One Enchanted Evening

by Lynn Kurland

  And she gasped.

  Her family was gone. She felt tears spring to her eyes at their lack, but she forced herself to put away her grief for a less perilous time. She blinked, then realized she was now facing a little girl of about seven who was staring at her with wide eyes.

  Maryanne de Piaget, as it happened.

  “You’re Mary,” Pippa said, stepping away from that big red X so she didn’t, as Zachary had warned, find herself carried off to somewhere she might not like.

  Mary’s eyes were huge. “How do you know who I am?”

  “I know your uncle, Montgomery,” Pippa said with a smile. That wasn’t how she knew Mary, of course, but there was absolutely no point in saying as much. If she managed to catch up with Montgomery and keep him alive, she was obviously going to be joining him in his secret-keeping activities.

  “Who are you?”

  “Persephone.”

  “Uncle Montgomery’s lady?” Mary asked in surprise and no small bit of apparent delight. “He’ll be so relieved! He said he lost you.”

  Pippa closed her eyes briefly, then smiled at Mary. “Your uncle did, for a bit, but I found myself for him.”

  Mary looked at her with eyes that saw far too much. “He said his villagers think you’re a faery.”

  “I’m not,” Pippa said, suppressing the urge to gulp. That was the sticking point in all of it, something she knew she was going to have to address right off the bat. Zachary and Kendrick had suggested she call herself the princess of Alki, but she wasn’t sure that would go over with any credibility. She decided she would settle for simple. “You can call me Pippa, if you like.”

  Mary nodded slowly.

  “Why are you out here all by yourself?” Pippa asked.

  “The lads were vexing me,” Mary said. “I never have a moment to myself without a brother or a cousin telling me what to do.” She lifted her chin. “I like a bit of independence.”

  Having gotten to know Mary for a few hours in the future, Pippa wasn’t at all surprised by that statement. She held out her hand. “You and I, Mary, are going to get along famously. Why don’t we go back to the keep and you can tell me about your horses?”

  “How do you know I like horses?”

  “Someone, once upon a time, told me that you did.”

  That seemed to satisfy Mary. She slipped her hand into Pippa’s and led her back toward the keep. Pippa went with her and found herself rather more impressed with Artane in the past than she had been in the future, in spite of what she assumed was its lack of running water and wireless Internet connections. It was one thing to see an enormous castle sitting on a bluff when it was surrounded by a modern village; it was another thing entirely to see the same place when it was the only civilization for miles.

  She tried to look as noble as possible as she walked under the barbican gate. No one seemed to take much notice of her. Well, except the boys that ran down the front steps followed by who could only have been their father, Robin de Piaget. He looked enough like Montgomery that she had no doubt as to his identity. She would have hesitated, but Mary kept hold of her hand and pulled her forward to meet them.

  “Pappa, this is Pippa,” Mary said brightly. “Kendrick, Jason, look what I found! She walked out of the sunlight and almost into me.” Mary paused, then leaned close to her brothers. “She says she isn’t a faery, but I’m not sure.”

  “Oh, no,” Pippa said quickly. “I was wandering away from my, um, company full of very fierce guardsmen, and they seem to have been left behind in a sudden panic.”

  Kendrick, Zachary, and Stephen were very fierce and they had been her guardsmen, so that wasn’t entirely untrue. She had also been in a sudden panic, so that hadn’t been a lie either.

  Robin was only watching her without any expression of disbelief or irritation, so she took a moment to look at his kids. She realized, with a start, that she was looking at a very young incarnation of the grown man with six children she’d met in the future. She looked at Kendrick, blinked, then looked at his father, Robin.

  Weird.

  She took a deep breath, then made Robin a deep curtsey. “My lord Robin.”

  Robin stroked his chin. “Persephone Josephine Alexander, I presume?”

  Pippa smiled in relief. “The very same.”

  Robin tilted his head. “Are you not a noblewoman of some sort?” he asked. “I’ve heard tell that your bloodlines are enough to leave those in England who know of you quite desperate to make your acquaintance.”

  She couldn’t imagine Montgomery had come up with that whopper, so someone else had obviously been doing some thinking at the keep.

  “Good thing Uncle Montgomery found her first,” Kendrick interrupted. “Don’t you think, Father?”

  “Aye, son, I think it is a good thing.” Robin sent his sons off to think about other things, hugged his daughter and sent her back into the hall, then remained where he was and folded his arms over his chest. “It isn’t too late to avoid a life of misery with my youngest brother, you know,” he said with a straight face.

  Pippa had been warned about Robin’s rather warped sense of humor, so she answered him with an equally straight face. “I am afraid, my lord,” she said, “that it is too late for me.” She paused. “Unless your brother has changed his mind.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about him,” Robin said dismissively. “He’s completely besotted. In fact, he’s gone back to Sedgwick to try to put his keep back together so you’ll have somewhere safe to lay your head. Why you’d want to lay your head there with him, I can’t imagine, but I suppose if you’re determined—”

  “Rob, leave off,” said another male voice as its owner approached from the stables. A tall, handsome man made her a bow. “Jackson Kilchurn,” he said, holding out his hand to shake hers. “I married Robin’s sister, Amanda.”

  Pippa shook his hand automatically, then realized something that seemed completely out of place. Her mouth fell open. Jackson Kilchurn was speaking in English.

  Then again, so was Robin.

  Robin sighed deeply. “Another council of war, I can see. In my solar, friends.”

  Pippa looked around her, just to make sure she was in the right century. “I’m confused,” she said.

  “Join the club,” Jackson said with a smile. “It’s chilly out, so why don’t we go sit by Robin’s fire and chat? Amanda and Anne have been hoping you would come through Artane. I think they’re eager to meet the woman who captured Montgomery’s heart.”

  “Or offer her their sympathy,” Robin said with a snort. “Then again, I suppose that task falls to me. Whatever the case, we should sit and have speech together. There are plans to be made.”

  “I don’t mean to rush either of you,” Pippa put in hesitantly, “but I really have to get going.” She took a deep breath. “If I don’t get to Sedgwick soon, Montgomery’s going to die.”

  “Will he?” Robin asked, looking very interested. “Cousins do him in, is that it?”

  “I’m not sure,” she admitted. “I just know someone does and I have to get there in time to stop it.”

  “A mystery,” Robin said, rubbing his hands together. “One of my favorite things and, I suppose, reason enough to hurry. But let’s have supper first. I always plot and scheme with more success when I’m not hungry.”

  That sounded familiar so she didn’t protest. She did, however, venture one last question. “You believe me?”

  He winked at her. “I’ve been to Sedgwick, you know, and I know my reprehensible cousins there. Do you know which cousin it is that does Montgomery in, or should I guess?”

  “Rob, leave off with that,” Jake said seriously. He gave Robin a shove for good measure, then took Pippa by the arm. “Come inside, Persephone, and we’ll make plans. Ignore Robin. Sometimes he just doesn’t know when to quit.”

  “ ’ Tisn’t that,” Robin said, striding along on her other side. “I’m just so tenderhearted that I’m always afraid that if I show too much emotion, I might unman
myself in front of my men. It wouldn’t do to have them see me weeping over my youngest brother who is perfectly capable of slaying anyone who vexes him. I will ride to his rescue, however, only because I feel honor bound to deliver you there safely.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Unless you’ve come to your senses during that complete baring of my soul. You’re not wed to him yet, you know.”

  Pippa only smiled.

  “And if I’m allowed to ask, how is it you know our wee Montgomery’s life is in danger?”

  “A ghost told me.”

  Jake laughed out loud.

  Robin looked at his brother-in-law, then shook his head. “My life,” he said with a long, drawn-out sigh, “is very strange.”

  Pippa had to agree. She had, in the past hour, been in two different time periods that spanned almost eight centuries, spoken with ghosts, and taken a leap of faith into a life where her only anchor was a man hours away by horse who might not live long enough for her to rescue him.

  She suppressed the urge to wring her hands. She would trust Montgomery’s family because they had just as much reason to want him alive as she did. She watched Robin excuse himself to take care of some brief business, then took the opportunity for a little look around inside the gates. She tried without much success not to gape at the fully functioning medieval stables, blacksmith’s forge, and garden where the gift shop had once been.

  Jake elbowed her very gently. “I have a few current-event questions to ask you.”

  She looked up at him. “I’ll just bet you do.”

  “I’ll even tell you stories about your beloved if you want—after you tell me who won the World Series this year.”

  She frowned. “I have no idea. I just know it wasn’t Seattle.”

  “You don’t know,” he mouthed in shock. “Woman, you don’t follow baseball?”

  “No. It’s appalling, isn’t it?”

  “Absolutely. I suppose that leaves me no choice but to pepper you with questions about other important statistics before we round up men and take off.” He smiled briefly. “Don’t worry. Montgomery’s a pretty clever guy all on his own.”

  “I know,” she said. “I’m just afraid he won’t be looking where he needs to.”

  He smiled wryly. “Riding to the rescue, are you?”

  “He brought me shoes I’d left in the past. I thought I would return the favor.”

  “Very romantic.”

  “It was,” she agreed. She hesitated, then cast caution to the wind. “There’s one more thing.” She paused. “Montgomery’s garrison knights think I’m a fairy. Well, so do his cousins.” She paused. “And most of the villagers in the surrounding environs.”

  “At least they don’t think you’re a witch,” Jake said ruefully. “Don’t give it another thought. We’ve been talking about that very thing. We’ll think of some way to introduce you as a girl with a medieval pedigree, perhaps from obscure but very desirable locale in southern France. No one will dare argue, especially if Robin is your escort.”

  “That would be very nice of him.”

  “He loves his brother and his brother loves you. Besides, the paranormal overtones to the adventure will give him something to complain about for months. Everyone wins.”

  She sincerely hoped so. She followed Jake into the hall and across it, then looked at him as he stopped in front of a particular doorway. “We can hurry, can’t we?”

  “I imagine we’ll leave before dawn,” he said, smiling reassuringly. “Montgomery left yesterday, but even though he’ll no doubt ride hard, he still has to stop at Segrave and gather up his men. We’ll ride just as hard and be at Sedgwick well before too much mischief can be afoot.”

  Pippa closed her eyes briefly, unable to even express gratitude. She didn’t want to sound melodramatic—Peaches would have enjoyed that far too much—but every moment that passed was another moment where Montgomery’s life hung in the balance.

  She couldn’t bear the thought of getting there twenty-four hours too late.

  She would just trust that Montgomery’s family would know what to do and pray they would get there in time.

  She couldn’t do anything else.

  Chapter 31

  Montgomery stood in the middle of his great hall, waiting. He had thought about his plans on his way south, during a brief pause for a decent meal and to collect his household at his grandmother’s, and as he continued along the well-made road to Sedgwick. Phillip had seemed eager to help as much as he could, though Montgomery still worried about the advisability of what he had decided to do. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see any other alternative. He had to find out which of his cousins hated him enough to actually slip a blade through his ribs.

  Or Pippa’s.

  Unless it wasn’t one of his cousins. He had considered that as well, but he couldn’t, in all honesty, say which of his personal household he would have suspected of wishing him harm. His own men he had trusted repeatedly with his life and would continue to do so. Petter and his lads were equally trustworthy. He supposed Fitzpiers might have been one to watch, but betrayal seemed out of character for that man.

  He drew his hand over his eyes. The one person he did trust without reservation was hundreds of years away from him with no fail-safe way to come back to him—even if she had wanted to. He had discussed the gates with Jake for several hours, and though the conversation had been interesting, it had yielded nothing particularly useful.

  Jake suspected that if the gate near Robin’s house was to ever work again, it would work in a capricious, faerylike fashion. Robin had, during that conversation, remained blessedly silent. Montgomery had accepted Jake’s assessment of the gate near Artane, taken his brother-in-law out to the lists to discuss the locations of other gates, then decided that it was as Jake had said at first: he would do well to attend to the problems in his own hall before inviting a bride there.

  He could only hope she would want to be invited once he had solved those problems.

  He jumped a little when he saw Fitzpiers come striding across the hall. He waited until his steward was standing close enough for a quiet conversation before he spoke.

  “I can’t imagine the tidings are good,” he said grimly.

  Fitzpiers shook his head. “Your cousins have accepted your challenge for a battle to determine control of the hall and gone to the garrison hall to gather their wee army,” he said in disgust. “I imagine they’ll be here soon.”

  Montgomery looked at his steward. “I’m pleased to see you didn’t join them.”

  Fitzpiers only returned Montgomery’s look steadily. “I cannot blame you in the slightest, my lord Montgomery, for questioning the loyalty of the souls about you. I certainly would in your place. You should know, however, that I take my oaths of fealty quite seriously and relish the opportunity to use my sword in my lord’s defense whenever possible.”

  “Did you make me an oath of fealty?” Montgomery asked, just as mildly.

  “Not to you in particular, but I gave my word to your father when you were a boy that I would serve him. When Lord Denys took the keep, I continued to honor that oath, despite the difficulties.” He looked at Montgomery seriously. “I will honor that oath still, until I can offer you one personally.”

  Montgomery let out his breath slowly. “I will accept it, gladly.”

  “I will also offer my sword,” Fitzpiers said, looking as if the thought didn’t displease him in the least. “And if you’ll know one last thing, I should tell you that there are peasants standing in the courtyard, looking terrified.”

  Montgomery looked at him in surprise. “Are they here to aid us?”

  “I daresay not, my lord. They seem to have taken Lord Everard of Chevington as their leader. As you know, he went about the countryside spreading rumors about the lady Persephone.” He paused. “I suppose you can imagine what those rumors might be.”

  “Ridiculous,” Montgomery scoffed. “I can personally guarantee she is not from Faery, should such a place actually exist.�
��

  “I agree, of course, my lord,” Fitzpiers said with not a trace of inflection in his voice. “I was grieved to hear she had become lost in the forest. Did you find her?”

  “I did,” Montgomery said, “but she is now attending to business of her own. I hope she will join us soon enough.”

  Fitzpiers inclined his head. “I hope so as well, my lord. And I will be happy to aid you in correcting any of these terrible lies that have been circulated.” He paused again. “I understand our young lord Phillip will be impersonating her this night that you might discover who bore her ill will?”

  “I hope it isn’t a mistake,” Montgomery said with a sigh.

  “I’ll keep an especially close eye on him,” Fitzpiers promised. “And for Lord Everard. I don’t trust him, my lord. He seems to stir up mischief and superstitions both wherever he goes.”

  Montgomery agreed, but he supposed there was no point in saying as much. He nodded to his steward, agreed with him that perhaps a last check of the men was in order, then looked back at the front door. Unfortunately, Fitzpiers would be using that sword sooner than he hoped, apparently.

  Gunnild stood at the head of her little army, as Fitzpiers had called it, fighting for that place with Boydin, who seemed determined to have his mother out of the way. They were followed by eight of Montgomery’s twelve remaining guardsmen. Montgomery glanced over to the passageway that led down to the kitchens to find the remaining four being prodded into the hall by Petter and his masons with François and the rest of the kitchen staff bringing up the rear. He looked to his left to find his captain and personal guardsmen standing there, their swords bare in their hands. Ranulf glanced at him, smiled briefly, then turned back to the spectacle.

  Montgomery would have joined him in that interesting activity, but he was distracted by a noise behind him. From down the stairs came flying suddenly a figure dressed in a gown and swathed in a wimple that covered all but the lass’s eyes. Montgomery supposed he was going to need to dig very deep indeed into his purse to recompense his squire properly for his willingness to portray himself as any sort of woman.