“The first thing I knew I had to do,” he had told her, “was bury my treasure. So, that’s what I did. I had nothing to do with the Wests finding it.” He found amusement in the tale, and she, being his daughter, after all, had laughed with him.
They’d visited Bernadette and spent more time talking with Old Lizzie, learning about their family. Thanks to some curse, Fable’s grandparents had to fight a demon. Thoren was the first child born to the Blagdens and Ashmores. The first and only male.
“I don’t know what any of it means,” her father had vowed. “And I don’t care. You’re all that matters to me. Help me find your sister and we can–”
“Dad–” nothing had changed for Fable. “I’m going to Ben. But we don’t have to separate. I don’t want us to separate. Come with me.”
He had shaken his head. “I have to find Magnolia.”
She groaned. That was yesterday. Would he or Lizzie give her a hard time about going? She hoped Lizzie would keep her word. If everything went her way, she would be with Ben today. She wiped away a bittersweet tear and got out of bed.
She left her room and padded downstairs in her pajamas and slippers. She headed to the kitchen and was happy to find her father cooking with old Aunt Lizzie.
He looked up from a frying pan where bacon sizzled and popped. “Good morning, my daughter.”
It was what she had always wanted. A bed, a warm meal at a family table. A family.
Nothing was mentioned about returning to Ben. They ate in silence but neither hesitated to share a smile across the table.
While they ate, she eyed her father and thought about how handsome he was. “What was mother like?”
He smiled remembering her. “She was a spirited woman with hair like yours and a temper to match.”
Fable remembered the men in her stepmother’s life while she was growing up and the ones who’d lifted their hands to Kittie Ramsey. “You didn’t mind her spiritedness?”
He shook his head. “How could I be angry with a flame?”
She gazed at him, wishing for the thousandth time since she met him, what a good father he would have been to that little homeless girl who’d never understood what security was. “Send me home today.”
Lizzie was the first to open her mouth, but Fable quieted her as a cold blanket covered her. “Keep your word, Lizzie. You told Ben you would abide by my wishes if he saved my father. Keep your end of the bargain.”
“It won’t be me who keeps you here, Child,” Lizzie told her and cut her glance to Thoren.
Yes. The powerful male heir of the Ashmore and Blagdens. Fable looked at him. “Come with me.”
“I cannot.”
“Swear to me you’ll send me to him today.”
But he shook his head and offered her a repentant look. “No.”
“No?”
He appeared to be choking a bit on his word. “Fable, please–”
“Come back with me!” she shouted at him. “Don’t give me everything and keep from me the only thing I truly want. Find Magnolia and then come spend time with me. You can do it. You don’t need the pocket watch, just as she–” She pointed to Lizzie standing close by. – “doesn’t need to use it. You’re more powerful than she is. You’re Lord Thoren Ashmore, only son of–”
“Child,” Lizzie interrupted, pointing at her. “Let your father have what he desires for once. All he asks for is time with you.”
Wonderful, Fable thought scathingly. Just what she needed. Guilt. Her cold stare made the older woman bristle.
“It seems I was right never to trust anyone beforeor afterBen,” Fable told her.
She didn’t feel tears burning her eyes until she turned them on her father. “I’m sorry that the pocket watch exists and that it took you away from me and Magnolia. But you were gone for so long. We had to grow up without you–or anyone evenremotely like you. Benjamin West is the first person I remember loving, trusting, and feeling safe with. Are you truly going to come back to me–thanks to him, no less– and take him from me? Please don’t.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes. She was done crying. “I don’t know what either of you are used to, but I’m not going to cower.”
“Fable,” her father protested gently. “I have no intention of asking you to cower. I didn’t want to be a father who forced his selfish restrictions on his children. Now that I found you, I certainly won’t do it. I’ll send you back today.”
Fable and Old Lizzie were quiet while they stared at him. Fable swallowed and blinked first. Did he just agree so easily? “You will?”
