Fable shrugged and then nodded and sniffed. “He can’t be happy with me.”
“Oh, now that’s the most foolish thing I’ve ever heard. Why, he is already happy with you.”
“Oh, Edith,” Fable scoffed. “His heart belongs to no one. No one alive, at least.”
“I do confess that most find him unapproachable and uncompromising,” Edith went on. “But he’s changed since you arrived. He seems less…angry. We all notice it, Miss.”
“That makes it even more tragic, Edith. He’ll do what his father wanted. He’ll do what he believes he needs to do. Avenge his parents. That’s the kind of man he is.”
“We’ll see,” Edith said with a sigh. “His Grace is strong-willed and wise. He will make the right choice. Now to bed with you.”
Fable looped her arms around the servant’s neck and pulled her in for an embrace. “Goodnight, Edith.”
The woman startled for a moment unused to such behavior, then, as her heart warmed, she patted Fable’s back. “Sleep well, Dear.”
Fable waited while Edith blew out the candles and then left her alone. In the dark, she wondered who she was that another person would tuck her in and blow out the candles besides her mother? But her mother never had. She soon fell asleep to the sound of raindrops against the shutters and memories of the duke’s handsome face.
But his face changed as thunder peeled and lightning flashed in the night sky. His smile was grotesque as he reached for what was in her hand. She looked. It was the pocket watch. He grabbed for it but she snatched back her hand and began to run. He chased her through dark, wet alleys, along dimly-lit roads, and through a pitch-black forest. His clutching fingers always felt as if they were a hair away from her, ready to snatch her away. She ran until her lungs burned and her legs ached. But just when she thought she had escaped him, he appeared in front of her and caught her in his arms.You call for the duke. Do you know him?
“Let me go!” she cried out, fighting and struggling while he held her in his vise-like embrace.
“It’s all right,” a soothing male voice said in her ears. “You’re safe.”
Her eyes shot open as a scream left her lips. “No! Duke?” The instant she recognized him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on. How did she get into the hall…into his arms? “Ben. The time traveler was after me.”
“You’re here with me now. You’re safe,” he soothed and lifted her off her feet.
She melted against him. How did she end up in his arms? Had she been sleepwalking? “How did I come to be in the hall?” she asked, so glad and thankful that he’d been there.
“I couldn’t sleep and I was on my way to check on you and found you dreamwalking.”
Suddenly she forgot her dream, but hadn’t he rejected her? “Do you check on me at night?”
He stared at her then nodded. “I know you sometimes have night terrors. Like tonight. Come,” he said gently, carrying her back to her rooms. “I’ll bring you back to bed. Do you want me to call for Edith?”
He spoke so softly to her and with such comfort she could have fallen asleep on the way. She shook her head and held onto him. “I just want you.”
He closed his arm around her tighter. “You have me.”
Fable shivered. What did that mean, she had him? Did he mean she was a guest in his house and as such she fell under his protection? Or was he speaking of something more personal, more serious? Hadn’t he already told her that he had to honor his father’s wishes? How long would she have him? She blinked herself out of her reverie. It was dangerous to start depending on someone.
She wanted to tell him to put her down, but her mouth stayed shut. She let him bring her to her bed but releasing himwas still humiliatingly difficult. She was afraid the time-traveler would never stop chasing her.
“Maybe,” she told the duke while he helped her into bed. “I should meet with him–”
“Absolutely not,” he said, his gaze level with hers, his tone, deep and foreboding. “I’ll meet with him if he ever dares to show up here.”
“Ben?”
“Hmm?” He pulled up a chair to sit close to her by the bed.
“How come you never ask me where the pocket watch is? Don’t you believe what I told you?”
“I believe you,” he told her softly. She didn’t know why he would, but she was happy he did.
“He said if the policemen took his pocket watch, he’d kill them all. And now I have it. I can’t give it back. I may need it to return to my time. Besides, I don’t have it with me.”
“You’re truly thinking of leaving?” he asked. His voice was hesitant, laced with regret.
