She stared at him while he tugged her along. It couldn’t be true. Oh, she was going to throw up. “Look,” she managed, “like I said, you’re a nutjob. I’m going to the cops first chance I get. I’ll tell them you kidnapped me and–
He finally stopped and turned to look straight at her. “Do you not understand? You will never get back without me.”
She stopped speaking and looked around. She would never get back…please God no! She didn’t want to be here without Ben. Tears welled up in her eyes and she dragged herfeet. Was what this man saying true? She didn’t care. She felt as if she were dying, minute by minute fading into nothingness. Just as she was before…before him. She wanted to stop the traveler and beg him until her throat was raw and his ears burned to please, please send her back. She would die here.
“Mister, please,” she sobbed but he said nothing and he didn’t slow his steps. He pulled her along toward the east side, claiming that he had a dream telling him his Dorethea was there. Fable didn’t question him. Stranger things had happened. She didn’t care how she looked in her eighteenth century dress. New Yorkers weren’t concerned with such trivial things anyway.
New Yorkers. She was back. Her heart would never stopped breaking. She should have known life with Ben was too good to be true. She cried most of the day. When her first night with the gruff time-traveler came, he followed her over a wall and into Central Park where some homeless people slept under a small bridge, and pointed to a clear spot on the ground.
“I think it’s better if we sleep apart from others,” the gray haired traveler suggested.
“Why?” she asked him, sniffling. It was a wonder to her how she had a drop of moisture left in her body.
”Because then one of us will not have to take watch while the other sleeps.”
He meant him and her in that order. She thought about it and rubbed her eyes dry. She’d like to rob him of his sleep, but it would just slow them up. “Look, Mister,” she said, glaring at him. “I don’t know you. You could be trying to lure me away from humanity so you can what, rape me? I’ll tell you right now, I’ll fight you tooth and nail. Do you understand?”
He smirked and then chuckled, and nodded. “You are a hellcat indeed. I’m surprised you found a place back there. As for me,I don’t want to rape you. I want to go home, just as you do. I have searched and waited seventeen years and finally Ihave found the right century. Nothing will stop me, Miss. Doyouunderstand?”
She remembered the blood on his sword and swallowed hard and nodded. But after an instant, she thought of life without Ben. “I don’t care what you do. I’m going to sleep. Goodnight.”
She heard him grumbling while he sat and then she stopped thinking of her captor and thought about the best person in her life. What if she never got back to him? What if she had to wait seventeen years to see Ben again? She couldn’t do it. Finally, she opened her eyes to see the Georgian-looking traveler sitting with his back against the wall and his legs stretched out before him. His eyes were opened.
“You can go to sleep, Mister. It’s eluding me. I’m wide awake.” She sat up and pulled her blanket around her shoulders.
When he didn’t move or respond, Fable figured he must be asleep. She’d heard that some people slept with their eyes open. She should kick dirt in his face for snatching her and bringing her back here, but she felt sorry for him.
When he spoke suddenly, she startled almost out of her skin. “I’m not the one who needs a bodyguard, Miss.”
He was kind of right. She would get attacked before he would. “We all need a bodyguard in this world. Take a rest and tonight I’ll keep watch.”
He dipped his brow at her and was quiet for a moment or two. “What can you do?”
“I can wake you up.”
She didn’t mean to make him laugh and she wanted him to know it, so she huffed at him.
“Were you a servant?”
“What?” She set her wide eyes on him. Who was he? How did he know where she’d been? Had he asked around about her? Was he in cahoots with the women of The Ladies Club? How elsewould he have known that she would be needing a carriage when she did?
“In Colchester House, were you a servant?”
Fable shook her head. She felt a well rising to her throat making it difficult to speak. “I was something else.”
“Oh? What?”
“I was his beloved.”
The traveler studied her for a moment then said in a low whisper. “Who’s beloved?”
“Ben’s. Benjamin West, His Grace the Duke of Colchester.”
Her unwanted companion was silent after that. He said little more until morning while she rambled on tearfully about Ben’s attributes. “He is nearly unbeatable at chess. I say nearly because he lost to me a few times.” Yes, she was proud of it. It compelled her to stiffen her lower lip. “It proved all my years of practice with Old Hank the Shark were not in vain.”
The traveler stared at her and seemed to be at a loss for words. He did manage to repeat Old Hank’s name.
“He’s very fair and patient with his sister,” Fable went on, forgetting again, everything but Ben.
