Legacy: The Mark of Merlin. Gerald Pruett

will be okay for tonight… what’s left of it anyway,” Jared said. “Until you reach eighteen though, a more stable residence for you must be found. Of course finding you a stable home would be a lot easier if you had living relatives.”

      “I do have living relatives,” Ellen quickly said.

      “You do?” Jared questioned in a surprised tone. “I was under the impression that Mike was your only living blood relative.”

      Ellen shook her head while saying, “My dad—Mitchell Anderson—is still alive and kicking… somewhere. Of course the last report on him was three years ago just after he had gotten out of prison, so that could’ve change since then. And my dad has a twin brother… who I’ve never met, so spin the wheel on if he’s still alive…”

      “Okay, so you don’t know the whereabouts of any living blood relative?” Jared asked.

      Ellen shook her head before saying, “I consider Tanya’s brother Harry and his wife Allyson as family.”

      “Yes, well, for you to live with your sister-in-law’s relatives is one option I can bring up to my supervisor,” Jared told her. “Of course Harry and Allyson will have to agree to it.”

      Ellen grinned before saying, “They like me, so I don’t think that they will refuse to let me live with them for a couple of years.”

      Jared nodded before saying, “Okay, well, I’ll let you go home with Jane for right now and I’ll see you in a few hours. And hopefully by then, I will have better news for you.”

      Ellen nodded before saying, “You can take your time getting back to me… unless Harry and Allyson agree for me to move in with them.”

      Jared amusingly grinned before saying, “Goodnight, Ellen.”

      Ellen slightly waved while echoing, “Goodnight.”

      Detective Bradshaw, his partner and Jane also echoed, “Goodnight.”

      Detective Bradshaw, his partner and Jared then left the house, and once the door was shut behind them, Jane told Ellen, “Go grab what you’ll need, honey.”

      “Can you take me to the hospital… to see my niece?” Ellen asked before she told her which hospital.

      “You should rest a while…” Jane was only able to get out.

      “I don’t need to,” Ellen insisted.

      “You look exhausted.”

      “I’m fine,” Ellen again insisted.

      “Humor me and sleep… actually sleep for an hour, and then I’ll take you to the hospital,” Jane prompted.

      Ellen slightly hesitated before sighing and saying, “Fine. I’ll sleep for an hour.”

      “Okay,” Jane said with a grin. “Now go get your things. You’ll sleep at my place.”

      Ellen nodded before turning and walking towards the stairs.

      Within a short time, Jane was lying alongside Ellen in Jane’s guest bed, and after a minute of Ellen lying still, Ellen’s tears flowed uncontrollably. Jane put her arm over Ellen and allowed her to cry. Within an hour Ellen had cried herself to sleep, and once Jane knew for certain that Ellen was asleep, she eased herself out of bed and went to her room.

      Jane didn’t want to wake Ellen after she was asleep for an hour, and so Ellen had awakened on her own while needing to use the bathroom after five hours of sleeping.

      Jane was in the living room while dusting off her wooden furniture, and when Ellen stepped in, she accused in an unhappy tone, “You failed to wake me.”

      Jane looked at Ellen before saying, “You needed your sleep more than you needed to see your niece. Plus I’d never said that I would wake you after an hour.”

      “Okay, well, I’m up now,” Ellen retorted. “I want to go to the hospital.”

      “Would you like to eat first?” Jane prompted.

      “I’ll eat later!” Ellen quickly and impatiently uttered.

      “Okay,” Jane quickly agreed. “Let me finish what I’m doing—it will only take a minute—and then we can go.”

      “Fine,” Ellen agreed unhappily.

      “Oh and I called your school,” Jane said as an afterthought. “I told them why you wouldn’t be in school today and possibly for the rest of the week.”

      “Thanks,” Ellen said in an appreciative tone. “School had never even crossed my mind.”

      Jane grinned before saying, “I didn’t think it had… and you’re welcome.”

      Ellen just responded with a slight grin.

      Within twenty minutes Ellen and Jane were told to take a seat in the waiting room, and within an hour after that, the hospital staff gave into Ellen’s relentless nagging on wanting to see her niece.

      Ellen’s niece was only wearing a pamper, and being that she was four weeks premature, Ellen and Jane were only allowed to look at the baby through the clear hood of the infant incubator that the staff had her in. Other newborns were in the room as well.

      Ellen had only looked at her sleeping niece for a second before saying, “She’s beautiful.”

      Ellen then noticed a birthmark just below her niece’s left collarbone that looked like a waning crescent moon. The birthmark’s diameter was seven-sixteenth of an inch, and to the right of it from an onlooker’s point of view (on the side towards the left arm) were three freckles. The first freckle missed touching the birthmark at what would be the moon’s equator by only one-sixteenth of an inch. Again from an onlooker’s point of view, the second freckle was one-fourth of an inch to the right of the first one. The third freckle was above the first two by one-fourth of an inch and centered. The third freckle was the darkest of the three.

      “Oh my God!” Ellen uttered delightfully before pointing. Jane looked to where she was pointing. “There. I’ve seen pictures of my grandpa… my dad’s dad and he had the exact same moon-stars birthmark…”

      “Cool.”

      “Except my grandpa’s birthmark looked as if it was one day to a new moon while hers looks as if it’s three days to a new moon,” Ellen continued. After a short silence, Ellen told her niece, “I wish your mom and dad could be here, baby girl.”

      Jane put her arm around Ellen’s shoulder while saying, “Perhaps they’re here in spirit.”

      Ellen thought for a second before saying, “Perhaps they are.” Jane then heard Ellen’s stomach growling.

      “Ellen Anderson, you need to eat something,” Jane insisted. “And don’t tell me you’re fine.”

      “Okay, I’ll go to the cafeteria.”

      “There are several fast-food restaurants around here. Wouldn’t you rather go to one of them?” When Ellen glanced at her niece, Jane continued with, “You can’t camp out here and be with her twenty-four seven.”

      Ellen slightly sighed before announcing where she wanted to eat.

      Jane nodded with a grin while saying, “Let’s go.”

      “I’ll be back, baby girl,” Ellen told her niece before she and Jane left.

      Forty-five minutes after Ellen and Jane had left the hospital, a nurse led Harris and Allyson to their niece’s infant incubator. As they were approaching the room, the nurse told them, “A teenage girl by the name of Ellen Anderson was here earlier.”

      “She’s no longer here?” Harris quickly asked.

      “She left… I believe to get something to eat,” the nurse said. “I overheard her telling one of the other nurses that