3

Duke Crocker had stopped off at the local drug store to pick up a "Happy Birthday From All of Us" card for one of the servers who was working on her birthday.

He was trying to decide between a funny one or one of a more sincere nature when he heard Vince and Dave Teagues talking on the next aisle, and they were discussing-feminine products?

Curious, Duke stretched up, his lanky height allowing him to see over the top of the shelving, and he watched for a moment as the pair seemed to have a basket full of brushes, hair ties, and other assorted toiletries all geared towards women.

"Do you think she'd like this one?" Dave was asking Vince regarding a body lotion.

"You have to remember Dave, she is unaccustomed to-all of this," Vince was saying. "She thinks that hot water coming out of a faucet inside the house is nothing short of a miracle. She won't know what to do with half of this stuff. Maybe we should consult Gloria on-instructing her about using these things."

"Aren't you boys on the wrong aisle for grooming items?" Duke asked from the other side of the shelving.

"Oh-ah, hi there, Duke," Dave blurted nervously. "We were just ah-"

"We're-doing an article," Vince defended. "What it takes to be a woman of today, as compared to say, a hundred years ago."

"Uh-huh," Duke said, not at all convinced. "And who is this 'her' that you two keep referring to?"

"Eavesdropping's a bad habit, Duke," Vince scolded.

"But sometimes a useful one," Duke smiled sweetly back.

Dave was nudging Vince, and the two had a whispered conversation, and kept glancing at Duke. Finally, Vince nodded, and turned back towards him.

"Duke-can you keep a secret?" he asked.

"Not as well as you two, but yeah, I can," Duke replied.

"We want you to come out to our fishing shack, to meet someone," Vince told him.

"Ah, this mysterious lady friend who's never seen hot water from a tap," Duke grinned. "Who is she?"

"Actually, she is a relation of yours," Vince informed him.

Duke looked surprised. "Mine? Who is she?"

"It'd be best if you came and met her for yourself. I don't want to discuss it here," Vince finished in a whisper. "Come out to our fishing shack. But don't tell Nathan and Audrey about it. Not just yet, anyway."

Duke's curiosity was piqued, to say the least. Vince and Dave not wanting to let Audrey and Nathan know about something they were doing was nothing new; but to take him into their confidence was a first. He wracked his brains, trying to remember any female relatives from his childhood, but was coming up blank. There hadn't been many female Crockers; and all the ones he'd known were dead.

A thought hit him, and his face soured.

"It's not my mother, is it?"

"No, it is not your mother," Vince said. "Just come alone to our fishing shack in an hour or so."

"All right," Duke answered. "I'll be there."

Back at Haven PD, Nathan and Audrey were having a discussion.

"What do you mean, 'you have that feeling there's a Trouble?" Audrey asked Nathan.

"Dwight was not wearing his flak vest," Nathan stated.

Audrey looked surprised. Dwight was religious about wearing that vest-with his Trouble, he couldn't be too careful.

"Are you sure? Maybe he has it on under his shirt," Audrey said, peering down the hall towards Dwight's office.

"No, it's not under his shirt. He's not wearing it," Nathan said, and the two of them walked down the hallway, and knocked at Dwight's office door.

Dwight grinned at them both.

"What's up?" he asked.

"I was going to ask you that, Dwight," Audrey said. "You seem to be missing something today."

Dwight glanced down at himself. "Oh, that. No, I took it off," he went on, leaning back in his chair, his arms behind his head, enjoying finally being able to do that without his heavy vest impeding the movement. "I don't think I'm going to be needing that anymore."

"Your Trouble stopped?" Audrey goggled. "How? When?"

Dwight leaned forward, looking at them earnestly.

"I want to tell you guys, I do," he began. "But right now, I can't say anything. I promised, and I do my best to keep my word, you know that."

"Did someone-take your Trouble, like that Haskell kid did a couple years ago?" Nathan questioned. The short time he'd been able to feel had been a luxury to him. But Jackie's Trouble had been far worse than his, and he'd sacrificed being rid of his own Trouble forever so that she could be free of hers.

"In a way," Dwight conceded. "Right now, there are things we need to sort out first, but like I told you, Nathan, if it all works out, maybe Haven will finally be able to live up to its name-forever. But I can't say anything for right now. Please respect that."

Audrey nodded her agreement, but she determined she'd get hold of Duke and see if he could nose around.

"All right," Nathan grudged. He and Audrey left the office, and returned to theirs.

"What do you think?" Nathan asked her.

"I think we should get Duke to poke around," Audrey answered, taking out her phone.

"Why him?"

"Because he can get around and ask questions without looking like he's asking questions," she pointed out, and Nathan nodded agreement.

Out at the fishing shack, Gloria was finishing her examination of Prudence, who sat patiently while Gloria poked and prodded.

Gloria hadn't believed Vince and Dave at first, that this was really Prudence Stillwater; but after hearing Prudence's account, and seeing the metal box and Prudence's clothes, she was soon convinced.

"I have so many questions for you," Gloria said, barely able to contain her excitement at being in the presence of a living Pre-Colonial woman. She'd taken a few strands of Prudence's hair for testing, and the clothes she'd been wearing when she was found were in an heirloom box, bound for the restorer's.

"And I also have many questions," Prudence answered. She glanced around them, looking at the overhead lights. "David has told me about the e-lec-tri-city that makes the lanterns light," she went on. "I have seen the black box with the little man trapped inside that speaks about the news," she pointed at the TV. "And also the glass-door oven that cooks food as if by magic."

"The microwave," Dave whispered, and Gloria understood.

"Oh, kid, if I didn't have a microwave, the hubs and I would starve to death," Gloria half-grinned.

"And you are a doctor?" Prudence asked.

"I'm a coroner, but yes, I have a medical degree," Gloria replied.

"Most amazing," Prudence remarked. "Women were forbidden to study medicine in my time. What cures do you use to work against fevers and smallpox? The season is upon us, you know."

Gloria was stunned. In Prudence's time, summers and early fall meant outbreaks of smallpox, polio and tuberculosis.

"We don't have to worry about those diseases anymore, Prudence," Gloria told her. "We have vaccines, or medicines now-polio, smallpox, Tuberculosis, or what you would have called consumption-they've been eradicated in most parts of the world now."

"How wonderful," Prudence smiled. "It seems I have much to learn about this version of the King's Colony."

"Well, for starters, we're not the King's Colony anymore," Gloria told her. "A couple of hundred years after you went away, there was a war, and we became our own country. It's now called the United States of America." She shook her head. "I guess you do have a lot to learn about The New World. Did you come from Europe on a ship?"

"No, I was born here. My father sailed over with his family as a boy, and met my mother, who was a Mik'Maq. They married and had myself and two brothers, Josiah and Ezra Crocker."

"Did you tell Duke about her yet?" Gloria asked.

"I have asked him to come out to meet her," Vince said.

He procured a stack of books from a bag. "I brought these for you, Prudence," he went on, handing her the books. "I borrowed these from the school, so that you can read about all the things that have happened in the last 500 years or so. You can-read and write?" he asked, anxious now that Prudence wouldn't be able to read them.

"Oh, yes, I can read and write. I am well-educated for the time I came from," Prudence told him. "And thank you, Vincent," Prudence said, glancing through them. "You have been most kind to me."

They heard the sound of a truck pulling up outside.

"That'll be Duke," Vince said, checking to see that he was indeed correct, and saw Duke climbing out of his truck, looking at his phone.

"The Duke that you spoke of earlier," Prudence said.

"Yes. As close as we can figure out, he's your seventh-generational great-grandson, from your son Samuel's line," Dave replied. "Your children abandoned the Stillwater name and took on your maiden name instead." He smiled gently at Prudence. "They must have still believed in you."

"No," Prudence spoke matter-of-factly. "Father Stillwater's condition on allowing his son back into their family was to cast out our children. But my family would not have left them to starve on their own."

"I can't believe he valued money and land more than his own children," Gloria grumbled.

"As I said earlier, Daniel was a good man at heart-but he was weak," Prudence sighed. "He was the middle of three sons, and was easily bullied into doing anything his family told him to do. Particularly his father."

Duke tucked his phone back into his shirt pocket. He'd gotten Audrey's message about Dwight's sudden 'cure'-and he wondered if it had anything to do with Vince and Dave's mystery houseguest relative of his. He'd promised the Teagues that he wouldn't tell Nate and Audrey, but at the same time, he'd promised Audrey that he'd find out what he could.

"Guess I'll find out one way or another in a minute," Duke said to himself as he knocked on the fishing shack door. Vince opened it, glancing behind Duke to see if he were alone, and he nodded.

"Come in, Duke," he said, and stepped aside to let him pass.

Duke could see Gloria and Dave, and a dark-haired woman. He looked closer at her, noting her eyes, and let out a small gasp.

The woman stood up, smiling at him, and nodded.

"How very like Josiah you are," was all she said.