She burst into laughter. “You’re all I need.”
“What is so humorous about that?”
“Nothing,” she corrected when she realized he was insulted. “Nothing at all.” He was correct after all, he was all she needed. “Ben?”
“Hmm?”
She could tell him anything, couldn’t she? He wouldn’t call her a witch the way his father had called Bernadette, would he? “I feel as if I should know Thoren Ashmore’s name. As if I should knowhim.”
Chapter Eighteen
When they returned to the B&B, they found Ben’s father in a heated discussion with an older woman. To Ben, the woman appeared to be about eighty, or even older, but she argued with fire in her cloudy, blue eyes.
“I tell you, your sonmustreturn to save Thoren or he will lose the girl.”
Listening from the foyer, Ben’s blood singed his veins. He slid his hand to Fable’s hand and took it, then stepped into the front room. “Lizzie, I presume. How–”
The old woman wasn’t listening. She wasn’t even looking at him, but her stare found Fable and locked onto her.
“You,” she whispered cryptically.
“What about her?” Ben demanded.
Lizzie still didn’t take her gaze from Fable. “You look just like him.”
“Lady,” Ben said in a warning tone. “What is going on? Bernadette said you had answers. So start talking. Begin with who you think Fable is?”
“She’s the girl who saved you and many others, including my nephew.” She finally angled her head and looked at him. Ben suddenly felt bare and fully exposed before her. He reached for the hilt of his sword. “Whatever you are doing to me, stop now or I’ll kill you.”
She didn’t look away but her piercing gaze changed into amusement. “You had better begin showing me why you were worth saving.”
Ben remembered what she had said to his father. “Who else could save your precious Thoren?”
Her smile faded and she nodded. “No one.”
“What’s so special about him?” Fable asked, stepping around Ben’s shielding arm.
“Oh, but there are so many things special about him. There hasn’t been a male born to the Ashmores or to the Blagdens incenturies. We believe he has more power than any before him–including me or my sister. The problem is he doesn’t know it. And even if he somehow discovers it, he has no idea how to use or harness it. He must return to me so I can teach him the good and proper way to wield his power. It’s been entrusted to us. We must use it for good. He came to this century once with the use of the pocket watch. I think he hid it in the Colchester garden with the intention of returning for it, but he was taken captive and will be tried as a pirate and hanged if you,” she turned to Ben again, “don’t do something. Once he’s safe, you are to give him the pocket watch so he can return.”
“What will you do if I do as you ask?” Ben asked her.
“I’ll abide by her wishes,” the old woman answered with narrowed eyes fixed on Fable.
“My wish is to stay at Ben’s side.”
Lizzie Black’s lips curled upward. “Are you so certain, child?”
“Yes,” Fable didn’t hesitate to tell her. “No matter whose feet come through those twenty-first century doors, it will still be Ben I’ll choose.”
The old woman’s smile sharpened on her. “You say this as though you know whose feet they might be.”
Ben remembered Fable telling him that she felt like she should know Thoren Ashmore’s name. He stepped forward. “Enough riddles. Who is Thoren Ashmore to her?”
Finally Lizzie pulled her gaze from Fable’s to look at him–but only for an instant. “He is her father.”
#
Fable walked to her room with Ben and his father behind her. She listened to their low voices as Ben told his father that he planned on marrying her–in fact, he already had. The Lt. Colonel sounded more forgiving than she had anticipated. Still, there was no joy in his approval.
