn't risk that. They would say things, talk about me. I was a failure to them. I had no life there."
"That's no reason to leave. You had another option!" Her father exclaimed.
"No, Dad! I had no other options! What would you possibly have done with me? Send me off to marry Enders?! He's here too! That was it! That was the last line for me in the social order." Harlow shouted at him, feeling her fists clench and unclench with anger. "Thank you for telling me that I'm engaged, by the way. How long have I been engaged? I had to figure that out on my first raid as Commander." Harlow said sarcastically, looking out the window as she leaned against the wall.
Harrison looked somewhat taken aback by the statement. He left the words hanging in the air.
Harlow knitted her eyebrows together as she looked to her side. "How could you do that? You planned to marry me off without my consent. I wont do it. I wont marry him." She said, looking to the side and letting her eyes fall to the floor.
Harlow shook her head and pushed herself off of the door post, feeling a strike of pain in her abdomen. She refused to show the pain. "What are you going to do then? Send me back home?"
Her father sighed. "No." He rubbed his eyes tiredly. It was the first time Harlow had noticed how tired he'd looked.
Harlow looked at him, an eyebrow raised and her eyes looking skeptical. "Why not?"
"There's no home to go back to." Harrison said, sitting down in a chair that had been pushed aside earlier. He raised his hands to his eyes and rubbed them again, slouching forward and propping his elbows up on his knees. “The kings men came through the village last week.”
Harlow felt her jaw go slack as she stared at him in disbelief. “The village is gone?”
Harrison nodded. “Practically.” He said, closing his eyes and letting his head hang. “There were only four survivors. They refused the refuge of Sherwood. I stopped by here to let Robin know. Then I was headed to the next village over to check for survivors there.”
Harlow took a step closer to her father. “Why did they come? What are they looking for?”
Harrison raised his eyes to look at her. There resided sadness in the speckled bronze color. “They were looking for outlaws. Apparently, someone had tipped them off.”
Harlow took an uneasy step forward. She was left speechless.
Her father sat almost still, rubbing his tired eyes again. “They came in looking for Robin Hood, but under the threat of torture and death, my name came up and they started searching for me. I fled before they lit the place on fire.”
Harlow wanted to say something but found nothing to say.
“They know that I have a daughter, but they haven't any idea where you could be.” Her father's voice finally shook.
Harlow had never seen her father so shaken.
“I want to be mad. I want to yell at you and send you away from here, but,” He sighed, feeling burdened, “honestly, the best thing you could have done was leave, and that's what you did.”
Silence hung in the air as Harlow realized her almost fate.
“You're a brave girl, and I'm proud of you and the courage you have.” He said, looking up at her, clasping his hands together under his chin. “You're so much like your mother.”
Harlow nodded and shifted herself to lean on her other leg. “I'm sorry I've caused you so much heartache in the last few months.”
Harrison chuckled and closed his eyes. “I'm sorry I didn't tell you that you were engaged.”
Harlow wanted to smile, but kept her face even. She looked backward at the door and then to her father, who'd opened his eyes and looked at her, an eyebrow raised. “Are you going to tell Robin who I am?”
Harrison laughed. “You mean, am I going to tell him you're not my son?”
Harlow nodded, trying to make her eyes hardened.
Harrison shook his head, his lips still turned up in a smile. “No. Not yet, anyway.”
Harlow nodded and turned toward the door ready to leave.
“Although,” Her fathers voice stopped her. “You may want to be careful of Enders. If anybody is going to connect the dots, it will be him.”
Harlow raised an eyebrow at her father but nodded regardless. “Aye,” she said, the masculine undertone coming to the surface as she tried to regain her disguise.
Upon exiting the cabin, she noticed the sun had gone down some and the grass didn't seem so bright anymore. The sounds of normal operations surrounded her as she walked carefully to a secluded lake front area. She watched the lake from a new angle, hoping to see things anew.
The village was attacked. Everyone she'd known since she was young were now gone. The King was getting to cruel, to drunk with power. King Wesley was cruel and spoiled. He was used to having his way. He would never rest until Robin Hood and his outlaws were captured or dead.
She watched as a small girl walked around, her hand in her mother's hand as the two approached the lake. For the sake of all these people, Harlow knew she had no other choice. The King had to be stopped. She'd rested long enough and now it was time to return to her unit.
She turned her back on the lake and headed toward the cabin to the far right side, where her unit would be briefing.
She raised one hand to the brim of her hat as she walked, all the strands of her hair tucked neatly inside.
Chapter Fifteen
Quietly, she entered the cabin, capturing only the attention of Elwin who had been positioned looking at the entrance of cabin from across the room.
He smiled brightly as she entered the cabin.
“We're going to enter from the west side here,” Enders had directed to the three other men in the room as he pointed a place on the map in front of him. “Then, Elwin, you'll go around with Candor and catch them off guard.”
Ever since Harlow had been injured, Robin saw Enders as a fitting leader, allowing him to pick his fourth member. Harlow smiled, seeing Candor in the room among the men.
“Is the plan understood?” Enders asked, looking everyone over.
Harlow took a step forward. “One question,” Harlow said, capturing Enders attention, his body moving to see her at the doorway, “Where do you want me to be?”
Enders looked worried for a moment before letting the emotion go. “Are you sure you can do this, Henry?”
Harlow nodded. “Aye.”
Enders looked her over for a moment before he looked down at his map. “You'll be with me, raiding the items while Elwin and Candor take out the opposition.”
Enders spent the next fifteen minutes going over battle tactics and strategies.
*~*~*
Harlow laid silently on her cot, staring up at the ceiling. The window to her left let the moonlight flutter into the cabin and shine on the floor next to her. It was one of the most beautiful sights she'd seen in days.
It had been three days since her father had come to Sherwood after the village was attacked. War had been started by the King, it had been for a long time now, but nobody had ever wanted to step up to the plate and the outlaws were no match for an entire Kingdom.
Word was going around that since the attack on Lincoln village, the other villages around Sherwood have been in constant and utter disarray. The citizens were in a panicked frenzy about whether or not their children would be safe from the terrors of the king.
Harlow laid still for a full hour before deciding she couldn't sleep.
She sat up and looked around her cabin. There were eleven other men sleeping in the long building, the door residing on the other end.
She spotted Enders sleeping peacefully on his cot, just as the rest of the men were.
An idea sparked in her mind as she silently stood up and grabbed a change of clothing.
She tiptoed her way down the empty area of the cabin, the area not lined with sleeping bodies. She stepped past Enders when a lone, quiet creak echoed slightly throughout the building. At first, she was scared that the noise would wake up one of the men, but as she turned and looked, she noticed that everyone was still snoring and sleeping soundly.
She pushed the door open and closed it with no problem.
The darkness outside wasn't overwhelming. Instead, it was calming and relaxing. It was the first time that Harlow really felt to herself, alone in a good way, since she'd left her home, which she remembered didn't exist anymore.
She didn't care much for all of her now lost possessions, and luckily she'd taken all of the letters Robin had sent her father when she'd departed to Sherwood. Whomever raided their home would find nothing incriminating, valuable, or even slightly important.
Silently, she passed the pier on her right side,
taking a long glance at the area that she'd come to know as a peaceful getaway.
The dirt path was soft under her feet, making no noise and causing a type of therapeutic feeling on the soles of her feet.
It took three minutes of walking on the dirt path until she came to a deviation of the path, on the right, and took an almost invisible path to a secluded portion of the lake front.
Silently, she tossed her extra clothing over a branch and took a minute to look over the moonlit lake.
She raised her hands to the front of her shirt, to unlace the top few strands so she could pull the shirt over head.
Just as she was about to pull the shirt up, a noise sounded out in the secluded area. She quickly dove behind a log and ducked out of view.
“Henry?” Harlow's heart skipped a beat as Enders voice called out her temporary name.
Harlow froze, not able to sit up and look at him. She was somewhat scared, knowing that if he'd come only a minute later, she would have been exposed.
“You're not very good at hiding, you know,” Enders said, obviously, chuckling as the words left his lips.
Harlow tried not to smile at his nonchalant, easy going behavior, especially when it was so late outside. She finally stood up and looked at him. “Hey, Enders,” She greeted, stepping over the log and taking a seat on it.
“What has you up so late?” Enders asked, sitting next to her as he stared out over the lake, taking a quick glance at her before taking a double take and pulling his eyes back to the lake.
He'd seen her front laces undone on her shirt. It wasn't undone very much, but it exposed just a little bit more skin than normal, and Harlow supposed he'd understood what she was going to do.
She shrugged and looked at her hands in her lap. “I couldn't sleep.” It wasn't a lie, which made her feel better about herself.
“Ahh, I see.” Enders nodded, looking down to his hands in his lap as well. “I couldn't fall asleep either.”
Sherwood Page 11
