His next words shook her to the core.
“Hush, woman,” he said gently, holding her tighter in his arms. “I do not care at all what your name is. You are my true love and this is all that matters.”
He began to kiss the tears away from her face. Emma soon quietened, under his caresses. Yet she disentangled herself from him as soon as she became calm enough to ponder upon his words. What had he said? It seemed plain to her he did not understand who she truly was. How could he? Who could even think of such conniving deception?
“I’m not Rowena. Not your wife,” she told him in a voice she strived to make steady.
She would have him understand, once and for all. And if he would indeed always hate her for it, then it was fitting punishment for what she’d done to him and to their child.Because now she could not think of Robin again otherwise than her own son.
“I know you’re not Rowena. You are my wife now though. We are bound,” he told her in a voice which was steadier than hers.
She stared at him, stunned, going to take a seat on the stool by the table, and wincing as her spanked bottom touched the hard wood. She tried to clear her head. What was Arthen saying?
“I bound you to me, remember? That first night we met. At the time it was not a true bond. But now I’ve come to see it has become as it should be. You and I. Bound before the stars and before God and before all to see. Rowena was never a true wife of mine. Nor a true mother to Robin. You are,” he told her, coming to take her hand in his.
Emma shook her head in plain bewilderment. He’d known? And was he saying he’d come to care for her just as she’d come to care for him?
“How long have you known?” she asked him in wonder.
“I think I’ve known, deep down within my soul, ever since I set eyes upon you. Yet I refused to make myself acknowledge it. It is only this morning I fully let myself see it,” he told her, laying a kiss on the palm of her hand.
“Your hands,” he muttered. “They are too soft. Not common hands. You’re noble-born, aren’t you?”
“Aye.”
“Above me in birth, just as Rowena always thought herself above me. And I spanked you hard the day we met, for a fault that wasn’t even your own.”
She shrugged.
“It’s of no matter now.”
“You bore it well – the unfair punishment. Although it must have been hard to bear. As well as other things in a life different from a noblewoman’s, a hard life perchance, for one who’s not used to it.”
Emma shook her head vehemently, because she needed to make him see.
“Nay, not hard. A new life I chose for myself. One I’ll gladly embrace if you will have me. You see, I’ve come to love you. And you must know I’ve loved Robin ever since I set eyes upon him. So, will you have me?”
She glanced upon him uncertainly, still stunned he had found it so easy within himself to accept she was not the woman he’d married.
Arthen smiled, righting a tendril of her hair and caressing her cheek.
“You’re in my blood already. Forever mine. I will not have it otherwise.”
He ended his words with a kiss, and they made gentle love, against the very same kitchen table which had served for her punishment. Later, he asked her of her former life and held her tenderly as he listened to all she had to say of Rowena and of what had prompted her to seek her escape.
“So there you have it – the tale of how I came to be in your arms,” Emma said, laying her head upon his chest and feeling as if a heavy burden had been lifted off her shoulders.
Her man held her tight against him.
“I see I erred in thinking your life was not hard. Though you are high-born. Lady Marie – I understand now what you mean. I did not see it the same way as you. But now I see it. No wonder she seeks to free herself from them. Just as you did.”
“Aye, and I’m afraid – afraid of what may happen. Afraid of her defiance of them. Of mine. Of yours. In this world of ours. Of how Robin will grow up in a world such as this one.”
Arthen embraced her even more tightly and spoke in a soothing voice, filled with certainty. “He’ll grow up free. By learning from his parents to seek what is fair and true. By seeking to right the wrongs which can’t be borne.”
She couldn’t help but smile, although she already knew Robin's life may hold danger because he was his father's son and would grow up to uphold what was right and just.
“Like Hood, the hero in your tales?”