Her Knight at the Museum

Chapter Twenty-Five

Twenty-Five

The men at Medieval Legends gave Griffin a time to come back and fill out paperwork. When he emerged from the building, the sun was peeking through the clouds, echoing his tentative hopes about reconciling with Emily.

He reached Aaron’s car and tried to get in, but the door was locked. Aaron, wearing his sunglasses, had pushed his seat all the way back and appeared to be sleeping soundly. When Griffin pounded on the door, Aaron jumped. He unlocked the door, pulling his seat back up as Griffin got in.

Aaron glanced at the dashboard clock and muttered, “Shit.” Then he asked Griffin, “So? How’d it go?”

Griffin squared his shoulders. “I am now the Green Knight. At least part of the time.”

“Congratulations. You’ve been restored.”

Despite his worries about Emily, Griffin had to grin. When he’d first been brought to the museum, they’d spoken of restoring him, but no one could’ve imagined him coming to life again—and, at least in one sense, becoming a knight again.

This knighthood would have none of the horrors of his old one, and all the reasons he’d wanted to become a knight. Camaraderie. Gallantry. And, yes…a little bit of showing off. But he wouldn’t have been completely himself again without an opportunity to do that.

“Let me try these guys one more time,” Aaron said, getting out his phone. He called three numbers, but was only able to leave short messages, saying he’d try again in a couple of hours.

He took Griffin to a late lunch with several TV screens on the walls, playing without sound.

“They are talking about the Cubs,” Griffin said, pointing at one of them.

Aaron grinned. “You’re a Cubs fan already? I’m a Cardinals fan, myself.” He scanned the room, looking for more agreeable entertainment, Griffin supposed. Then he straightened and his face flushed purple. “What the fuck ?”

Griffin followed his gaze to another TV. A blond woman in a bright red dress was speaking, and a banner below read:

FBI ARRESTS MUSEUM EMPLOYEE FOR ART THEFT

The TV cut to a scene, blurred at first and then in focus, of men and one woman leading Emily out the door that she’d once led him through, when he’d first found his freedom. Her hands were clearly bound behind her back.

“No!” Griffin roared, leaping to his feet and startling a server badly enough that she dropped the two plates in her hands. They crashed into pieces on the floor. He didn’t care.

“Fuck!” Aaron said again behind him. Griffin’s eyes fixed on the screen. The woman was talking again, but he wanted to see more of Emily and make sure that she hadn’t been harmed, and he wanted to memorize the faces of the people who’d arrested her.

“I’m going to have to ask you gentlemen to leave.”

Griffin turned back. A man with glasses stood facing Aaron, who’d already gotten to his feet.

“We’re going,” Aaron said grimly. “Griffin, come on.”

It was not unlike the way a lord might order a servant or a faithful hound, for that matter, but Griffin had no care for his pride. Aaron would know what to do.

Once they’d gotten in Aaron’s car, Griffin asked, “Can you take me to her?”

“Yes.” He pulled away sharply from the curb and barked, “Call Brian.”

After a ring, a man’s tenor voice said, “Aaron. Hey—”

“What the fuck , Brian?”

Aaron’s tone took Griffin by surprise. The man had been mild and courteous before. But under the circumstances, Aaron’s anger seemed only fitting.

“We get to make the arrest, not you,” Brian said.

Griffin’s blood beat so hard, it pounded in the artery in his neck. This was the man responsible for Emily’s arrest?

“Is that why you weren’t returning my calls? Why you rushed this? So the Art Crimes division wouldn’t get the credit?” They approached a yellow light, and Aaron accelerated, zooming through the intersection. “I left a second message saying not to do anything!”

“I know, but Chicago FBI has jurisdiction here—”

“And you didn’t have enough to make the arrest!”

“The hell are you talking about? You patched us through to the confession. Her boyfriend admitted she’s a thief.”

Griffin yelled, “I said no such thing, varlet!”

“Let me do the talking,” Aaron muttered at the same time Brian said, “He’s with you?”

“Yeah, we’re coming in. This is what I wanted to tell you. The conversation you heard was out of context .”

“You have offended and wronged my lady Emily,” Griffin said, “and for that you must answer with your—”

“Brian!” Aaron interrupted. “Stay on the line.” He touched a button on the dashboard and shot a glare at Griffin before returning his eyes to the road. “If you want Emily to be okay, you need to stop interrupting.”

Griffin swallowed. “I understand. But they are festering canker-blossoms for putting my lady in chains!”

“Sure.” Aaron touched the dashboard again. “Brian, still there?”

“Yeah. What job was he talking about, if it wasn’t the sculpture?”

“He tried out for Medieval Legends.”

After a moment of silence, Brian said, “ What? ”

“Listen to the second recording I sent you!” Aaron glanced at Griffin again. “And get Emily Porter out of handcuffs if you know what’s good for you. You don’t want a civil suit on your hands.”

After Aaron hung up, Griffin said slowly, “You are a sheriff.”

“Special agent, FBI, Art Crimes division, D.C. Brian heads up the FBI here in Chicago, but let’s just say the field offices don’t always like it when the experts like me get involved.” Griffin must’ve looked confounded because he added, “Basically a sheriff.”

“My lady Rose will be much vexed by your deception.”

Aaron’s mouth tightened. “Yeah, I know.”

They reached the city limits but went in a different direction than Griffin expected, heading south. They reached a tall glass building, though not even close to as tall as the ones near the museum.

After Aaron parked, Griffin reached for the car door handle, but Aaron grabbed his sleeve to stop him.

“Listen very carefully. These are serious guys. They’re being dumbasses, but they’re serious. If you assault one of them, they will shoot you dead, and that’ll ruin my day. Understand?”

Griffin took a deep breath and nodded, even though rage made him feel like the blood in his veins had been replaced by fire. “I will school myself to restraint.”

“Good man.”

When they walked in, Aaron told the woman behind the desk, “He’s with me.”

The woman asked to see Griffin’s driver’s license, and Griffin noticed Aaron peering closely at it. She returned it and directed them to pass through an archway. Aaron led Griffin to an office not completely unlike the place where Emily worked, with computers and desks.

A ruddy-faced man in a dark suit approached them. This had to be Brian, Griffin thought. He muttered under his breath, “Infected arse-boil.”

Aaron gave Griffin a sharp look and then said to the man in the suit, “Take us to her.”

Brian gave a surly incline of his head, and as they began to follow him, he said, “You know, this wouldn’t have happened if—”

“We’re not doing that now,” Aaron said in a tone that brooked no arguments.

Griffin’s heart pounded in his chest. Would Emily still be angry with him for being such a fool…and now, for being the cause of her rude treatment and public humiliation, besides? All he could do was beg her forgiveness.

They went into a room with bright lights overhead and the shutters on the windows closed tight. Around a table sat one woman in a suit, two strong-looking men in T-shirts, and…

“Griffin!” Emily jumped out of her seat, almost knocking it over, and rushed over to him saying, “I was so worried about you!”

She wore bright lipstick, and she’d arranged her dark brown hair up on her head, but a few locks had come loose, sweeping against the tender curve of her neck. Flinging her arms around him, she demanded, “Are you all right?”

He pulled her closer, his heart filled with relief and adoration. “Aye, my cinnamon.” He cleared his throat against the hoarseness of his voice.

She pulled back and then blinked. “Aaron? What are you…” Understanding dawned in her eyes. “Ohhhh.”

He gave a little nod of confirmation. “Aaron Coleman, FBI Art Crimes.”

Griffin took her hands. “My dearest love, I most sincerely and bitterly regret my churlishness and my stupid pride.” His gaze hung on hers.

“You were confused.” She shook her head. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I think you had the wrong idea about actors—”

“Aye, I did, but Aaron has explained all.”

“I shouldn’t have gotten so angry.” Regret filled her brown eyes. “I was worried about a lot of different things, but—”

“Nay, ’twas more than just, my sweet cinnamon, after all you have done for me.” He swallowed. “Small wonder that you wanted to leave me, but dare I hope that you have changed your mind?”

“I…What? No!” Horror washed across her face. “I didn’t want to leave you! I mean, I left you, but I was just going to be out for an hour or two, to calm down…I didn’t want us to yell at each other.”

His heart filled with gratitude and relief. He added tenderly, “These scabrous miscreants have done you no harm?” He raised her hands and turned them over to examine her for marks or bruises, relieved to see nothing but a faint line where the cuffs had been. He lowered his lips to one of her wrists, closing his eyes and treasuring the sensation of the delicate skin beneath his lips, the pulse there…the life that meant more to him than anything.

“I’m fine, now that you’re here,” she murmured.

He couldn’t resist kissing her any longer. A sweet kiss, not the kind that led quickly to swiving, out of respect for her modesty in front of strangers, but it still roused his soul.

“Awww,” the woman in the dark suit said. When her men in T-shirts gave her dubious looks, she added, “What? We listened to the second conversation. There’s no evidence pointing to them.”

Griffin asked Emily, “How was your speech?”

She gave a short laugh. “Good, actually. You helped with some things.” She looked around the room, her bright lips tightening into a thin line. “But then these guys had me arrested in a room in front of my boss, my coworkers, and my peers.”

Griffin’s blood heated again.

Brian put his hands on his hips. “We’re dropping the charges. We already told her she’s free to go.”

“After you got her face plastered all over national news,” Aaron said. Emily gave a little gasp of dismay. “We’re going to make it right.” He swept a steely gaze across the room.

“Shouldn’t we take this guy to the mental hospital, though?” one of the guys in the T-shirts suggested. “He thinks he’s a freaking knight!”

Brian rubbed his face. “Under Illinois law, we can’t. He’s not a danger to himself or anyone else.” He sounded disappointed.

“Excuse me.” At the new female voice, they all looked over. The woman in uniform stood next to a perturbed-looking man of middle age who was wearing a dark suit and carrying a case in one hand. “It’s Ms.Porter’s lawyer…?”

“Ah, shit,” Brian muttered.

Griffin’s eyebrows raised. He knew that word, lawyer ; did Emily’s family keep one in their employ?

Aaron strode over to the stranger and extended his hand with a smile. “Aaron Coleman, FBI Art Crimes. There’s been a bit of a misunderstanding.”

This lawyer, as soon as he heard of the wrongful arrest, began using the same phrase Aaron had used earlier— civil suit . Griffin asked Emily what it meant, and she explained to him that maybe the Jack-fools who had arrested and humiliated her would have to pay her a lot of money in recompense. Emily demanded her phone, which was speedily returned to her, and she called her parents and assured them that she was being set free.

Emily, Griffin, and the lawyer—his name was Steve—walked outside the doors of the brick building into the sunlight. Steve arranged for a time to speak with Emily about the experience, and Griffin told the man that he hoped he would make the whoresons pay. Steve offered to drive them back to their apartment, but Emily declined, saying they’d call an Uber.

Once Steve had shaken hands with them and was headed back to the parking lot, Emily looked up at Griffin, who was squinting in the bright sun. “I just wanted a few minutes alone with you.”

His heart melted. “Aye, sit with me in the grass, under this tall tree.” He gestured. Emily kicked off her shoes and took his hand, and they walked over to the oak.

He looked her up and down as she settled herself next to him, sitting on her heels with her knees together, in her short, narrow skirt. “Are you sure you are well, after all this, my heart’s queen?”

“I’m fine. Promise. Just a little dazed.”

He brushed back a strand of hair that had fallen across her cheek. “I did not know you had a lawyer.”

She shook her head. “I only met him once before. My parents wanted me to talk to him in case I got in trouble.”

“Why did you not tell me?”

“Because I didn’t want to worry you.” She plucked a fuzzy-headed dandelion near her knee. “And I told him you were wearing armor in the museum that day because you were going to try out for Medieval Legends.”

“Ah. And when I did not go, you did not want a man of the law to think you were a liar.”

“Yeah, that was bothering me, too. Though it really wouldn’t have made a difference.”

Griffin gently touched two fingers under her chin, so she would look him in the eye.

“You must not try to shield me from your worries and concerns.” He gave a wry chuckle. “Indeed, I am more accustomed to protecting than being protected.”

“You’re right,” she admitted. “It made things worse. It’s just that I think I was not enough fun around Tom, so I don’t want to be like that again, and—”

“ Tom ,” Griffin repeated with disgust. “I am not a man for only one season, but here for the storms as well as the sun.”

Her eyes glossed over with unshed tears. “It’s just that you’ve been through so much.”

“Aye, perhaps so I might be here with you.” He leaned down and blew on the fuzzy dandelion in her hand, sending the seeds free on the breeze.

She kissed him and then said, “Oops,” and wiped at his mouth. Some of her lipstick must’ve come off on him. He didn’t mind.

“You have to promise me something, too,” she said. “You’re still getting used to the modern world. If there’s something that doesn’t make sense—like me expecting you to be a filthy actor…” They shared a smile at this. “Try to not get all upset until we can talk it through, okay?”

“Aye, you are right,” he admitted. “So many things are unfamiliar to me, and I am not used to being nobody…I am ashamed to admit that my pride was pricked as soon as I arrived at that false castle.”

“You can tell me when you’re frustrated, or scared, okay? We’ll both be honest with each other.”

He took her earnest face gently between his palms and kissed her, as the breeze rustled the green leaves above them and lifted the ends of their hair. The summer, he thought, had just that instant begun.

“And you’re not nobody, my lord,” she whispered when they parted. “To me, you will always be a noble knight.”

Oh. In all the clamor of the day, he had not told her his good news yet. He sat taller.

“Soon no one may dispute that I am a knight, for I will be one at Medieval Legends.”

It gave him great satisfaction to see Emily’s mouth fall open. “ What? Wait…you tried out, after all?”

“Aye, I did this very morn, and I will be no squire, but the Green Knight.”

“Oh my gosh !” She threw her arms around him and squeezed him tightly, then pulled back to look up at him. “That’s amazing!”

The pride shining in her eyes was all the admiration he’d ever need in life.