A Knight in Central Park(16)

Alexandra feigned a small gasp, then turned back to the people box. A new man and woman had appeared on the scene and they were kissing one another with a lusty passion she had not witnessed before. Their lips melded together, and they both made little mewing noises. She leaned closer for a better look until the sound of running water caught her interest. With a mere flick of her wrist, Shelly had turned the water on and then off.

Alexandra hobbled to Shelly’s side. She had wondered how Shelly had so swiftly filled the porcelain tub yester eve, but Shelly had left before she had a chance to question her on it. Alexandra took hold of the metal apparatus and jerked it upward. The water sprayed into the basin, splashing her face. Alexandra hopped backwards with a laugh.

Shelly handed her a towel, eyeing her suspiciously. “The Professor mentioned that you believe you’re from another century. Is that true?”

“Aye. I told Sir Joe everything: about my being from the year 1499, about Sir Richard and his men coming for my sister; and how I desperately need his help. Sadly, he fails to believe me.”

“Think about it,” Shelly said. “If I told you I traveled from the moon...“

Alexandra huffed.

“Okay, never mind that. Let’s say I told you I was from the thirteenth century, two hundred years before you were supposedly born. Would you believe me?”

“Mayhap I would ask you a few questions about your village. I would want to know who your ruler was at the time. If your answers were feasible...“ She eyed Shelly carefully. “...and you looked fairly trustworthy...aye, I would believe you.”

“What happened in here?” Joe interrupted, giving Alexandra a start. Shelly turned about and hastily scrubbed the dishes piled in the basin.

Alexandra looked at the man filling the doorway. A shame it was to see his mood had not improved. He looked severely agitated and offered no sign of apologizing for his rudeness this morn. How was it, she wondered, that even perspiring and wearing a loose-fitting white tunic, he looked clean and newly shaved? His hunting garb struck her as odd, but it was his sturdy form that caught her full attention. Between his notable height and broad shoulders, he was maddeningly appealing.

Alexandra’s face heated at the remembrance of him standing before her without a stitch of cloth to cover his most private of body parts...thick and rigid, like a broadsword ready for battle.

Sir Joe looked about the kitchen with obvious disapproval. A deep frown creased his brow.

Shelly leaned close to Alexandra’s ear. “See what I mean?”

She nodded. Aye, the term “neat freak“ was beginning to make sense.

Sir Joe picked up a discarded chicken bone, letting it dangle precariously from his fingers. “What is this?”

“’Tis a bone,” Alexandra offered matter-of-factly. “It was delicious.”

Shelly hid a smile behind a drying cloth. “We’re cleaning up, so don’t get your feathers all in a ruffle.”

Alexandra’s amusement disappeared when Sir Joe directed his mulish expression at her, prompting her to say to Shelly, “It would seem Suzanne ruffled his feathers earlier after she discovered Sir Joe had been touching my breasts.”

Shelly threw Sir Joe a look of disapproval.

“Hey, wait a minute,” he told Shelly, “it’s your fault I woke up with her in my bed in the first place.”

Shelly frowned. “Alexandra, how did you end up in the Professor’s bedroom?”

“I sleepwalk at times, quite useless to ponder a cure. But,” she added smugly, “had Sir Joe’s hand not been latched onto my breast like a bloodthirsty leech, I could have snuck back to my room without disturbance.”





Joe looked about his usually pristine kitchen, deeply regretting returning so quickly from his run. A horrified expression remained on Shelly’s face, looking at him as if he had done something wrong when it was Alexandra who had snuck into his bed uninvited. More than ever he longed for the peaceful solitude he was accustomed to. “Why didn’t you take her to your place last night instead of mine?” he asked Shelly, unable to get over the fact that he’d had absolutely no control over the situation.

“My neighbor’s apartment is being painted, so she and her cat are staying with me. I didn’t have room for one more.”

“Swell. You get the lady and her cat, and I get stuck with the...” His gaze settled on Alexandra whose face was mere inches from the television screen. “What is she doing?”