Free A Knight in Shining Armour by Jude Deveraux Page B

and bought more of everything. When she returned, she ate while he leaned back in his chair, sipped tea, and studied her.
    “What made you to weep in the church?” he asked.
    “I . . . I really don’t believe that’s any of your business.”
    “If I am to return—and I must return—I need to know what brought me forth.”
    Dougless put her half-eaten scone down. “You aren’t going to start that again, are you? You know what I think? I think you’re a graduate student in Elizabethan history, probably Ph.D. level, and you got carried away with your research. My father said it used to happen to him, that he’d read so much medieval script that after a while he couldn’t read modern handwriting.”
    Nicholas looked at her with distaste. “For all your wonders of horseless chariots, your marvelous glass, and the riches of goods to purchase, you have no faith in the mystery and magic of the world,” he said softly. “But I do not doubt what has happened to me, and I know from whence I came,” he said evenly. “And you, witch—”
    At that, Dougless got up and left the table. But he caught her before she reached the door to the shop, his hand cutting into her arm.
    “Why were you weeping when first I saw you? What could cause a woman to weep such as I heard?” he demanded.
    She jerked out of his grip. “Because I’d just been left behind,” she said angrily. Then, to her shame, tears began again.
    Gently, he slipped her arm in his and led her back to the table. This time, he sat beside her, poured her another cup of tea, added milk, and handed her the pretty porcelain cup.
    “Now, madam, you must tell me what plagues you so that tears pour forth from your eyes as from a waterfall.”
    Dougless didn’t want to tell anyone what had happened to her. But her need to share was greater than her pride, and within minutes, she was pouring out her story to him.
    “This man left you alone? Unattended?” Nicholas asked, aghast. “He left you at the mercy of ruffians and thieves?”
    Nodding, Dougless blew her nose on a paper napkin. “And at the mercy of men who believe they’re from the sixteenth century, too. Oh, sorry,” she added.
    But Nicholas didn’t seem to hear her. He got up and began pacing the garden. There were four other tables but no other customers. “You but knelt by the tomb—my tomb—and asked for a . . .” He looked at her.
    “A Knight in Shining Armor. It’s an American saying. All women want a gorgeous . . . I mean, a . . . Well, a man to rescue her.”
    Smiling a bit, his lips hidden in his beard and mustache, he said, “I was not wearing armor when you called me forth.”
    “I didn’t call you,” she said fiercely. “It’s customary to cry when you get left in a church. Especially when a fat brat of a girl steals your handbag. I don’t even have a passport. Even if my family wired me money for a ticket home, I couldn’t leave immediately. I’d have to apply for another passport.”
    “Nor can I get home,” he said, beginning to pace again. “That we have in common. But if you brought me forth, you can send me back.”
    “I am not a witch,” she practically shouted at him. “I do not practice black magic, and I certainly don’t know how to send people back and forth in time. You’ve imagined all of this.”
    He raised an eyebrow at her. “No doubt your lover was justified in leaving you. With your vile temper, he would not want to remain with you.”
    “I was never ‘vile-tempered’ as you call it, with Robert. Maybe a little-short-tempered now and then, but only normally so, because I loved him. Love him. And I shouldn’t have complained so much about Gloria. It was just that her lying was beginning to get on my nerves.”
    “And you love this man who abandoned you, this man who allowed his daughter to steal from you?”
    “I doubt if Robert knows Gloria took my bag and, besides, Gloria is just a kid. She probably doesn’t even realize what she did. I just