ALL THAT MATTERS

Robin liked holding her there to his chest, but he was feeling again like he was going to cough and his attempts to stifle that cost him the moment. Releasing her, he turned his head to the side, unable to keep the coughs contained any longer.

Julie sat back on her heels, waiting for it to pass. It seemed somehow long ago that he'd gone into the burning building. Hadn't it been...weeks? How could it possibly have been just yesterday? That couldn't be right. So much had happened, too much for so few hours. But watching him struggle with the coughing brought it into focus that, yes, it had been truly only yesterday.

When he quieted again, he asked, "Chicken?"

"Ah, yes, it is. Do you think you're up for a bit of dinner, Robin?" There, she'd called him Robin without first almost calling him Robert.

"I'm hungry enough that I might be able to eat it even if it's still slightly alive."

Julie smiled, getting to her feet, holding out her hand toward him. He took it, kissed it lightly, softly, then stood, returning her smile. "Shall we go down?"

She nodded, not completely certain she was not dreaming this whole thing. When he held his arm for her to take, and she turned, sliding hers through his, she lost all uncertainty. She was, of course, dreaming.

Then there he was at her table, gratefully lifting the cup of hot tea she'd made him to his lips. "I...I thought it would be good for the cough...you know."

She enjoyed watching him eat, especially the way he broke off chunks of his bread and wiped it through the gravy. "It's good," he said, "all of it."  He had, indeed, been hungry.

After dinner, she made a fresh pot of tea and the two of them settled on the couch. That seemed natural somehow that they do that and not sit in separate chairs. "How strange," he commented, shaking his head, not finishing his thought aloud.

"Strange? To be in my house?"

"Strange that I would have to come to the far side of the world to find the loveliest Englishwoman of them all."

"You make me glad I'm English," she murmured.

"I, too, am glad you're English," he smiled. "I have spent much time in France, though mostly at war, and much time also in the Holy Land, almost completely at war, and I have seen women of many kinds but your Englishness takes my heart and makes it feel as though it has come home."

She loved the line, wanted to remember it for possible future use in her book, but at the same time one part of her mind was thinking that, another was quite lost in the fact that he had said it, even more lost in the sound of his voice as he said it.

Setting down his cup, he leaned toward her, smiling just slightly as he noted the instant parting of her lips in response to his movement. His mouth found hers again and he felt himself grow full with the wanting of her, but he was also aware of a great tiredness that seemed to go down into his bones. No, not tonight. Not when he was not fully returned to himself. So he contented himself with the kiss, with sliding his left hand around her body. She gasped as his hand brushed along the outside of her breast and he wanted her more than he thought he could bear. Pulling back, he wiped a hand across his face.

"Are you all right, Robin?"

He nodded mutely, closing his eyes. "Tired?" she asked, and at his second nod, she touched his shoulder. "Rest here," she suggested, her mind skittering with mounds of words as she imagined his head in her lap. When he actually did it, leaned sideways, settling his head across her thighs, the words in her brain crashed into each other, splintered, fell downward, their shards filling her throat so that she lost all power to speak. All she could do was look down at his profile, managing to breathe a little here and there, but nothing more.

She felt his head grow heavier as his body relaxed into sleep and his lips parted. Lowering her head, she kissed his shoulder. "Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the Glen," her mind sang soundlessly. "Robin Hood, Robin Hood...come now to me from then."  She didn't even care how. He was there and that was all that mattered. She let her hand run lightly over his close-cropped hair. "Robin," she whispered hoarsely. "Oh, my
God...Robin."