Ben watched Sudbury move his knight and capture Ben’s bishop.
Today was exactly a fortnight since he had said farewell to Fable and left her in the future. Fool! He raged inwardly. Whyhad he left her? Why had he believed the old witch when she’d promised to send Fable back to him? A thought occurred to him and he rose from his seat.
Sudbury’s gaze followed him up. “What is–?”
Did Fable choose not to come to him? Was a pair of weeks too short? Would she stay longer and then come home? How much longer? How would he know?
“Ben?” Sudbury’s voice broke through his haunting thoughts.
“Forgive me. I am not in my proper frame of mind to think or play.”
“The day is young, brother,” his friend pointed out. “Your beloved will return to you.”
Ben wanted to smile and reassure Sudbury that he was fine. But he wasn’t, and he couldn’t hide it anymore. “How do you know?” he asked, almost pleaded.
“Because she will never find a man as good as you,” his friend told him.
Ben would never find a woman like her, delicate and fierce, able to flip him flat on his back, a woman who was not looking for what else she could gain, but rather grateful for what she had–though it was not much of anything. The hint of a warm smile softened his expression while thoughts of dancing alone with her in her room after his sister’s ball invaded his mind.
“I want to eat with her again.”
Sudbury gave him a doubtful look. “Did you say eat with her?”
Ben nodded and then turned for the door. Being around others while they tried to make him forget what day it was, would be as difficult as trying to win at a game of chess. He needed to be alone.
He had his parents back. It was a miracle and Ben was more than thankful for it. He should feel more elated,but instead he felt as if he were being swept away on waves of anxious insecurity and sadness. He needed an anchor. Everything he’d known that had to do with his parents, all that he’d believed, and the way he lived–by killing others on the battlefield–had changed almost in the blink of an eye. His head was still spinning. At least while he believed his parents dead, and before a woman had brought him back from the brink of self-destruction, he had a single purpose and that was revenge. It’s what had driven him. Now he had no purpose.
He needed his anchor. He needed Fable.
He walked the halls and left the house when he reached the doors. The afternoon sun shone in his eyes. He held his hand to his brow for shade and headed toward the garden to try and clear his thoughts.
A robin singing in a tall Birch almost brought a smile to his face. It would be a perfect day if–
The sound of a cat meowing stopped his foot before he took his next step. It wasn’t a cat…
Ben came upon her kneeling in front of the memorial where he’d found her the first time. He was afraid to move, lest he wake up and the dream be shattered.
“Please. Oh, please, Lord,” she prayed fervently, her long waves hanging to her waist, “let me stay here in the eighteenth century. I’ll do anything. And please don’t let Ben’s parents hate me. It scares me–”
“Fable.”
She bounded up on her feet and turned to see him.
He opened his arms and she ran into them, proving that she was real. The refreshing scent of her filled his nose and went to his head. He closed his arms around her tighter and buried his face into her hair. He didn’t know if he wanted to hold her or if he needed to kiss her.
“Were you missing me, Duke?” she teased.
He lifted his head to look at her. “Yes, my love. I feared I would die without you.”
She smiled and he was sure his heart stopped. He would be thankful to die with her smile being the last thing he saw.
“I wouldn’t let you die without me,” she told him as he leaned down to kiss her.
He wanted to devour her, to brand her so that she would return to him from any century, but he pressed his lips to hers with restraint stiffening his muscles. Still, he couldn’t help but run his tongue over her lips to taste her. To hold her closer with tender strength.
“Fable…” he wanted to carry her off somewhere they could be alone.
“Fable? Miss Ramsey, is that you?”
