Crossover Crossroads (The Kell and Maille Story)

I assure you, she can, and she has

*****040: I assure you, she can, and she has

Kell set the water cup on Maille's night stand and turned off the night lamp. He stood for a second and looked down at her in the light from the hall. She was pale, but not unusually so. Her braids he'd taken out and laid her hair strewn artfully across the pillow. He smoothed the sheet over her and then turned.

Richard Mann was in the hallway, about to come through the door. "She's asleep again." Kell told him and stepped through the door.

"Let's go upstairs." Richard said. "We can hear her from the dining room if she calls out."

Kell followed Richard up the stairs and took a seat closest to the stairs. Tracy and Richard sat at the table, donuts and milk adorned the white lace cloth. Kell put his head in his hands.

"I'm sorry." he said.

"Sorry for what? Were you responsible for her leaving here?" Richard asked politely, without a hint of accusation.

"She's been doing a lot of soul-searching since she met me." Kell said, not wanting to divulge too much of Maille's confidence, but wanting to give this nervous father a better impression of what was going on and why Maille had run.

"Why did she leave here tonight?"

"She was running away." Kell admitted.

"And you encouraged her?" Tracy voiced hotly.

He looked into her pale blue eyes like ice and shivered. She was a beautiful woman, one of the most beautiful he'd ever seen. She was a good woman, and a great musician, but she didn't know her daughter worth beans. At least in his opinion.

"I came to get her to prevent her from running away. Better with me, than out there somewhere."

"Why did you come and get her? Why didn't you tell her to stay? To go and talk to me?" Tracy wondered.

"Mrs. Mann... if I may be so bold. What exactly did you say to her tonight that set her off?"

"I didn't say anything..." Tracy started and then flushed.

"Did you ask her if she'd been sleeping with me?" Kell's voice held no rancor.

Tracy looked annoyed. She hung her head and her eyes pleaded with Richard's. "Yes, I did."

Richard looked startled. "I hope that wasn't at the beginning of your conversation, Tracy."

Tracy sighed. "Kell, you have a pretty bad reputation, you can't blame me for being concerned."

Kell shook his head and leaned across the table on his folded arms. "I have never done anything to give anyone the impression that I would take advantage of an innocent girl." He spread his hands wide in a gesture of supplication. "It's all conjecture. All fabricated."