Winchester appeared, and he went to Margaret, taking her hand and kissing it before turning to me. “He’s right behind me,” he told me with a wink. He kept her hand and led her into the tree.
More people had come than could fit in the tree, and they just stood round the clearing, waiting. Waiting like I were waiting.
And then more footsteps crunched, and when a body rounded the tree, it were Rob. Allan took up his strings, playing music with a bright smile.
Rob stopped, seeing all of this before him. Seeing me before him.
I put the candle down, and it doused. He were dressed well; I reckoned Winchester must have somehow managed to talk him into that. It set my heart to hammering, seeing him so handsome, standing before me, piecing it all together.
A slow smile dawned on his face, and his eyes darted past me for a breath. “My lady Queen,” he said, bowing to Eleanor.
She nodded, and he stepped closer to me.
“What is all this, Scarlet?” he asked.
I were shaking, and he took my hands, surprised. “I choose you, Rob. I will always choose you. And I may not be good at it just yet, but I will choose you every day of my life. Over and over and over until I do it the best of anyone. And together, we’ll be strong enough to take on our enemies. We’ll be strong enough to take on our demons.”
He squeezed my hands, rubbing his thumbs over my knuckles, his smile sliding off to the side. “And you couldn’t have just told me this? This lot has sent me over half of Nottinghamshire looking for you.”
Grinning, I told him, “Our love has always been the grandest adventure, Rob. I couldn’t let our wedding be any different.”
He blinked, and I saw water edging his bright eyes. “Our wedding.” He lifted my hands to his mouth. “Scar, you’ll finally marry me?”
I nodded, and a tear shot down my cheek. “Yes. Finally.”
He wiped it off. “Our last sunset apart,” he said, looking to the trees as they were soaked in orange and pink.
He started to turn us toward the tree, but Eleanor stopped him, pushing at his chest. “I’ll thank you not to take another step, young man. I have something to say.”
He dropped his head to her.
“When Richard comes back, he will beat the stuffing out of you for marrying his only daughter without his consent.” Rob’s face dropped. “But I give my consent, and my blessing, which will have to be enough for him. And, of course, the more evident it is to me that you adore her, the easier he will be to mollify.”
“You and your minstrels, you mean,” I told her.
She lifted a shoulder. “Who doesn’t like a good song. Now just one more thing—” she told me. She turned to me, untying the cloak from under my chin. She pulled it gentle from my hair, and my shoulders, and Rob just looked at me. He looked at me like he were lost, and found, and like he loved me. I couldn’t look at him, couldn’t remember this face, and ever doubt that he loved me.
He took my hand in his, kissing it, and walked me forward to the tree.
I led him up one ladder and then another, everyone in the tree holding it steady, as we went up to the strongest part of the tree, where the priest teetered, unsettled by the height.
“The heartwood,” Rob murmured, looking at me. “You wanted to marry me in the heart of Major Oak.”
I beamed at him, grateful that he understood.
“And Scar,” he whispered.
I leaned in close.
“Are you wearing knives to our wedding?”
Nodding, I laughed, telling him, “I was going to get you here one way or another, Hood.”
He laughed, a bright, merry sound. Standing in the heart of the tree, he reached again for my hand, fingers sliding over mine. Touching his hand, a rope of lightning lashed round my fingers, like it seared us together. Now, and for always. His fingers moved on mine, rubbing over my hand before capturing it tight and turning me to the priest.
The priest looked over his shoulder, watching as the sun began to dip. He led us in prayer, he asked me to speak the same words I’d spoken not long past to Gisbourne, but that whole thing felt like a bad dream, like I were waking and it were fading and gone for good. “Lady Scarlet,” he asked me with a smile, “known to some as Lady Marian of Huntingdon, will thou have this lord to thy wedded husband, will thou love him and honor him, keep him and obey him, in health and in sickness, as a wife should a husband, forsaking all others on account of him, so long as ye both shall live?”
I looked at Robin, tears burning in my eyes. “I will,” I promised. “I will, always.”
Rob’s face were beaming back at me, his ocean eyes shimmering bright. The priest smiled.
“Robin of Locksley, will thou have this lady to thy wedded wife, will thou love her and honor her, keep her and guard her, in health and in sickness, as a husband should a wife, forsaking all others on account of her, so long as ye both shall live?” the priest asked.
“Yes,” Rob said. “I will.”