by Lynn Kurland
Zachary sent Connor a look of pity, then turned back to the twins. “I’m not going to give you any more details than you have already. And I will appreciate it, of course, if you’ll keep to yourselves anything you know—or think you know.”
“You don’t need a pair of squires?” Samuel asked.
Theo leaned close to his brother and put on his best smile.
That was more unsettling than it probably should have been.
“Nay,” Zachary said, trying to put just the right amount of regret into his tone, “but I’m sure there will be plenty of lords in your future who will be fighting themselves to have you come work for them.”
Samuel and Theo exchanged a look that would have given their father gray hairs if he’d seen it. Connor slung an arm around each twin and cleared his throat pointedly.
“I’ll see to them.”
Zachary hoped he would manage it. He shook hands all around and thanked each of them for their aid. He turned to Jackson last.
“I will take care of her,” he said gravely. “I give you my word on that.”
“You’d damned well better,” Jackson growled. He glared at Zachary, hesitated, then cursed. He reached behind him and pulled a sheathed sword out of Rex’s now-empty stall.
Zachary half expected Jackson to draw it and use it. Instead, he merely handed it over, hilt first. Zachary took it, feeling a little off balance.
“What’s this?”
“Uncle and I had it made for you.”
Zachary felt his eyebrows go up of their own accord. “Did you think I would return?”
Jackson pursed his lips. “I just had a feeling. A very unpleasant feeling, if you must know, but a feeling just the same.” He nodded to the sword. “We’ve had Godric’s cousin working on that blade for a solid se’nnight. He remade it three times before my uncle was satisfied with it.”
“Are you satisfied with it?” Zachary asked, because he couldn’t help himself.
“I was merely hoping you would trip and impale yourself on it, so I didn’t much care how it was fashioned.”
“Oh, Jack,” Thaddeus said with a deep sigh, “just stop, would you?”
Jackson shot his brother a glare, then looked at Zachary. “I don’t like this.”
“I imagine you don’t,” Zachary said quietly, “but there is no going back now. I will take care of her.”
“Not that I’ll have means to verify that,” Jackson said darkly.
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Thaddeus said.
“Shut up, Thad.”
Zachary stepped out of the potential line of fire, accepted reins for two horses, then took a final look at the lads standing there in a huddle. He would have to draw them when he got home, so Mary would have them at least on paper. He nodded a final time, then headed toward the courtyard. He looked at Robin, who had been joined by Jake.
“I’m ready.”
“And if the gate isn’t,” Jake said easily, “you can always stay and work in Robin’s stables. A life truly to look forward to.”
Zachary shot him a look. “Or I could come work in yours and continue the discussion I just had with your sons a moment ago.”
Jake grunted. “You’d better hope that gate works, laddie, because I will make your life hell while you shovel out my stalls.”
Zachary laughed a little, because he had to make light of that possibility, though he had no intention of remaining behind.
The life he had to look forward to was on the other side of a gate that was going to work for him. He wasn’t going to give it any choice.
If the gate guards thought anything of Robin’s command that the portcullis be raised, they said nothing. Zachary kept his head down and walked with Jake as he and Robin led the horses down the path.
It took less time than he expected to reach the right spot in the grass. The sky was just beginning to lighten in the east and the gate shimmered there as if it had been covered with dew. Zachary took a deep breath and looked at Robin.
“Thank you, my lord,” he said quietly. “For all your many kindnesses.”
Robin waved his words aside. “’Twas nothing, son. Take care of my girl. Name a child after me.”
Zachary didn’t dare mention that Kendrick had apparently already done that. He exchanged a brief look with Jake, then smiled at Robin and nodded. He took the reins of both horses, bid Robin a final good-bye, then paused. He frowned at the sight of a cluster of cousins standing there in the distance, but he supposed there was nothing to be done about that. He turned and walked forward until he was standing on the gate itself.
And then events took a turn he hadn’t anticipated.
Chapter 30
M ary stood in the middle of a field near Artane and stared at the air that shimmered in front of her. She had seen a great many things over the course of her life—more particularly in the past se’nnight of it—but she had never seen anything like what she found in front of her.
A time gate just where James MacLeod’s map said it would find itself.
She hadn’t found her uncle Nicholas’s map—well, she had, but not all of it. She’d been looking through things in her mother’s solar and stumbled upon the book Zachary had told her of, the one that contained the history of her family. It had been interesting, truly, but not what she’d been looking for. She had started to turn away only to see something out of the corner of her eye.
Part of a sheaf of parchment that had seemingly been tucked under that very heavy book of history.
She had lifted the book and found a fragment of the map she had seen before at Wyckham. It had been brittle with age and very faded, but still eminently useful. It had taken a bit of study, but she’d finally decided upon the spot she thought it indicated. She had made a production of going to her rest the night before, forced herself to sleep for a bit, then risen well before dawn and slipped out of the keep. She had narrowly avoided an encounter with that insufferable oaf Franbury, then hurried on her way to what she had determined was the proper locale.
Obviously she had reached it, if the magic that hung in the air before her was any indication.
She watched now in astonishment as things began to take shape on the spot before her. She first saw the outline of horses, then a man standing between them, holding their reins. Merciful saints above, ’twas Zachary.
She started forward but he shook his head sharply.
“Don’t,” he called, his voice faint even in the stillness of the morning. “I’ll come to you.”
She started to compliment him on his good sense when she realized that he wasn’t all she could see. She looked over his shoulder and felt her mouth fall open.
Her father stood there. Her uncle Jake stood to his right and her cousins stood in a group behind her uncle. She would have thought them nothing more than shadows from her dreams, but she could see all too clearly the looks of astonishment they wore. She imagined her expression matched theirs perfectly.
And then she couldn’t see any of them very well for the tears that sprang suddenly to her eyes.
She dragged her sleeve across her burning eyes and wished that was all that vexed her. There was a buzzing sound as well, something that rent the air and throbbed in her ears. She looked up in time to see some horrible bird of prey that approached relentlessly. She would have screamed, but she was too distracted by the sound of her horses doing the same.
The bird flew over her and continued on its way whilst her horses bolted, jerking Zachary off his feet. He lost the reins, but that wasn’t what terrified her so. He began to fade, as if he’d been a specter who had appeared only long enough to show her what she stood to lose. She leapt forward just as a flurry of cousins also threw themselves into the shimmering bit of air in front of her. Zachary was hauled to his feet and shoved forward.
Mary stopped and looked over Zachary’s head. Her father was still standing there, doing his best no doubt to mask an expression of grief she wouldn’t have wanted to see. He lifted his
hand in farewell.
Then he disappeared.
She had no time to think on that, for Zachary lost his footing and slammed into her with all his weight and bore her back to the ground. Predictably, she lost her breath.
He heaved himself up onto his hands and knees, then crawled to one side and pulled her up and into his arms. He wrapped his arms around her so tightly, he stole what little air she managed to suck in.
“Are you hurt?” he demanded.
She attempted speech, but all she could manage was a squeak.
He laughed a little and eased his hold on her. “I’m so sorry,” he said, sounding a little winded himself. “I seem to do this to you more often than I should.”
She threw her arms around his neck and clung to him with all her strength. “Fool.”
“I see I didn’t wind you completely.”
“I’ve enough breath for calling you a dozen names,” she wheezed.
“Call me anything you care to,” he said, “just stay close enough to do so.”
She pressed her face against his hair and suppressed the urge to burst into tears for any number of reasons, beginning with having seen her father not twenty paces from her and ending with realizing how close she had come to watching Zachary disappear. He could have gone missing in any number of centuries and the saints only knew if he would have found his way out. She wondered if the cousin who had aided him would suffer that fate.
She sincerely hoped not.
“I love you,” she managed when she’d caught most of her breath. “Even if you did just attempt to crush me.”
He pulled back far enough to smile at her. “I love you and I apologize.” He took her face in his hands, then hesitated. “Do I dare kiss you, or are you liable to blacken my other eye?”
She pursed her lips, then leaned forward and kissed him. “Ignore my brother. I do most of the time.”
He smoothed her hair out of her eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t find a better way to tell you about him. I honestly didn’t have a clue who he was until the day I drove down from Scotland.”
“Nay,” she said, shaking her head, “you could have done nothing differently. I’m sorry I didn’t save you his tender ministrations and that it took so long for my temper to cool. I did threaten him when he tried to stop me from calling you, but by the time I managed to have my mobile back from him, you didn’t answer.” She paused. “We feared the worst until we arrived and realized why you’d done what you had.”
“I had no choice,” he said quietly. “Franbury would have made our lives hell otherwise. I’m not certain that he still won’t try, but he’ll find it more difficult now.” He paused, then looked at her carefully. “It was your father’s idea to send along your horses, if you’re curious. As a wedding gift.”
She reached up and brushed his hair out of his eyes, then smiled. “Do you come along with them?”
He chewed on his words for a moment or two. “Would you be interested if I did?”
“Is that a proposal?”
He took her face in his hands, then very carefully leaned forward and kissed her. “No. Not until I clean up a bit and have a nap so I can do something more original than fall to my knees and beg you to be mine.”
“I would settle for that.”
He smiled, a sweet smile that left her smiling in return. “I would at least like to fall there with some grace. Let’s go find your horses, then I’ll look for an appropriate place to kneel.” He pushed himself to his feet, then reached down to pull her to hers. “Do we run after them, or try to find help?”
“Neither.” She whistled, heard answering whinnies, then whistled again. Within minutes, both Bella and Rex were trotting toward her. She caught Rex and left Zachary to snatch up Bella’s reins. She looked at him around Rex’s nose.
“Thank you.”
“Your father loves you deeply,” he said softly.
She had to take a deep breath, but she managed a smile. “I think he saw me.”
“I imagine he did. It will ease his heart to know for himself that you’re well and whole.” He reached for her hand. “Let’s go settle your horses, then we’ll settle ourselves and I’ll tell you about the conversations I had last night.”
She nodded and made her way with him through a village that was certainly less horse friendly than it had been in her father’s day, but not completely past managing.
In time, she walked with Zachary up the strangely covered road that led to the outer gates of the castle. And who should be coming out those gates but her brother, dressed in jeans and carrying his sheathed sword propped up against his shoulder. He stopped and leaned against the wall to wait for them.
Mary frowned at him once she was sure she was close enough that he could see her expression clearly.
“Go put your sword away,” she said loudly. “You’ve no need of it.”
“You haven’t seen what lies in wait for that lad who wants to date you.” He looked at Zachary. “You don’t mind if I stay to watch, do you?”
Zachary sighed deeply. “Will I enjoy the next hour as much as you will?”
“You might, if you could see out of that black eye you’re sporting. Where’d you get it?”
“Kendrick,” Mary warned.
Kendrick only laughed a bit. “We’ll discuss those particulars later. Do my own perfectly functioning eyes deceive me, or is that Rex you have there?”
“It is, but don’t plan on riding him anytime soon,” she said. “It won’t go any better for you than it did the last time.”
Kendrick laughed briefly. “I’d forgotten that.” He looked at Zachary. “Life is very strange.”
Mary supposed there was no use in commenting on that. She concentrated instead on James MacLeod and Robert Cameron, who were walking out of the gates. They shook hands with Kendrick, heaped what they obviously considered an appropriate amount of brotherly teasing upon Zachary’s head, then they turned to admire her horseflesh. Jamie smiled.
“We’ll take your spectacular horses for you, lady, if you will. I fear ’twas our flying over them this morning that caused them to bolt.”
Mary was tempted to ask for details, but perhaps there would be time enough for that later. She handed Rex off to Cameron, then watched Jamie wait for Zachary to remove a sword from Bella’s saddle before he led her off as well.
Kendrick looked with interest at Zachary’s blade. “Where did you come by that?”
“Your father had it made for me. Jackson helped a bit, though I understand his only concern was that it be sharp enough that I might possibly fall on it by mistake and die.”
“That sounds like Jack,” Kendrick said without hesitation. “Am I to understand he wasn’t too fond of you?”
“I don’t think he liked the fact that I love your sister.”
“His good sense was legendary.”
“Kendrick,” Mary said in exasperation, “stop it.”
“Jackson would want me to carry on in his stead,” Kendrick said solemnly. He looked at Zachary. “I will, however, leave off long enough for you to see to that piece of mischief being combined at the ticket window. Mary, take his sword. He won’t need it.”
Zachary handed her his sword, then smiled briefly. “I’ll return.”
“I know,” she said quietly.
He shot Kendrick a look, then bent his head and kissed her quickly on the cheek. “I won’t tell you what to do, but I think it might be wise to stay out of Franbury’s sights if you can.”
She nodded, and watched him walk away unsteadily. She doubted that he’d slept much the night before if he’d been with her family.
She turned to her brother. “I’ll expect you to protect him if need be.”
“He’ll manage—”
“Aye, with you there to help him, he will.” She took him by the arm and pulled him along with her. “Let’s be off.”
She walked up the path from the outer gates, suppressing a shiver as she did so. ’Twas difficult to believe that
a month earlier, she had been walking through those gates knowing that her future—or her doom, rather—lay with Geoffrey of Styrr. She wouldn’t have dreamed that she might have something else, or be walking up those gates in a time so far removed from her own.
She stopped just behind Zachary, who had jerked back suddenly to avoid being struck by a manuscript that had been flung out of the guard chamber to her left. It was followed rapidly by another and another until there was quite a pile of them lying at Zachary’s feet.
He bent and picked up one of the manuscripts. Mary could see ’twas one of the guidebooks. Zachary’s hands trembled as he held it, though she supposed that was from weariness, not from any weakness on his part. He looked over his shoulder at her.
“Want to look with me?”
“Nay, I’ll look for you.” She moved to stand at his side, then took the book from him.
She turned the pages until she reached the drawings he had made of her father’s kennels. She looked closely, but she couldn’t see his name written there as she’d seen it the night before. Zachary put his arm around her shoulders only to have Kendrick flick it off. Mary glared at her brother and pulled Zachary’s arm back around her. She held the book up for him.
“I daresay the photograph has changed, but I cannot read the English. What does it say?”
“It says,” he began with a smile, “that this is an example of how advanced society was at Artane in the Middle Ages. The buildings were quite obviously superior to anything found anywhere else in England at the time.”
“Someone is flattering my father,” she said.
“I imagine someone is.”
Mary turned the page and saw herself there. She looked up at Zachary.
“And this?”
He tightened his arm around her shoulders briefly. “I couldn’t bring myself to ask your father to destroy that, and I imagine he wouldn’t have done so anyway. Though I suppose if he had given his word, he would have.”
“He was a man of his word,” Kendrick agreed, “no matter the personal cost.”
Mary watched her love look at her brother briefly. “I imagine we have a few interesting things to discuss at some point, my lord.”