“Old Hank?”
“No. Ben,” she cleared up. “Lady Prudence is Ben’s sister. She apparently hates me because I’m a ‘street urchin.’ But you know what? I don’t care. I’ve been hated before. I can withstand it all with him by my side.”
“And he returns your sentiments?”
She nodded and then turned away when her eyes filled with tears again. She wept silently–though the time traveler would argue that her whimpers and sniffles kept him up until morning.
When the sun rose, he pulled her away from the sleeping area and followed her to a coffee-shop that was close by. Sheeyed him. “I don’t suppose you have any money.” When he shook his head, she shrugged, asked him to step back, and held up her finger. It didn’t take her long to make enough money for breakfast.
“You’re a beggar,” the traveler said with traces of judgment in his tone.
“Yes,” she told him, though she had stopped being one for a little while. “If it means not starving to death, I’ll beg.”
“You must learn how to hunt.”
“There are no hunting grounds in the city. If you hunt in the parks, you go to jail.”
They entered the coffee shop and Fable sat at the counter while he washed up in the restroom. She wasn’t hungry even though they hadn’t eaten dinner last night, but she knew he must be. She was right. He ordered a three egg vegetable omelet with bacon and homefries. They were both served coffee.
“So, what’s the plan?” she asked him while he ate. “Where are we going? And tell me again why I had to be with you? Why did you take me away from…?”
His fork paused on the way to his mouth. When he saw her tears hovering over the rims of her eyes, he sighed.
“Yes, well my tears are your fault,” she huffed and wiped her eyes.
“All these tears are because I took you from him?”
She nodded and blew her nose into the thick paper napkin near his plate.
He remained silent while he studied her. Then, “I don’t know yet where she is. My dreams were busy in 1718 with where to findyou.”
“Your dreams?” she asked, ready to abandon this nutjob. But he had the pocket watch. And she didn’t know how to use it. What if she zapped herself to when she was a baby. She’d have to live her life over again.Oh, no.
“Yes, my dreams give me direction,” he informed her, interrupting her thoughts.
“That’s how you knew where to find me.”
“Correct. Now, I just have to wait until I dream.”
She remembered the previous night. “Mister, you need to sleep in order to dream.”
He nodded. “It’s difficult to sleep in different places every night.”
“I rarely slept in the same place.”
“Where did you rest your young head?” he asked, and continued eating.
“Anywhere I could. I was trying to sleep in that alley the night you first came here.”
He looked at her and put down his fork. “You have no home here?”
“No.”
“I see.”
Fable narrowed her eyes on him. “It sounds as if you’re judging me by what I have, not who I am. Just like Ben’s sister.” He didn’t deny it but kept eating. It angered her. “What business is it of yours if I was homeless or not?”
He mouthed the wordwas,and stopped eating again. “You plan on living at Colchester House.”
