Fable let go of Ben’s hand when his father came to walk beside them. She took a step back while they continued toward the door and looked at Bernadette.
“Thank you for helping him.” She smiled and lowered her head. “His parents are very important to him.”
“And he is very important to you?” Bernadette asked her with a knowing smile.
“Yes,” Fable admitted.
The waitress nodded as if she knew something no one else knew. “We all have a purpose.”
Fable’s smile faded. “What?”
Bernadette gave a sisterly smile over to Fable and turned to get back to work.
“Bernadette?” She called out softly as the door began to open to allow Ben reentry. “Do you always speak so cryptically?”
Bernadette turned to her again and for a moment she simply stared at Fable. She didn’t say anything. She looked as if she wished she didn’t have to. Then, with a great sigh, she proceeded. “I was told you should let him go before it’s too late. The people he will gain from this won’t accept you. Your many attributes will go unnoticed by them. I’m sorry. You don’t belong with him in his time.”
“What?” Fable asked stunned and hurt that Bernadette could say something so mean and damaging to her.
“Bernadette.” It was Ben coming toward them, casting Fable a compassionate glance before returning his dark glare to the waitress. “How dare you speak such an evil thing to her? Who do you think you are to say how my family will feel about her once they know her?” He glanced at his father, who said nothing, but nodded his head.
Moving a step closer to her, Ben stared into her eyes. “You are incorrect if you think for a moment that I would allowanyone’sopinion of her to change how I feel. As for her belonging with me, she is obviously meant to be in my time, since she traveled three hundred years and over seventeen miles to reach me. She most assuredly belongs in my life because she has rescued me from a pit I never wish to return to. Take a look at all the colors of fire and water that paint her, and tell me how was I to resist her light? She saved me, and countless other young, fighting men who would have died by my sword if not for her pulling me back to humanity.” He reached for Fable’s hand and entwined his fingers through hers.
Never in Fable’s life had anyone stood up for her like this. When Bernadette had first spoken what sounded like a curse–what else could it be if it kept her from his side–Fable didn’t know what to say. She bit her lip to keep her tears back. She knew how to do it. Surely she’d done it a million times before. She didn’t usually believe in such things as curses, so she didn’t know why it affected her so. But then Ben appeared at her side to defy Bernadette’s words with bold confidence. Was he declaring these things about her? Had she really rescued him from the dank dungeon where his heart lay hidden?
“Who are you, Bernadette? You’ve been particularly friendly toward us. What do you want?”
By now Ben’s father returned and moved closer to hear what was going on.
“I’ll tell you who I am, Your Grace,” Bernadette said, staring Ben in the eye. “My family finds relics that can manipulate time and we destroy them and set things right.”
Fable paled. Ben hardly appeared fazed when he turned to look at her.
“What are you talking about?” he demanded quietly.
“The pocket watch in your father’s pocket.”
The Lt. Colonel moved to draw his sword.
Ben’s hand on his arm stayed him. When his father lowered his hand away from his hilt, Ben continued speaking to Bernadette.
“Why do you think we carry the watch?”
“There’s only one way back, Ben,” she told him. “And Richard West has it, so don’t lose him because youhaveto go back.”
“Are you going to tell us who you are?” Ben’s father asked her.
“My name is Bernadette Black. I’m here to put things back to the way they should be. None of you belong in this time. It’s taken years to get this all right. Lt. Colonel, you need to find your wife and return with your son to 1718.” She turned to Fable. “I’m not sure where you need to be or why you were sent back to that particular time.”
Fable didn’t like the sound of that. Her heart began to thump harder. “You’re a part of all this? How? Why? I need to be with Ben.”
“Well, I’m not certain that’s poss–”
“Miss Black,” Ben said in a warning voice. “I do not know what you’re trying to do here, but you ought to end it before there are consequences for you.”
Bernadette stared at him for a minute then a smile crept over her face. “My, but you are indeed fearsome and convincing.”
“Good, then I will not have to make myself any clearer,” Ben told her, his eyes like steel.
