A Knight in Central Park (11 page)

She stuffed the objects one by one into her satchel, then made her way to the top of a small hill where she gazed over untilled wetlands. A movement in the distance caught her eye.

It was Sir Joe.

He appeared as a dark silhouette. She should be furious with him for attempting to leave without fulfilling his end of their pledge, but for some reason she failed to conjure up any odious feelings toward the man.

Although she had no inkling of what it might be like to actually fall in love with a man, she knew a stirring when she felt one. And a stirring was putting it mildly. Every time she gazed into Sir Joe’s eyes, she felt a swell of good cheer.
Or was it lust?
Whatever it might be, she had felt it the first moment she awoke in his world, in his arms, and then again in his bed.

She cringed at the thought of Sir Joe learning that they were to marry. Unfortunately, the entire town of Brookshire knew The Chosen One was to be her husband. And keeping the villagers quiet would be like trying to keep a newborn babe from crying. No reason to bother Sir Joe with such a trivial detail until it was absolutely necessary to do so. The man was going to be angry enough as it was. Of that she was certain.

Alexandra peered into the night. Sir Joe was closer now. Her pulse raced as she watched him move through the shadowed darkness, toward a patch of trees.

“Sir Joe,” she called.

He raised his head, the moonlight hitting his face just so. He did not appear to be angry. Livid would more accurately describe his expression.

Suddenly he turned back around.

Afraid he meant to leave her again, she ran toward him, shouting, “Do not go!”

He had turned fully about, but he had yet to move. Instead, he glanced upward into the branches of a fruit tree.

She hurried her pace, gasping when he stumbled forward like an oxen worked too hard. His knees gave way before he crumpled to the ground.

“Sir Joe!” she cried, catching up to him. She kneeled beside him, pleaded with him to get up, begged him to talk to her.

He was silent, but she thanked the Heavens she could feel the rise and fall of his chest beneath her palms. Her eyes widened at the sight of a lump on his forehead.

“Got him!” Garrett said from within the branches of the tree.

Alexandra jerked about, surprised to see her brother’s legs dangling from a thick branch. “Garrett, ’Tis you.” Relief flooded through her at seeing her little brother instead of Sir Richard’s henchman. But then she glanced at the lump on Sir Joe’s head and relief turned to anger. “What have you done?”

Garrett held out his slingshot. “You wanted him to stop, did you not?”

“How many times must I tell you it is not tolerable for you to aim your weapon at people? You could have killed him!”

Sir Joe moaned.

“Garrett Dunn,” she said, “You are in grave trouble. Hurry back to the barn and tell your sisters we must set off for the village. We will stay with the Tibbs until I figure what to do next. The hay cart has been loaded and readied. Bring it here, and make haste!”

Garrett jumped from the tree, landing square on his feet. He drew close to get another look at Sir Joe. “I still say he does not look like a warrior.”

“Well, he is. Now go, before he catches a chill.”

It hadn’t taken long to get to the village. As Alexandra had hoped, the Tibbs had generously offered to provide her family shelter.

Now, hours later, she sat on a stool watching over Sir Joe as he slept. She yawned, rubbing her arms in an attempt to stay warm. The oiled linen stretched across the bedchamber window failed to keep the chill from the room. The oak shutters had long been broken and the colored walls, painted with biblical scenes of solemn looking saints, were faded from years of rain and sun. The unsavory smell of stale and moldy rushes soured her stomach.

Sir Joe rested upon a thin mattress covered only with a sheet. Alexandra tapped a finger to her chin as she mulled over the idea of tying him down with strips of cloth. Maybe then she could get some sleep before they headed off for Sir Richard’s castle. Most of their provisions were packed and ready to go. Lydia and Jonathan Tibbs had readily agreed to look after Grandfather and the children whilst she was gone. Poor Lydia. The woman yearned for children of her own, but God seemingly had other plans for her, and so Lydia and her husband doted on Alexandra’s siblings, treating them as their own.

Alexandra gazed at Sir Joe through heavy-lidded eyes. Thanks to Lydia’s concoction of herbs, he was sleeping peacefully. To think she had to drug a man to get him to stay at her side. Her friends would never stop teasing her if they knew.

Afraid she might fall asleep, she went to the window and peeked through a tear in the curtain, thankful to see that the moon was no longer hovering overhead.

She returned to her stool beside the bed. Even in her exhausted state she could not keep her gaze off of Sir Joe. In sleep, all of his hard lines had disappeared. His brow no longer furrowed. An exceptional looking man he was with his strong chiseled jaw. Fine thick lashes and well-defined cheekbones. His hair, a tad short for her liking, was as dark as a winter night...thick and smooth, making her fingers itch to touch it. His mouth though, she decided, was by far his finest feature: firm, full, perfectly sculpted lips that promised much more than mere words. She leaned her head against the wall. A woman could look upon a man such as he for all eternity. Her eyelids dropped, and she drifted off to sleep.

“Where am I?” a gruff voice called out.

Alexandra’s eyelids fluttered before fully rising into alert wakefulness.

Sir Joe was sitting up, looking about with wild bloodshot eyes until his gaze rested firmly on her. “Alexandra! I am going to wring your neck!” His gaze darted about the sparsely furnished room. “Why am I still here? What have you done?”

Alexandra swallowed.

Sir Joe threw the sheet aside, went to the window, pushing aside the linen covering. Sunlight streamed through, hitting the floor in bright beams. Taking giant strides her way, he said, “You tricked me!”

She jumped to her feet. For the first time since meeting him, she wondered what he might do.

“Where is the moon? What did you do with it?”

She clasped and unclasped her fingers. “I am afraid it is gone.”

He snorted. “Afraid my foot. I bet there isn’t a thing in this world you’re afraid of.”

The hard lines about his eyes and mouth had reappeared. He looked very nearly like a madman. And yet he was right about one thing; she was not afraid of him. Mayhap the pain she’d seen in his eyes when he had talked of his father caused her to be unafraid. Or maybe it was the ease with which he had interacted with his students at the faire.

“You’re going to be afraid for your very life, Alexandra Dunn, if you don’t hand over that stone right now.”

She took a step backwards. “I cannot.”

He kept his hand out, palm up, staggering slightly before he lifted his hand to the side of his head. “What did you hit me with this time?”

“My brother meant no harm, I swear.”

“I bet he didn’t. He just happened to accidentally throw a small boulder at my head. What is it with you people?”

She kept her gaze locked on his as he continued forward.

“It’s not going to work, Alexandra.”

“What shan’t work?”

“Your plan to keep me here.”

“I have no plan.”

“Yes, you do. I can see it in your eyes. You’re a sneaky one, Alexandra Dunn, and you are up to something. Now where’s that stone?”

She pretended to look about. “It must be here somewhere.”

When he glanced away from her and toward the bed table, she patted herself, making sure the rock was tucked safely near her bosom.

Sir Joe turned about so fast he startled her. Towering over her, holding out a hand, he waited. “Give me the stone, Alexandra, before I am forced to search for it myself.”

“You would not.”

“Try me.”

Her chin raised a notch. “I am not a child.”

He took a firm hold of her shoulders. “My entire future depends on my meeting with the Academy next week. Do you have any idea how much time I have spent wracking my brain, researching, reading, analyzing...nights without sleep, weeks without rest? Do you?”

Helplessly she tried to swallow the lump in her throat.

“I have too much riding on this meeting. Hand it over.”

She wanted badly to give him the stone, but it was too soon to let him go. Not yet.

His face softened. “I am sorry I couldn’t save your house,” he said in a calmer tone, clearly trying to rein in his frustration. “But I did all I could. If I thought I could help you get your sister back, Alexandra, I would. But I’m one man. And I’m the wrong man for the job. Give me the stone.”

She shook her head. “No, I c-cannot.”

“Hand it over.”

She let out a defeated huff. “You are a most unbearably stubborn man. Here,” she said, retrieving the rock from inside her skirt pocket and offering it to him.

For what seemed like an eternity, he stared intently at her open palm. Then his mouth tightened into a thin line. “That isn’t the stone, is it?”

How could he know?

With every step she took back, he took one forward, until she was backed against the wall. A predatory expression covered his face.

“You were going to let me take that rock and walk over that hillside again, weren’t you?” he asked. “And then I bet you and your brother would have watched me sit there until...until what? Or should I say when? Ah,” he said, his jaw as hard as plated armor, “you weren’t going to tell me at all, were you? You were going to let me figure it out all by myself.”

“I-I was going to tell you.”

A small indignant laugh escaped him. “Where is the real stone, Alexandra?”

“I-I can explain...”

Even now, angry and defiant, his close proximity made her ache with some strange inner longing she didn’t understand. His masculine scent filled her senses, making it hard to think. Before she could tell him she had no idea where the stone was, although she had given it to Grandfather to hide, he wedged his hand down the top of her tunic and began fishing for it.

His prying fingers touched an intensely sensitive spot...and then another. “It is not there, I swear,” she cried between fits of laughter. “Stop. That tickles!” Swatting feebly at his arm, she slunk to the ground in an attempt to get away from him.

Upon gaining control of her wits, she looked up into dark, foreboding eyes. As he extracted his hand from her tunic, naught seemed humorous as his fingers grazed over a taut nipple. Shivers ran up her spine, and her cheeks grew warm. She averted her gaze, hoping he failed to notice her body’s palpable reaction to his touch.

“This isn’t amusing,” he said. “Where is it?”

“The stone?”

He sighed. “Yes, Alexandra, the stone.” His voice sounded weary. Faint lines shadowed his eyes.

“I shan’t tell you. Not until we have returned from Sir Richard’s castle with my sister.”

“I won’t do it. I won’t let you ruin my life.”

He refused to look at her, even as he bent low and helped her to her feet. Her gaze followed a small jagged scar behind his ear and along his hairline. Why had she not seen it before? Where would a man like Sir Joe get such a scar? He refused to fight. He was against violence. He owned no weapons other than the ones she had forced upon him. She resisted the temptation to ask him. Now was not the time.

He took a seat on the edge of the bed. With elbows propped on his knees, he let his face fall despairingly into his open hands.

“Even if you had the stone,” she said, hating to see him in such low spirits, “it would do you little good. Nine and twenty days must pass before the moon is full once more.”

“None of this makes sense,” he said, sounding defeated. “There are lots of things people can count on in this world: Taxes, death, gravity. What goes up, must come down. No matter what line you get into, it’s going to be the longest one...”

Alexandra watched him as he spoke, the slight crinkling of his eyes, the tilt of his lips, the expressive brows. Clearly he was trying, in his own feeble way, to make sense of what had happened to him.

“There are other things too,” he said, “like traffic or waiting more than thirty minutes to see a doctor. That’s life. But traveling from Central Park to—what century is this?”

“The Year of the Lord 1499.”

He snorted. “Traveling five hundred years back in time. That’s not part of the deal. It just doesn’t happen.”

“It is not so bad.” She sat beside him. “Mayhap you will enjoy living here. People are friendly. Wait until you have a chance to talk to Grandfather. You will adore him. And almond cakes! They taste like—”

“Alexandra,” he interrupted. “In twenty-nine days I’m out of here. Do you understand?”

“Aye. But perhaps whilst you are here you can think of your stay as an adventure instead of a curse.” An idea came to her and she moved closer, gently placing her hand on his forearm. “Perhaps your life is not ruined after all. What if it happened that upon your return you found things exactly as they were before you left?”

His eyes narrowed. “Are you saying time will hold still until I return?”

She nodded. “Verily it may. And something else,” she quickly added. “Whilst I visited with Shelly, she told me of your father’s quest to discover the identity of the Black Knight. I do believe Shelly stated that this very year is the same year the Black Knight was said to have swept across the midlands.”

Joe peered deep into her eyes. “What day is this?”

“It is the 20th of July.”

He came to his feet and paced the room. He’d read every one of his father’s theories concerning the Black Knight. “July 20th, 1499,” he said. “That’s three weeks before the Black Knight allegedly saves the King of England’s life.”

His eyes lit up as he came back to her side. The same excited look she’d seen in his eyes when he’d shown her his book of treasures.

“If I could find the Black Knight,” he said, “discover his true identity, do you know what that would mean?”

She smiled. Verily it made her insides thrum to see his eyes suddenly filled with excitement and hope.