Chapter Twenty-two
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.
Why had 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?”
Fable leapt from his arms.
He tried to catch her, but she hopped away.
Ben turned to his sister and returned her smile.
“I knew you would return to him,”
Prudence told her as she slowly closed the distance between them.
“He doubted you would.”
“I did not!”
He snapped his head around to Fable.
“I never doubted you.”
His sister gave his reply a short laugh.
“You trudged around here, pining for her as you had lost her.
Am I not telling the truth?”
It didn’t matter that she was right about him.
She made him sound like a pitiful sot–and he didn’t want to admit to that.
“Am I?”
Prudence insisted with a glint of affection for him in her eyes.
“N–”
He sighed then began again.
“Yes, it’s true.”
Both women smiled at him, and then at each other.
“Welcome back,”
Prudence said to her.
Then, “You are his wife now.
Welcome back, Sister.”
Fable appeared flustered by Prudence’s new behavior.
Ben liked it.
“Come inside and see my parents.”
Ben took Fable’s hand and led her into the house.
They met Stephen, who called out for Edith in between his wide grins.
By the time all the servants were gathered around her to welcome her home, Ben’s parents arrived to see what all the celebration was about.
“It’s good to see you again, Daughter,”
his father greeted her first, looking happy and relieved for his son.
His mother offered Fable a practiced smile.
Ben was happy she appreciated the importance of it and practiced it for his sake.
She didn’t know Fable.
Once she did, Ben was sure she would love Fable as much as everyone did.
“You have made my son a very happy man today, Miss Ram–”
She stopped and corrected herself.
“Fable.
Was your family against this?”
“I won’t let anyone keep us apart,”
Fable let her know with a confident smile.
“We are happy to hear that,”
the Lt.
Colonel said.
“Our son is a fortunate man to have a wife who will defend their marriage.”
Ben nodded slightly.
His father had spent time with her.
It was clear that he liked her.
But he didn’t care who accepted her or not.
He was hers.
They ate together at the large family table in the dining Hall.
Ben wasn’t sure if there was a moment when his beautiful wife wasn’t smiling.
She laughed with Sudbury and even Prudence.
She toasted with his father, and asked his mother what her favorite things were.
Any favorite things; food, plants, flowers, etc.
Ben suspected Fable would think of something kind to do for his mother.
It made him love her all the more if possible.
When she took a moment to whisper in his ear that his mother wanted a grandchild, he would have cheered his mother’s answer if he thought it would not embarrass Fable.
“I’m eager to make one,”
he whispered back.
He’d dreamed of the night on the floor with books scattered around them when he had begun to teach her to read.
And then with eyes painted by talented artists watching them.
He missed her.
He wanted to kiss her, touch her, breathe her in…
She slapped his fingers away when they reached for her thigh under the table but he was close enough to see the pulse beat at her throat quicken.
He stretched his arms up and yawned, bringing Stephen to his feet.
The steward hurried to Edith and they both left the dining hall.
“We should help,”
Ben said to his wife, looking after his steward and her servant.
He took Fable’s hand and stood with her.
He bid everyone at the table good night and barely gave her time to curtsey before he pulled her away.
She blushed on the way out of the dining Hall, but they ended up laughing together as they hurried up the stairs.
They didn’t speak, for words were forgotten in place of desire.
They kissed up the last four steps and almost tumbled back down all of them, but Ben found his balance and they laughed again as they approached their chamber door.
When they entered the chamber in each other's arms, Stephen smiled and quickly grasped Edith by the elbow and pulled her toward the door.
“Good night, my lady,”
Edith bid, digging in her heels and refusing to be moved just yet.
“I cannot tell you how happy I am..we all are that you are back.
Mayhap tomorrow you will tell me about the world you came from?”
Fable gave her a warm smile.
“Of course.”
After another warning look from Ben, their friends left and he was finally alone with his wife.
He couldn’t wait another moment to be with her, to tell her with his body what she meant to him.
He pulled and tugged at her futuristic clothes but couldn’t get off the contraption covering her bosom.
“Will you burn that thing tomorrow?”
he asked as she bent her arm around to her back and with a seeming snap of her fingers, set her breasts free–and into his hands.
“Do you know how much I love you, my fair wife?”
She smiled at him as he carried her to bed.
“Yes, I do.
You tell me everytime you look at me.”
“And yet your smiles tempt me to say it everytime I see one.”
“Then I’ll smile often,”
she told him huskily.
He lowered her to the bed and breathed against her lips, “I love you, Fable.”
She cupped his face between her hands when he finished kissing her mouth.
“I love you, Ben,”
she told him.
“I waited fourteen days to tell you.
Thank you for letting me fall into your arms that first day in the garden.
I woke up untouched in your kitchen and knew you were a good man.
I know there are good men out there in the world, but in my world I hadn’t met any until you.”
He kissed her again, thrilling in her words and in the acceleration of her heartbeat against him.
They undressed without leaving the bed and breathed hard against each other as passion engulfed them.
He pressed himself down atop her, between her open thighs and took her between whispers of his love and swift kisses to her face and throat.
Her scent–faintly vanilla–went to his head, conquering every frightening thought, every doubt.
Her lips against his chest, up the column of his neck, all while she moved beneath him and drove him mad.
When he approached his peak he didn’t stop or slow down.
Why should he? He had so much more to give her.
He let her do as she wished until he came in spurts of trembling passion.
Almost immediately, he was roused again by the scent of her desire.
He moved upon her like a surging wave, gazing into her eyes, then kissing her hungry mouth while he moved inside her. When he took her by the hands and held her arms over her head, she let him have way–and he took it, bringing her to climax that made her cry out and grind him harder, until they found release together.
They lay in each other's arms, with Fable’s head resting in the crook of his shoulder.
There were things he wanted to ask her about her father and her family–but those things could wait.
No longer did she haunt his thoughts.
Here she was in his arms! That was all Ben cared about.
It was all he needed.
He hadn’t been alive before her, and when centuries separated them, he knew he would die without her.
They didn’t sleep but they stayed awake held tightly in an embrace that provided everything Ben needed.
He would never let her go.
He realized she was an Ashmore with gifts inherited from her father, the sole male born since the seventeenth century.
Her family might want her back.
How would he stop them? He was glad he began studying herbs and flowers.
Certain mixes were said to stop the powers of a seer, or anyone using magic.
He didn’t care about other seers, just Old Lizzie Black.
If she used her power to try to snatch Fable away, he would use his most potent mix to stop her.
He would make certain no one dared to touch his wife.
Finally, he closed his eyes and a smile appeared on his face where there had been a frown for the last fourteen days.
She had chosen him.
It still made his heart flip.
He pulled her closer and listened to her rhythmic breathing.
She was asleep.
“Fable,”
he whispered, “you showed me the truth in the light.
It wasn’t my parents, it was you and getting lost in your fire.
You showed me how to love and breathe again before I got my parents back.
Thank you for rescuing me, my love.”
#
He soon fell asleep and Fable opened her eyes.
She remembered her father calling her mother a flame and she breathed easier for the first time in her life.
She had a mother and a father.
As the truth dawned on her again, she swallowed back a wave of grateful tears.
For the first time, she felt grounded in something.
And Ben was the one reason. “Ben,”
she said in a barely audible whisper.
“I love you, my dearest.