A Knight in Central Park

chapterTwenty-Seven

Don’t ever sit one out while you can dance. The music ends too soon. Don’t miss your chance.

—Unknown

The day's ride was longer than most and they reached Brookshire with little fanfare, for the hours of darkness were upon them and most everyone in the village was asleep.

Alexandra woke Grandfather. The old man was in high spirits to see them healthy and safe. As it turned out, he had received Mary’s message and thus he had not been fretting these past many days. Grandfather agreed, reluctantly, to hand over the last of the stones to Sir Joe.

As she stood in the meadow, peering into the night, Alexandra looked to the moonlight. Branches of an oak swayed above as her adventures with Sir Joe swirled within her mind. To think her sister, Mary, had fallen in love with Sir Richard and was living in a fine castle. It filled Alexandra with peace to think of her sister so happy, so content.

Sir Joe came up behind her and laid his hands upon her shoulders. Strong capable hands he had, warming her insides with one gentle touch.

How could he leave her? And yet, how could she ever think of using guilt to keep Sir Joe in her world?

As a faint sickness swept through her middle, Alexandra held her stomach. But this time she did not panic, for she knew she was sick with child. Sir Joe would not be leaving her alone after all; a part of him would always be with her.

Even before she realized she was carrying Sir Joe’s child, she knew she had forgiven him. But would he forgive her when she told him of the babe she carried?

“It’s your sister you’re thinking about, isn’t it?” he asked.

She smiled inwardly, for she knew he thought he could read her mind. “Aye,” she replied. “I pray she does not come to regret her decision.”

“She seemed very happy.”

The hoot of an owl and the sounds of the horses in the stables filled the silence between them.

She turned toward Sir Joe. He had bathed. His familiar scent of pine and rosewater filled her with longing.

“I gave the candlestick to Lydia and Ari,” he said, struggling to say goodbye.

She put a hand to her chest. “Why ever so? Was the candlestick not your reason for agreeing to come with me?”

“I have the sword.” He gestured toward his things piled nearby. “Ari and Lydia could use some new window coverings and new bedding.”

She looked at his briefcase. Their final moments together were truly upon them. She needed to tell him about the baby. Would he stay then? Out of duty?

“I don’t know what to say,” he said before she could speak, his voice choked with emotion. “Tonight’s the night and yet the thought of leaving you is turning my insides to mush.”

“You must follow your heart,” she told him.

He raised a hand to her cheek and softly brushed the pad of his thumb over her chin. “It would be selfish of me to ask all of you to return with me. This is your home.”

She opened her mouth to speak, to tell him she was with child, but she heard voices. Somebody was quickly approaching.

They both turned to see Rebecca heading their way, tears in her eyes as she ran toward them. “Fiona!” she cried out.

Alexandra gasped at hearing Rebecca speak. Alexandra fell to bended knee, but it was Sir Joe her little sister ran to. He, too, bent low and swept Rebecca into his arms, holding her tight.

“Fiona!” she said again, holding up her rag doll.

“Fiona?” he said, clearly puzzled.

“Fiona,” she repeated breathlessly, her small voice hoarse and unused. “Her name is Fiona. She wants t-to go with you. To watch over you.”

“Oh, God,” Joe said, his chest tightening. “You’re really talking. I knew you could do it! I’m so proud of you.”

Tears streaked Rebecca’s small dirty cheek. She just stared at him, unblinking, gifting him with her treasured doll.

“How can I ever make any of you understand?” he asked.

Rebecca tucked her doll safely under Joe’s arm and then reached for Alexandra. Joe placed the child in Alexandra’s arms, releasing a long drawn out breath before moving to gather his things. He picked up his briefcase in one hand and his sword in the other. Except for a few papers, Joe’s briefcase was empty. But it felt heavy nonetheless. Perhaps the heaviness he felt was not his briefcase at all...but his conscience. All his reasons for leaving this world seemed suddenly dim and illogical.

He gave Susan a hug when she, too, came forward. He noticed Garrett then, leaning nonchalantly against an old oak, as he often did, taking their goodbyes in stride.

Joe set down his things and headed Garrett’s way. He took the boy’s stiff frame into his arms. “I’ll miss you kid,” he said, his voice strangled with emotion. “You take care of them, okay?”

He felt Garrett’s body relax slightly.

It was another moment before Joe let him go. Garrett looked at him with red bloodshot eyes and nodded.

Joe picked up his possessions again and gave them all one last nod. Then he turned to gaze out at the wide open fields, breathing in the fresh earthy smells of a fifteenth century farm for the last time. The moon shone white and fully round, casting shadows against the tall wheat.

He had traveled through time...a dream and a nightmare all at once. An incredible urge to stay struck him. And yet the moon beckoned him, told him to return home while he still could. Joe didn’t belong in this world and yet for the first time since he’d come, he wasn’t so sure that was true.

He glanced over his shoulder toward Alexandra. His throat tightened and his heart did a flip-flop as a wave of panic spread through his body.

He pulled the stone from his pocket, felt its cold smoothness against his palm. The thought that Alexandra loved him popped into his mind. She didn’t love him because of what they had been through or because of the cataclysmic experience they shared.

She loved him for who he was.

She didn’t care if he could hardly lift a sword or make shapes out of clouds. She had three children to take care of. Nothing short of a hurricane could take them away from her. She didn’t need him. She had enough love for them and for him. She loved him more than he deserved to be loved. If he were lucky, she would love him for the rest of his life.

He looked back at her, felt a lifting of his very soul as if a huge incredible burden had been hefted from inside him.

And that’s what love was all about, wasn’t it?

For the first time in Joe’s life he felt as if he knew what love entailed. Love made breathing that much easier. Love made the moon brighter and made the water taste fresher. All those love songs suddenly made sense.

Love was like oxygen.

Love lifted you higher.

He felt downright giddy. It was all true.

Love had somehow eluded him all of these years because he had been looking for scientific jargon or a theory. Love could not be described in any sort of accurate, logical, specific way. His love for Alexandra was far from ordinary.

It came to him as an epiphany. As long as he was with her he would always be home.

He couldn’t leave her if he wanted to.

He pulled his arm back to toss the stone into the air, fling it toward the heavens and out of his grasp. But the moment he clutched the rock tightly within his palm, everything changed. His surroundings became a hazy fog of darkness. It was as if the moon’s gravitational force was pulling him, energy formed between earth and moon, sweeping him ashore like an ocean’s tide.

“Alexandra!” he called before disappearing completely. “I love you.”