The Guardian (Chronicles of Dover's Amalgam Book 1) by Elizabetta Holcomb Page A

and we should be good.” Jareth nodded. His smile wavered as he turned to the stall where the hogs were kept. She cleared her throat. “So, tell me what you want. Why did you come here?”
    His reply was swift. “I need your help.”
    “That’s given. Just by showing up here you tell me it’s serious. Might as well spill it. Give it to me. I’m all ears. You have the floor, your majesty.” She bent at the waist in a slightly mocking gesture, and swept out her hand.
    “There is a boy. His name is Jeremiah Cameron,” Jareth said. “He would be about nine years old in this time.”
    “Whoa, whoa!” she said in a soft exhalation. Her surprise was obvious. She popped up, her head shaking. He had never seen that look on her before. “Slow down.” Her face scrunched in confusion. “One minute we are talking about my vomit issues and the next, Jeremy?” She waved her hands toward him as if to spur him to speak. “I know Jeremy. What does he have to do with you?”
    “You did give me the floor.” He was spilling information, but she had asked for it. He needed to seize the moment while they were companionable. He had broken the ice by jesting with her. Jeremy was a topic he had to breach, and the time seemed appropriate. It was, however, upsetting that he could be as flighty as she when it came to ideas and topics. Elizabet motioned with her hands for him to continue. “And Jeremy has everything to do with me.” He winced and looked away briefly, not liking the way she was staring at him with suspicion in her eyes. “He will need my protection soon, but I cannot interfere with his life as of yet. I need you to watch over him for me until the day I become necessary to his existence.”
    Elizabet narrowed her eyes. “What would you want with a little boy? How do I know you aren’t here to hurt him?”
    “You know him well enough to care for him?” Jareth would not think on why that made him ache in a way he never had before. What would it be like to garner someone’s loyalty? For someone to protect him this way? Her guard was going up. She liked this boy. He sensed it.
    “Of course,” she said. “Everybody knows the Camerons. They are the only ministers in this parish who aren’t regulated. They’re like area pop stars, and they’re Presbyterian. That makes them strange to this part of my country. Everyone else is Catholic. When the Great Regulation was passed, only the Pres’s were left unregulated. The other minor religions were forced to either merge with them, comply with the government, or go Catholic and under jurisdiction with Roman religion. But you didn’t answer me. What do you want with Jeremy?”
    “I want to help him.” Jareth said. “There are things I cannot tell you yet, but I need you. Can I count on you?” He knew he sounded like a lunatic. How was she supposed to trust him when she knew so little? But Gabriel and Minh had not debriefed him on how much she should know at this time. The threads of time were delicate. He could change someone’s destiny with one small wrong move. Lives could be erased.
    “I’m just supposed to help you without knowing why?”
    “Frankly, yes. It would be easier if you were to cooperate. I need your help. You are critical. Have I ever harmed you in any way?” He appealed to reason and logic.
    “Hmm,” was all she said.
    “I sound quite mysterious, do I not?” he asked, but did not await a reply. The answer was written plainly on her face. “And I am bombarding you with my needs and begging for help. It must seem I speak in riddles and harbor secrets, and that is not all untrue. I am going somewhere with this, and I promise that one day you will know and understand it all.”
    “I get that what you are calls for big secrets.” She smiled sardonically. “You carry a wormhole around your wrist and are as old as the dinosaurs. I just wonder how long you plan to string me along. It would make things better for me if I knew why I’m stupid