Free Heroes Live Forever (Knights in Time) by Chris Karlsen Page B

through her clothes where his hand hovered. "I think you find me charming."
    "No, I don't." Elinor refused to look at him, certain the lie would send her into a fit of giggles.
    "Yes, you do. You are a woman. This charm is a boon and a curse."
    "Oh do hush up and dance."
    Guy’s image faded slightly as he employed the same energy force he had when she hung the pictures. Although she couldn't actually lean on him, he lessened the weight on her arms. They continued dancing as the next song played. The Lou Rawls’s hit from a few years earlier, You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine began as Guy moved closer. Her one hand covered by his, the other at the back of his neck. The intimacy of the dance brought a beguiling smile from Guy, who was obviously in his element.
    Her gaze locked onto Basil's, watching them with fierce intensity. Elinor smiled and waved her fingers, but he just sat fixed, staring. When Guy spun her a second time, Basil stood and headed for the back door.
    At the end of the song she offered to teach Guy The Hustle . They were rooting through the stack of albums when a fearsome cry sounded from off in the distance.
    "What was that?"
    Elinor rushed for the kitchen door, but Guy intercepted her. He held his arm out, as though to bar her path.
    "What are you doing? Someone might need help."
    "It’s Basil's war cry," Guy said in a somber voice. “Come, your presence won't help. There is no help for what troubles him."
    She hesitated, and then walked back to the stack of albums, Guy beside her.
    "You're not going to tell me what's wrong, are you?"
    "If he chooses, he will tell you."

Chapter Fourteen

    The knights left early that morning to go riding. Elinor planned to use the time alone to clean house. She brought her motivational tape downstairs to listen to while she worked when the doorbell rang.
    “Yes,” she said, puzzled seeing the van in her driveway when she opened the door. She wasn’t expecting any deliveries.
    “Are you Miss Hawthorne?” A teenage boy with grimy blue jeans, a yellowing tee shirt and an equally dirty jacket stood on her step. A flower box from the village florist and clipboard with pen attached were jammed under his arm. The disgusting jacket provided a buffer between the box and his armpit, for which she was grateful.
    "Yes, I'm Elinor Hawthorne."
    He pushed the clipboard at her. "Sign here."
    She'd barely finished when the boy snatched the board and shoved the box in her hands.
    "Wait, who are these from?" If he answered she didn't hear him. The lad leaped into a van and pulled away, the wheels throwing stones up in all directions. “Rude Bugger.”
    Elinor opened the box in the kitchen. A dozen roses of the softest peach color lay inside with a card, her name printed in the block letters. "The roses made me think of you." She recognized Jeremy's handwriting, the same bold lettering he used when he labeled her meat wrapper.
    She removed the flowers one by one, laying them in a quasi arrangement on the kitchen counter.
    "What's this thing?" Basil asked, returned from his ride.
    "It's a Walkman,” she said and took a vase out of the cupboard and set it on the counter. “You clip it to your waist, put the headset on and it plays a taped recording."
    Elinor popped the cassette out for him to see and then put it back. She turned the volume up and held out the earpiece so he could hear.
    Learn to Stop Smoking . Basil scrunched his face up. "What kind of music is that?"
    "It isn't music. It's a motivational tape."
    "How does this motivate you?" Basil asked, with more than a little skepticism, fingering the Walkman.
    "You listen to it while you sleep, at least I do, and the message plants the idea of not smoking into your subconscious."
    "Is this the same subconscious you told Guy about in the bookstore, the one that suffers tupping troubles? If so, I don't think I'd care to possess one."
    "We all have one that's unique to us as individuals. Even you have a subconscious, although