The Black Knight (Watty Awards 2012 Finalist)

"You're alive." The words fell from Eli’s lips like a joyously whispered prayer, as he closed the distance between them, grasping on to Nan's arms as he looked her over from head to toe. Disbelief and wonder flooding his features as he gazed at Nan with a gaping smile on his lips, panting out his excitement in overjoyed laughter. His hands moving from her upper arms to her hands, to her shoulders and finally cupping her face, as he eyes rejoined hers. "By God. You're alive." He smiled so wide Nan thought his face might crack from the strain of such a smile. Then his lips were on hers in a passionate and bruising kiss.

With that Nan was pulled from the shocked stupor she had been caught in since first laying eyes on Eli Waters. And when his tongue slipped into her mouth she quickly, desperately began to shove at his shoulders, but he wouldn't let go. His hands moved from her face to her upper arms once more, clinging to her as a drowning man would cling the log that kept him a float. His lips sealed to hers, until he was pulled off her and thrown roughly to the ground by Captain De'Mont.

Even as Captain De’Mont stood before Nan glaring down at Eli berating him with curses and accusations for the man’s poor conduct in his house. Nan could not tear her eyes away from the startled expression on Eli’s face as he stared back at her. All she could do was stare at him, the man who was the mirror image of her James. 

So much so that when she’d turned and saw him she thought for a moment she was seeing a ghost. That James had returned to her, to claim her, or worse to denounce her. Her heart had contracted to the size of a pebble when the thought that James might have risen from the grave to cast her off for what she was steadily feeling for William. And now that she knew for certain that the man before her was not James but Eli, her heart suddenly exploded within her breast. Her entire body trembled as she stood before the duplicate of her lover. But even knowing he was not James, being subjected to the same eyes, the same voice and expressions as James. Seeing him was too much. She couldn't breathe, couldn't think. It was all too much.

Taking a few shaky steps back Nan turned and ran from the green house and right into William. His hands clasped about her arms in the same manner they had only an hour before, in the same manner Eli had held on to her before he had been ripped from her by Captain De’Mont. Staring up into William’s eyes her gaze was met with all the warmth of a frozen statue.

He'd seen. God no! Please no! Please not again! Her mind wailed as she stared up at him seeing his face was a near match for the murderous gaze he had held when she had run from Hoss during the rain. Only this one, this one terrified her because he directed it at her. "Please William," she whispered with a shaky breath. "Please." she pleaded with tearful eyes and when he released her and walked past her and into the greenhouse without a word, Nan felt the world drop from beneath her feet. Her hand fisted between her breasts as the other flew to the wall to keep her from crumbling to her floor where she stood.

William entered the greenhouse with one thought and one thought alone, though John seemed to think it an entirely different thing as he rushed to stop William and his advance toward the lanky man currently sprawled on the ground. He was not an unattractive fellow, though his looks were common enough among men of his age which seemed to be in his early thirties. His hair was dark and cropped short, his clothes were not grand in their subdued browns and whites but they were well maintained. His pale green eyes stared past William as though he were nothing more than an obstruction to his view, most likely hoping to see Nan again as he seemed to neither care nor notice the two fierce men before him, nor their ill will directed at him.

John stood only a few feet from William, and William could easily see the anger that shot through him as his brow creased deeply and his eyes hardened whenever he looked to the offender still sitting on the ground in a disbelieving daze.

“There’s naught here for you to concern yourself with William. I’ll throw this Blackguard from the house and into the nearest jail myself. And should he make a fuss I’ll be sure to show him a rougher degree of affection than he showed Nan.” John growled, his words capturing the attention of both men, causing William to stop and finally look at John. Really, truly look at his friend and the expression he saw on the man’s face set William’s blood to boiling. The last time William had seen such a look on John was the last and only time a man had ever struck Clara.