by Amanda Paris
I was surprised by Damien’s reaction. Instead of attacking Ben, as I’d thought he would, he turned to me, a somber look in his eyes.
“What is he to you, Emmeline?” he asked me a little too quietly.
I was so surprised, I nearly didn’t know what to say. Both of them were looking at me, waiting for a response.
“He’s…he’s…” I stuttered. I didn’t know what Ben was to me. I knew what he had been. But where did that leave us now?
“He’s a friend,” I finished, knowing that neither of them would be satisfied with that answer.
The tension eased a little from Damien, and for that, I was grateful, but only for a moment.
He turned back to Ben, and said in a calm, controlled voice, “For her sake, I will not kill you here. I will see you outside, after school.” The intensity of his voice cut through the silence. Everyone in the cafeteria had stopped eating to watch the drama unfold.
I closed my eyes. This was worse than a school fight. I thought Damien might actually follow through on his promise to kill Ben. Knights fought for their ladies in tournaments all of the time. Sometimes they killed. I thought back to the tournament I’d seen in my past life, when Damien nearly killed Justin in the joust. Knights regarded life and death differently from everyone else, and they expected to meet their death at any moment. Damien was absolutely fearless. Would he know when to stop?
Damien strode out of the cafeteria, going, I assumed, to clean up in the bathroom. I had to admit, even with mashed potatoes on his pants, he was still the hottest guy in the school.
I stood up to go after him, but Ben’s voice stopped me in my tracks.
“I hope that loser makes you happy. I see now why you dumped me. I mean, I really couldn’t compete with his fancy car or his designer clothes,” he said in a sneering voice I’d never heard before.
The entire cafeteria, which was most of the school, hung onto his every word. I caught Angela laughing from the corner of my eye and could feel the blush on my face.
I said softly, hoping no one could hear me, “Ben, you know who he is, what he means to me. Don’t you remember?”
He replied so that everyone could hear: “Oh, you mean that lame story you told me? I thought you were just crazy at the time, but now I know you’re not only crazy but also the meanest girl I’ve ever known.”
“But I showed you, Ben,” I said, feeling humiliated and betrayed. Maybe I was wrong to sit with Ben today, but did he have to take his revenge like this?
I could feel the tears in my eyes. I shook my head in disbelief. I couldn’t believe he thought I’d broken up with him because Damien was rich. Or that he hadn’t believed me when I’d poured my heart out to him. There was no rational explanation for who or what I was. But I expected him to care enough about me to believe what I’d told him. I didn’t realize the depth of the pain I’d caused him.
And then there was the unhappy truth that maybe he was right. Maybe I was the meanest girl he knew. But I’d never intended to hurt him.
I shook my head and turned away, too upset to speak and too embarrassed to face anyone. If it hadn’t been for the fight that afternoon, I would have left to go home. I seriously thought about leaving anyway, but I was afraid of what Damien might do to Ben if I wasn’t there to stop him.
Annie followed me out of the cafeteria and must have seen me heading in the direction of the teacher’s bathroom. It had a lounge with a small sofa and a lock that I hadn’t bothered to flip. She knocked, came in without a word, and sat down beside me, letting me cry on her shoulder for the next hour. We skipped fourth period, fortunate that nobody came to investigate.
****
I didn’t see Damien again until that afternoon after school. He stood outside my last class, waiting for me.
“Emmeline,” he began, “I want you to go home now.”
“What?” I answered, confused. I was still too traumatized by what had happened at lunch to understand what he was saying.
“Annie’s agreed to take you,” he said.
Annie had come up beside him. They both looked worried about me.
“But why?” I asked.
But I knew why, of course. Damien had regarded Ben’s action as a direct challenge to his honor, one he would not let slide. But he didn’t want me to see him. Though I’d watched him perform in several tournaments in our past life, this was different. This as personal, almost like some kind of duel.
“Damien, stop this madness now. This is just ridiculous. We’re going home,” I said firmly, taking him by the arm. He didn’t budge.
“No, Emmeline. You’re going home. This will be no place for a lady,” he responded.
I’d had enough of his high-handed medieval ways. I had to put a stop to it.
“Listen to me, Damien. In the twenty-first century…” I began.
“I’ve heard enough about the twenty-first century,” he interrupted. “I don’t know who that boy is to you, but we’ll discuss it when I get home,” he finished, taking my hand firmly in his.
I was almost too shocked and angry with him for words. How dare he talk to me like that! On the other hand, he’d sensed something. Was there still so much between Ben and me that Damien had noticed? But he must have. A different look came into his eyes when he’d threatened to kill Ben earlier, one that I’d recognized only once—when Lamia had proposed that I marry someone else. I didn’t think it was jealousy; Damien wasn’t petty enough for that. But I belonged to him, and he wasn’t about to let Ben tell him how to behave around me.
It was probably a good thing that I was speechless. I let him pull me out to the parking lot, where a crowd had already gathered, eagerly awaiting what looked to be a promising fight.
We arrived to Annie’s car first, but I refused to get in, knowing I had to stop this somehow. I didn’t see Ben yet, but I knew he’d show.
When Damien saw that I wouldn’t get in on my own, he picked me up with one hand, opened the door with the other, and gently placed me inside almost before I had time to react. Annie just stood there, motionless. I guess she was also too stunned to speak.
“Get in,” Damien ordered her in a voice none of us could argue with.
Annie quickly climbed in beside me. I had, by now, given up the idea of reasoning with him or getting back out to confront him, knowing that Damien would just put me back in. I also had a plan.
“I’ll see you at your Aunt’s house later,” he said. He bent and tried to kiss me, but I turned away. Never, in my entire life, had I been treated this way.
Damien shut the door, Annie started the car, and we drove out of the parking lot, parting the crowd that continued to stare at me. We waited less than five minutes before I suggested going back. Her eyes grew large and round.
“I don’t know, Em. He looked pretty serious to me,” she said in a nervous voice.
“I don’t care. I have to stop Ben, even if I can’t stop Damien,” I said, anxious to prevent the fight or something much worse.
I knew they’d wait until the parking lot had cleared. Though Damien had been used to fighting in hand-to-hand combat in tournaments, Ben hadn’t had any fighting experience with anyone except for his brother, Jake, and his best friend, Zack. They wrestled all the time, but this was different. Damien wasn’t playing around.
My only hope was that Ben had forgotten the events at lunchtime and decided to drive home.
Annie turned the car around, and we turned back into the parking lot. From what I could see—which wasn’t much—the fight was underway. A huge crowd surrounded them, blocking my view. Was the entire school here? Where were the teachers or principal to stop it?
Once Annie parked, I quickly got out of the car and ran to the edge of the crowd. I could see Angela cheering Ben on. It looked like they’d made up, I thought. I tried pushing my way through the throng of people, but everyone was too focused on the fight to take any notice. Finally, several people realized that it was me, the object of the fight, and they parted
to let me through. I was just in time to see that the first punch had been thrown by Ben. So they were beyond words now. The blow merely grazed Damien, who didn’t flinch. Nevertheless, he quickly responded, seemingly unfazed as he sent Ben a blow that made everyone recoil. In terms of height, Damien had the advantage. His size and sheer muscle power would have intimated most guys. Ben had been an athlete his entire life, but he could not compete with Damien, who’d trained to fight, fully armed, since he’d been a boy. I remembered what he’d done to Justin.
The fight was over almost before it began. Damien’s punch lifted Ben off his feet. Ben went sprawling backwards, landing with a thud on the pavement. Realizing he’d likely knocked out his opponent, Damien turned, wiped his hands on his pants, and parted the crowd, which instantly moved out of his way, awed, I could tell, that he’d effectively won the fight with one blow. He got into the Audi, not even winded. Fortunately, he hadn’t seen that Annie and I had driven up a few spaces away. Her car had been hidden on the other side of someone’s van. And since he didn’t expect us to be there, he didn’t look for us in the crowd. I didn’t think he saw Annie’s car as he drove off. I knew he was headed to my house first, but I had to make sure that Ben wasn’t lying there, unconscious or dead.
The crowd had surrounded Ben now, and I had to push my way through them to get to where he was.
“Stand back!” I yelled, worried he couldn’t get any air with everyone so close. Kneeling down, I immediately felt for a pulse; it was there, but it felt faint.
“Ben, are you okay?” I asked. It was a ridiculous question. Everyone could see that he was not alright.
“Do you think we should take him to the hospital?” Zack asked.
“Ben?” I said, cradling his head in my lap. I would never forgive myself if he didn’t wake up.
His eyes started to flutter, and I felt relief sweep through me. He was going to be okay after all.
He looked at me, focusing his eyes.
“Emily?” he whispered.
“Yes, I’m here,” grateful to hear his voice.
“I think I need a doctor.”
It must have been bad. I had never, through all my years of knowing Ben, heard him ask for a doctor—not when he’d broken his leg climbing a tree when he was eleven, not when a drunk driver had rear-ended us one Friday night, and not when his brother had tackled him so hard playing football that he’d broken a rib.
We carefully lifted Ben into Zack’s Jeep, which was big enough for him to recline. As I started to shut the door, I heard Ben call me back to him.
“Emily?” he said. His voice was barely above a whisper now.
“Yeah, Ben?” I asked.
“I’m taking you up on your offer.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“I want my ring back.”
Chapter Fifteen
"The Ring"
…for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments.
T. S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”
I didn’t speak to Damien for two days. He’d left me a note at my Aunt’s apologizing for his behavior to me, but I hadn’t called or gone to see him. And he must have sensed that he’d crossed the line with me because he left me alone, not coming to school or the house.
I finally realized that I missed him too much let this incident—however bad it was—get between us. I knew I had to forgive him or go crazy. It was true that we had a lot to work out, but we loved each other. I was hopeful for the future.
Ben had quickly recovered, needing only a few bandages, and amazingly, no one had reported the fight. I couldn’t believe that the principal or teachers hadn’t seen the crowd outside, and I knew we were lucky.
Despite the disastrous first day, Damien eventually settled into high school, the only foreign student. Everyone accepted the past we’d created for him, and most of the girls thought it was terribly romantic of him to fight for me. I probably would have thought so too if I hadn’t lived it. It’s only romantic in books and movies, not in real life.
Annie had overheard Angela say that I was the luckiest girl on the planet and that it wasn’t fair since I didn’t deserve the newest hot guy in school. Hadn’t I already had my chance with Ben?
Despite feeling terrible about what happened, I knew that at least the worst was over. And Ben wasn’t dead. So that was a plus.
Before Zack took Ben to the hospital, I’d given Ben back his ring. It was the right thing to do, I knew, but I couldn’t shake the feeling I had that it would lead to something terrible. But Ben was right; it was cruel to keep his ring since we weren’t together. I had to honor his wishes, whatever misgivings I had.
Understandably, Damien and Ben completely avoided each other after the fight. Damien and I stayed away from the lunch table, choosing instead to eat outside on the picnic tables by ourselves. This suited me, and Ben was grateful, I think, not to have us near him. Not that he ever spoke to me after that.
Damien hadn’t yet asked me too many questions about Ben, and for that, I was grateful. I hadn’t stayed angry at him too long, but he told me it was long enough. Though he’d hastily written the note for me on Aunt Jo’s message pad, he made a more formal apology to me later, knowing that I must hold Ben in some regard and telling me that he wished the outcome of their exchange had been different. Evidently, before Ben punched him, Damien had offered to accept an apology for his insulting behavior at lunch. I cringed when he told me and didn’t have to imagine Ben’s response. I had watched it.
I felt obliged to explain something to Damien. I didn’t tell him that Ben and I had once imagined being together our entire lives, that we’d originally planned to go to the same college and eventually get married.Instead, I explained that Ben had once been something more to me than a friend.
Damien still struggled with the past life I’d had without him—the one before my dreams had begun. But he accepted the brief description of my past relationship with Ben. He didn’t begrudge me the happiness I’d found with Ben, so long as it was over now. As far he was concerned, we could be friends if Ben could respect the boundaries. I was a little amused by this. I knew Damien had researched modern relationships at the library, and he used psychologists’ terminology as he tried to understand how men and women related to each other.
In the thirteenth century, relationships usually only took one form—marriage—but I appreciated that he was trying to understand that everyone, male and female, could interact as friends in the twenty-first century. I was grateful that he was making the effort to understand and respect my wishes.
As it happened, though, Ben didn’t want to be friends after the fight. I think he assumed that we were getting back together until Damien actually arrived. Once he saw for himself that it was really over between us, he couldn’t handle it. Since then, I’d caught him watching us only once, a resigned look in his eyes. I thought that maybe he hated me, and that made me sad. But there was nothing I could do. I didn’t think Ben and I could be friends, even if the fight hadn’t happened. We had been too much to each other before.
Damien and I mainly kept to ourselves. It was too dangerous for him to try and make any close friends with the other students since he was still learning about modern life. I was glad for the time we had by ourselves, though I knew that I was losing Annie, my best friend. Since I avoided Ben, and Annie dated his best friend, we no longer moved in the same circles.
I knew Aunt Jo was concerned about the amount of time I spent with Damien and the fact that I didn’t really have other friends anymore outside of him. She liked him well enough, though I could tell she still preferred Ben. I hadn’t told her anything about the fight, and she often mentioned Ben’s name over dinner unless Damien was there. She was very sensitive to his feelings, whatever her personal preference might be. Ben had been around for years, while Damien was the newcomer. And even though he was charming, handsome, and clever, he wasn’t comfortable to her yet. I was hoping that time would eventually remedy that.
>
I hadn’t yet broached the subject of getting married to Damien with her. I still had some time, and I knew she’d be angry and likely forbid me to see Damien until I turned eighteen, when she wouldn’t have any say in the matter. But I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
For his part, Damien frequently wanted to discuss our marriage and asked me when we could talk it over with Aunt Jo. I continued to put it off, not wanting to hurt his feelings or have him think I was rejecting him. But it was going to come up sooner or later.
One Friday night, we’d ordered take-out and decided to watch an old film about knights and ladies. Damien enjoyed watching movies made about our past life, laughing at the misconceptions modern filmmakers and audiences held about knights and the Middle Ages. We liked to curl up on the large couches in what was once an elegant, formal parlor on the ground floor of Sugar Hill. Damien had converted it—the only room he’d changed in the house—to a movie room, amazed and delighted by the moving pictures he saw on TV.
He also couldn’t believe the kinds of foods we ate. I agreed with him. Though we’d likely eaten tastier fare in the castle than the average thirteenth-century villager did, food had definitely improved over the centuries.
I lay curled up on his lap, trying to feed him noodles with chop sticks. We’d just finished watching the movie, and the credits were running when Damien put his take-out box down, looking a little nervous, which was odd. Damien was never nervous.
“I’ve been doing some research in the library,” he began.
“Oh yeah? What about?” I asked absentmindedly.
My attention was mainly focused on rooting around the bottom of my box in search of chicken pieces. Damien was frequently researching in the library, so that was nothing new. I liked to tease him about being a bookworm—though I had to say, his enjoyment of books had inspired me to read more. I couldn’t say that I loved books as much as he did, but we often read together on lazy Sunday afternoons.
