A Knight in Central Park(57)

Alexandra could not believe what she was hearing. Not being overly fond of children was one thing, but stating it outright for the children to hear, was too much for her to bear. She brushed her skirts off in frustration. And then she noticed something within Sir Joe’s eyes, something she had failed to notice before.

Sir Joe was cracking his knuckles...Sir Joe was afraid.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said, wagging a finger in her direction. “That angry glare of yours is not going to work. I didn’t ask for any of this.”

“He is not a knight at all,” Garrett reminded her as he returned from a hasty trip to the lake.

“For Christ’s sake,” Joe said to Garrett. “Why don’t you tell us something we don’t already know?”

Susan gasped.

Rebecca merely stared at him in utter horror as if he’d grown horns and a spiked tail.

Those two things alone would not have alerted him to any unforeseen danger, but the fact that all three kids and Alexandra were suddenly staring at him in wide-eyed horror, caused chills to run up his spine. It was as if he’d turned into a monster before their eyes. He realized he shouldn’t have used God’s name in vain, but come on, give a man a break, he thought.

Rebecca ran to Alexandra’s side.

Even Garrett’s face turned deathly pale.

He rolled his eyes. “Aren’t you all over reacting just a bit?”

“Don’t move,” Alexandra said, taking a cautious step backwards, and then another. “If I can reach my things by the tree mayhap...”

“What’s going on?” Sir Joe asked, thoroughly baffled by everyone’s behavior.

Alexandra put a finger to her lips, silencing him, the panic in her eyes prompting him to obey as she continued her backward journey toward her things.

Susan stood as stiff as a pole, Rebecca’s face well hidden within her skirts.

“’Tis the poisonous snake hanging above your head that holds our attention,” Garrett offered matter-of-factly. “One small bite and you are finished. ’Tis a shame.”

Joe didn’t move. Although he didn’t trust Garrett, he could sense by the kid’s glee alone that the boy was telling the truth. No wonder Rebecca had run.

Alexandra had reached her destination and was now bent over near the base of the tree. When she turned back around she did not hesitate to position a very sharp, dangerous looking arrow on her bow. She settled the hard wood of the bow on her shoulder, pointing the sharp tip of the arrow in the general area of his face. Right between his eyes.

Perspiration gathered on his forehead.

“Do not fret,” Susan told Sir Joe, feigning a cheerful demeanor as if her sister shot arrows at people’s faces on a regular basis. “My sister is an experienced marksman.”

Joe didn’t dare acknowledge Susan’s words, although he took a small bit of comfort in hearing them.

“She has only missed...” Garrett began counting, using both hands. “Six, mayhap seven times in her life.”

If he lived to see another day, Joe vowed he’d get the kid for this. The eerie hiss of the snake sounded above his ear.

Alexandra eyed her target.

Rebecca and Susan hid their eyes as if there was indeed that small chance Alexandra might miss.

As soon as Alexandra pulled back on the taut string, Joe leapt off of the log, rolling over dirt and leaves. The arrow hit the tree with a twang.

Joe clutched at his chest, sure that he was having a heart attack. Spitting leaves and dirt from his mouth, he tried to calm his racing heart, but then he froze as the biggest snake he’d ever seen, slithered past him, right under his nose.

He didn’t move, hardly breathed. The reptile was a monstrosity. After the snake disappeared into the woods, he looked back toward Alexandra. She merely cocked a brow and shrugged as if she hadn’t nearly killed him. Turning about, she propped her weapon against the tree.

Joe glanced at the arrow protruding from the tree and saw that she’d missed her mark by a good four inches. And not upward, but downward. Joe came to his feet, went to the tree and pulled the arrow from its trunk. “This could have been my bloody head,” he said with more shock than anger.

“If you had not moved so abruptly,” Alexandra said, “I would have squarely hit my target. Besides, you are alive and breathing,” she said as if he couldn’t figure that much out for himself.

“Garrett,” Alexandra called as if nothing out of the ordinary had just occurred, “mayhap you could look about, see if these woodlands are good for hunting.”