A Knight in Central Park

chapterTwelve

If we do meet again, why, we shall smile; if not, why then this parting was well made.

—Shakespeare

They had been riding for most of the day. The sky was turning a dusty pink, and Joe found himself growing restless. If, at this very moment, he returned to his own time, nobody would believe his story of being in another time. Hell, he still didn’t believe it himself. And thinking about why or how he came to be here was making his head throb. Hoping to take his mind off of his mind-boggling situation, he decided to catch up to Alexandra and have a chat. He dug his heels into the horse’s flanks. But Precious only put her ears back and continued on at the same slow pace. Deciding he would show Precious who was boss, Joe snapped a twig from a tree and swat at the horse’s rump. Precious took off, her front legs coming off the ground before galloping ahead of Alexandra.

“Whoa, P-Precious, whoa.” Joe pulled back on the reins. By the time the animal stopped, he was dangling from the horse’s neck.

Alexandra laughed.

“Ah,” he said after he’d righted himself, and she caught up to him. “I should have known all I had to do was make a fool out of myself to get you to smile.”

“And what I wonder would make you smile in return, Sir Joe?”

The instant their eyes met, he felt another jolt of awareness pass between them. In a few short seconds, he conjured up all sorts of things that would make him smile. Then he shook his head at his wayward thoughts. Here he was, off to do battle with an evil lord, and suddenly he was thinking about taking a nice hot shower...with Alexandra. Ever since discovering she hadn’t escaped from a mental ward, he’d found himself looking at her in a whole new light.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

“No,” he said, an uncomfortable tightness settling within. “I was thinking about what would make me smile, and the answer is food.” That wasn’t exactly the truth, but neither was it a lie. “A steaming plate of roast beef and mashed potatoes would definitely put a smile on my face. I’m starved.”

He thought he saw a flicker of disappointment cross her face before she assured him they would be stopping shortly to break their fast.

“Are you still cross with me for bringing you here?” she asked after a moment of silence passed.

“Angry? Me? Did I seem angry?”

She caught his sarcasm then, and smiled.

He smiled back at her. “No, I’m not angry.” He glanced about, took a good look at the myriad trees surrounding them. Everything appeared as it should. The air smelt fresh and piney, the crickets and birds were doing their thing. “It’s hard to believe I’m here, in another time, in another century.” He patted the leather bag at his side. “But it’s good to know I have the last stone; my ticket home.”

“Grandfather gave you the stone?”

“He didn’t have much choice.” Joe shook his head and said, “Did you know that all of your friends back at the village think I, Joe McFarland, am the Black Knight?”

“Anything is possible. You are here, are you not?”

“True, I am here, but I am not the Black Knight.” He laughed at the thought. “My father would get a big kick out of hearing it though, his own son, the Black Knight. The notion is amusing.”

“Tell me about your world, Alexandra. What is it like to live in your time?”

“What would you like to know?”

He shrugged. “Tell me about your family.”

Alexandra appeared to sort her thoughts before she told him about her mother who had died giving birth to Garrett.

Joe listened intently as she talked about her childhood, being raised on a farm, her daily chores...feeding the chickens, sowing the fields, and so on. With every word, he found himself more intrigued. Not only had she lost her mother, years later she’d lost her step-mother, too; the woman had been murdered by an armed man on her way to visit family. Rebecca, Alexandra’s half sister, was six-years old and had been traveling with her mother at the time. Rebecca witnessed the murder and stayed hidden until she was found by a hunter who recognized her as one of the four Dunn sisters living in Brookshire. Rebecca had not uttered a word since that day nearly two years ago.

Soon after, Alexandra’s father, who was minor nobility as he was a distant relation to the earl of Ormonde, set off to do the king’s bidding and never returned, leaving Alexandra with much responsibility. And yet she carried on with dignity and determination. Her crops and her hard work had helped to keep an entire village from starving.

Joe let his gaze roam over her. Apparently, she’d given away her new clothes, but even in her tattered dress-like tunic, she looked beautiful. Alexandra was a natural beauty. Some considered “natural“ to mean ordinary. But there was nothing ordinary about the sheer redness of her hair. And there was certainly nothing usual about her flawless skin or expressive green eyes; eyes the color of renewed hope and prosperity. Smiling came easy to Alexandra. Her face was almost always animated, her eyes sparkling. And whenever he spoke, she listened with her eyes as much as her ears.

Her laughter was contagious, lending him an unfamiliar lightheartedness. Joe felt a sudden bond between them, a bond of friendship. He’d never been one to collect friends. He supposed Shelly was a friend. He cleared his throat and said, “I’ve been meaning to apologize for not believing your story when you first enlightened me.”

“’Tis understandable,” she answered. “I did not believe ’twas possible myself until it happened.”

“And even then, it’s hard to believe,” Joe said. “There once lived a brilliant man named Albert Einstein who found the notion of time-travel upsetting.” Joe laughed at the irony. “Einstein showed gravity as a bending of space and time.”

Alexandra nodded, listening.

“I recall reading about time travel becoming a practical possibility,” he went on. “Light was a vital ingredient: sun or moon. I’ll have to do more research when I return.”

Divots and potholes increased in number as they moved along the well-used paths. The clip-clop of hooves filled the silence between them.

As the day wore on, Joe thought of last night when he’d marched off, intending to leave Alexandra, knowing full well she’d go after her sister with or without him. But by the time he’d trampled through an acre of high weeds, he’d calmed down enough to realize he could never abandon her in her time of need. As he’d looked at the moon last night, with the rock snug in his pocket, he knew he couldn’t live out his life knowing he might be responsible for Alexandra’s death. That’s when he headed back over the hill, intent on telling her that he would stay until she and her family were safe. But the snap of a branch had stopped him in his tracks. And when he’d looked upward...everything had gone black.

Joe had had every intention of telling Alexandra that he’d changed his mind about leaving. But that was before her brother struck him down, and before her grandfather told him it was his destiny that he be Alexandra’s husband. The Chosen One, or not, he wasn’t the marrying type. And even if he was, he could never stay in this world and live the life of a medieval man. He wasn’t cut out to be a farmer, let alone a warrior. He was a modern man who enjoyed the luxuries of modern day living: flushing toilets, hot showers, and comfortable clothes. It could never work.

“Tell me about you,” Alexandra said, breaking into his meandering thoughts. “I have told you much about me, and yet you have told me little about yourself.”

He pointed to his chest. “You want to know about me?”

“Aye.”

“I’m afraid I am not a very interesting subject.”

“You jest. You are a remarkable man, and a very brave one at that.”

He chuckled. “Had you asked Shelly to name twenty words to describe me, brave would not have been one of them.”

“Neat-freak would have been on her list,” Alexandra said with a laugh.

Joe frowned.

Alexandra’s smile faded. “I am certain she meant no harm.”

“I’m sure she didn’t,” he answered dryly. “What else did Shelly say about me? Never mind, I don’t think I want to know.”

But it was too late, Alexandra was already repeating the long list of character flaws Shelly had mentioned: stubborn, pigheaded, impatient... The list went on and on.

Joe let it go, figuring it might be best if Alexandra thought the worst of him. They could never be together, and he needed to make that clear.