The Shield

by C. J. Bentley

  “At least that would be more normal, maybe you will change.” She lived in hope.

  “Okay you two, that’s enough, eat your meal, how was your day dear?” Mum was ever the diplomat, she should be helping cool relations between the US and Russia. We were living in the Cold War period of history and Dad said things were going to get worse between Russia and America before they got better. The thought of living in the nuclear age didn’t really cross your mind when you were ten years and four months old, but I knew my parents were afraid for the safety of the world.

  “Do you think it’s going to rain tonight, love?” Dad looked out of the kitchen window searching for black clouds. “I might put the car in the garage tonight.”

  “Are you okay, Peggy? Sorry, Eleanor. I told you it would take some time to get used to.” Dad was concerned as I had choked on my meal as he mentioned putting the car in the garage.

  “I’m fine Dad, thanks, don’t think rain is forecast though, not tonight anyway, hope not tomorrow either as we are planning more fishing down the fields.” I recovered quickly.

  “Where no doubt your gallant Sir Kay will ride out of the mist and sweep you away to his castle in the sky.” My sister could be cutting at times but little did she realise she had half of the truth.

  “Ha ha, very funny, is it okay if I play out for a while after dinner Mum?” I was itching to get out to the gang to see if I could find out if anybody remembered anything about what had actually happened that afternoon. They could be playing some sort of a game with me, they sometimes did as I knew I could be a little fanciful at times.

  “You let your dinner go down first then and you can stay out for a couple of hours maximum, you have had a long day outside today and need your rest.” Mum looked at me to check if indeed I did look tired.

  “Thanks Mum, I’ll just go and watch TV for a bit then I’ll call round for Linda.” I hoped Linda was not as tired as she thought earlier, I needed to talk to her again about what had happened this afternoon.

  “Are you sure it isn’t going to rain tonight?” Please, Dad, give in. I didn’t want him going in the garage just yet as I wanted to completely clean the shield and think before bedtime.

  “Positive Dad, the weather is set to be fair for another week or so.” I crossed my fingers behind my back as I answered him. “Some sort of heatwave on the way.”

  “Then I won’t put the car away tonight, what’s on the box tonight P… p… p… p… Eleanor?” Dad came with me into the lounge where I switched on the black and white television set and we sat and watched a David Attenborough wildlife programme together for half an hour.

  “Bye Dad, see you later, I won’t be longer than a couple of hours, in by nine.” I left the lounge and found my sandals which were by the front door, put them on and left the house to find the gang. I made my usual first call at Linda’s house and knocked on the back door. They were just finishing their meal, as Linda explained her Dad was delayed at the office and arrived home later than normal.

  “Are you feeling up to playing out for an hour or so, Linda?” I looked expectantly towards my best friend. “I thought we might carry on with what we were doing before dinner.”

  “Well, only for an hour Peggy, Linda was feeling quite tired after your day out, she needs her sleep you know,” Linda’s mum replied in her concerned voice.

  “Just for an hour or so, what do you think Linda?” I asked her, hoping she would say yes to my plan.

  “Just for an hour then, Peggy, I don’t feel as tired as I felt earlier but I would like an early night tonight, I fancy reading more of my book in bed.” Linda, like me, enjoyed reading. She left the dinner table and found her sandals and then we left the house together.

  “Are we calling for Jeannette and the boys?” Linda enquired.

  “Not yet, maybe later, we need to clean up the shield a bit more first, we didn’t really examine it fully. It may have some markings on it that could maybe lead us to finding out when it was made and even who it belonged to.” I lived in hope that whilst in the garage Linda might just remember a little of what had happened to us all. “If we find something we could call on Richard to ask him to look in his encyclopaedia, you know what he is like for discovering things in his book.” Richard loved his encyclopaedia more than his stop watch, he could find out about most things out from it and frequently regaled us with facts. I was quite envious of his book, which was encased in bright red leather with fancy gold swirls and lettering, and had made up my mind to request a copy for my Christmas present this year.

  “Good idea, Peggy.” Linda followed me into the garage and we both stared down at the shield as if half expecting it to have disappeared.

  “We really did do it then, Pegs, we really did carry this thing up the fields, it wasn’t all a dream.” Linda looked at me and I looked back at her.

  “The knight Linda, do you remember now?” I watched her face and crossed my fingers behind my back again, it had worked before so maybe again.

  “What night are you on about Peggy, when?” Oh dear, don’t think it worked for the second time.

  “Never mind Linda, don’t mind me, think I have swallowed some beck water and it’s affected my brain.” I made light of the situation as another opportunity might present itself later on to question her.

  “I think we need to clean it a bit more and with a smaller brush this time.” I looked around on the shelves for a smaller and softer brush. “This one looks like it will do the job.”

  Linda played the water from the hose on the shield and I brushed carefully, and between us we managed to move the silt and mud from every crevice. We stood back and examined what we had found then looked at each other.

  “Well, it looks to me like a shield a knight of old might have used in combat.” Linda stated the obvious.

  “Yes, I agree with you but the main questions are, who owned it and when did they own it, how long has it been in the ground and how did it get there and what on earth are we going to do with it now?” I bent down and turned the shield over and noticed a series of marks near to the wooden handle, where I assumed the knight would hold it.

  “Let’s have more water over here Linda, there is something needs more brushing so we can see what we’ve got.” I brushed vigorously and the mud gave way to leave what I could only describe as scratches under and around the handle area. “Don’t have a clue what these are supposed to be, doesn’t look like writing yet somebody has taken care to make some of the marks look alike.”

  “Peggy, I think we need to sleep on all of this, tomorrow we can find Richard and his book and find out more. We could always tell your Dad about it and we could all take it to the museum for the curator to help us, I’m sure he would, you know the one who you talked to about ‘Ivanhoe’ for ages when we went for the school visit.” Linda looked at me hopefully.

  It was another of those moments, choices, again: did I want to take it to the museum with Dad in the car, or, did I want to investigate things a bit more?

  “I think that’s a very good idea Linda, we will sleep on it, tomorrow we can get the boys in and see if we can find out what those markings are, they may help us to answer some of the questions.” At least I hoped Richard’s book might help. “Night then Linda, see you in the morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed.”

  We gave the shield one last look before I switched off the light and closed the garage door. Linda was right about one thing: we were tired. The day we had experienced had left even me feeling jaded. I wondered what would happen tomorrow, I wondered if I would ever see Sir Kay again, or, if he really was part of my imagination. I wondered if my excuse to Linda about swallowing some of the beck water was actually true and I was feeling strange because of it all. Anyway, I decided to go to bed and hopefully would miss the family and having to explain what we had been through to mum; I remembered I had promised her a full recap of the day’s events. I made my way to the kitchen door and let myself in. Nobody around. I could hear the television in th
e front room so hopefully they were all engrossed in whatever was on. I carried on through the hall and up the stairs where I stopped and shouted, “Night all, Linda was tired and so we decided to call it a day, see you in the morning.” Thinking I had managed to escape I climbed the last few stairs and on to the landing, where I bumped into Mum.

  “Where are you creeping off to?” Mum asked, looking at my guilty face. “Don’t tell me you are off to bed because you never ever go to bed in the summer holidays before half past nine and it’s only just turned nine o’clock. Are you feeling ill, Pegs?” Mum bustled me into my bedroom as she was asking me if I was feeling ill. Before I knew it she had the thermometer in my mouth, which was good as it meant I had longer to think of something to say. When she took it out, shook it and declared me perfectly normal (my friends would not agree with that). She waited expectantly for me to inform her of the reason why I chose an early night. I decided that truth was the best policy, took a deep breath and launched into what had happened during the day. I did decide to leave out the visit by Sir Kay, I still wasn’t sure it had all been in my imagination and didn’t want to worry her about my state of health.

  “Peggy, are you telling me we have an old shield down in our garage?” Mum sounded more than a little surprised. “It’s a good job Dad didn’t put the car away tonight, or he might have driven right over it. Ahhhh, that’s why you said it wasn’t going to rain tonight, you little monkey.”

  “Yes mum, Linda and I cleaned it up tonight, well sort of, and I was going to tell you about it really but when I could show it to you and then you would believe me, and by the way, Mum, my name is now Eleanor.” I looked suitably downcast as Mum tucked me in, smiling down at me as she did.

  “We will look at it in the morning, Eleanor. This name is a bit old fashioned but I like it as it’s quite feminine. Now straight to sleep and no reading tonight, you look tired and the early night will do you good, nighty night sleep tight.” Mum could always be relied upon to make me feel like a five year old at times, honestly.

  “Night mum, see you in the morning.” I lay awake for some time thinking about what had happened to us during the day. I heard my sister come upstairs and go to bed, then later on Mum and Dad made their way upstairs and into their room and everything suddenly got dark and I must have fallen asleep.

  I didn’t sleep for long, at least it didn’t feel a long time, but I was sure I heard a noise outside. I listened hard, yes, there it was again, some sort of muffled clanking noise coming from the garage.

  My bedroom window was on the corner of the house overlooking the garage and I was sure I could hear a noise in there. I pulled on my slippers, grabbed a cardigan to put on over my pyjamas and quietly crept down the stairs, through the hall and into the kitchen. I carefully unlocked the kitchen door and let myself, as quietly as I could, out of the house and into the garage through the side door. It was very quiet now I was in there, and I thought I must have imagined the noise so I turned around to leave.

  “My Lady, my apologies for disturbing your rest this good night.” I looked to where the whispered words came from and my heart leapt into my mouth. Sir Kay, still in full armour, stood in our garage; impossible. I blinked several times thinking he might disappear from my mind, but no, he still stood there looking at me.

  “What are you doing in our garage?” (That’s me, to the point as usual.) I looked at him for his answer but he was looking at me with a twisted comical look on his face, like he was trying not to laugh.

  “My Lady, your attire is rather strange, if you don’t mind my saying. I find everything is not quite right here, you wear strange clothes, your buildings are strange, you speak strangely.” He found things strange, ha! How dare he think what I looked like was strange when he stood there in a suit of armour? Okay, he had removed his helmet and now I could actually see what he looked like. He was a little taller than Hugh which meant he was slightly taller than me, he had a well-trimmed beard which had little flecks of grey in it, which made me think he was not a young man, not old but definitely not young. My guess would be around thirty-five.

  “My shield, my Lady Eleanor, what have you done to it?” He looked from me to the shield lying on the garage floor then back to me again.

  “Linda and I have tried to clean some of the dirt from the bottom of the beck off it, we wanted to find out what it was and we thought if we could clean it we might find out where it came from.” I explained all of this to him and also to myself.

  “’Tis mine, Lady Eleanor. I had to abandon it whilst riding with a message from my Lord to the King. I was set upon by bandits, injured and left to die.” Sir Kay was remembering the time this happened and looked over his shoulder as if he was about to be set upon again. When he could see it was just him and me in the garage he settled down again.

  “My Lady Eleanor, we need to find the message for the King, ’twas in the shield in the secret place, let’s look to see if it’s still there.” He bent down, creaking gingerly in his armour and knelt down by the shield, turned it over and inspected the back of it. He felt over the markings around the handle.

  “We only cleaned it Sir Kay, we haven’t removed anything at all.” I spoke up in our defence.

  He spent some time inspecting the back, feeling around the marks Linda and I had noticed with his fingers. He pressed something and a small opening was revealed behind the handle which held a small leather package. I noticed this had a red wax fastener on it, a seal, like they had on letters from the olden days.

  “Ahh my Lady, ’tis intact, all is well. We must now go and find the King, this message must get to him.” He looked up at me and straightened his legs to his full height.

  “Um, excuse me Sir Kay, but aren’t you a little late for this delivery, like a good few centuries? We are living in the summer of 1962.” I looked up as I said this, then at his face which showed no surprise at all.

  “Yes my Lady, I know we are in the wrong time for me but the right time for you; but without you the shield would be still embedded in the water. It was waiting for you, I was waiting for you.” Sir Kay bowed low to me, making me feel more than a bit silly. I had never been bowed to before and today it had happened twice. It was something Hugh and Richard would never even think about doing; as Sir Kay said, we were in the wrong time for him and his code of chivalry.

  “Sir Kay, I don’t know how you think I can help you. I would like to help you because Mum always says you must help anybody who asks you for your help, as we are a kind family but what do you want me to do?” I felt out of my depth here and wished that Linda was with me as she would know what to say. She didn’t even remember what had happened, so fat chance of her becoming involved unless Sir Kay wanted her to be. I thought I would find out why my friends were not included, why just me?

  “Sir Kay, why are my friends not included in this adventure? They were with me and helped me to remove the shield from the beck, so why did you make them not remember meeting you?” I asked the question. He thought for a while, staring at the package in his hands, then turned to me meeting my gaze with fierce blue eyes.

  “My Lady Eleanor must learn to trust me on this. We have a mission, your friends cannot be involved at this time.” He pushed the package into his breast plate and came closer to me.

  “Are you ready, my Lady? Ready to ride with me? Ready to find and alert the King to the dangers in his nation?” He took my hand, all the time staring at me with those deep blue hypnotic eyes.

  “Um, Sir Kay, your horse isn’t here, how can we ride…” Even as I spoke the words I felt myself lifted up weightlessly into a swirl of mist, feeling as light as air we moved into a sort of void. I could see nothing but mist, the garage walls disappeared into it and so did Sir Kay and the shield then suddenly we went down, down, and down until finally I felt my feet touch the ground. It didn’t feel like our concrete garage floor.

  Chapter 4

  The past…

  spring 1340, somewhere in Durham

&n
bsp; “What just happened, Sir Kay? Where are we?” I looked down at my feet and yes, they were on the ground, but definitely not the garage floor at home. I stood on a grassy path rutted with what looked like cart tracks and my feet were not in my sandals but encased in soft brown leather slippers. My feet were not the only part of me to be dressed differently. I was no longer in pyjamas and cardigan but was now wearing a long, pale blue, wool dress which fitted in at the waist with a brown leather belt. The dress had gold buttons and braiding on it, all a bit too girly for my liking.

  “Ah my Lady Eleanor, you are now back to how I remember you, and my time is now yours.” Sir Kay bowed low just as he had in my garage at home. All of this bowing. I tried hard not to laugh. What on earth was I going to tell Mum, would I ever see her and my Dad and sister again and what of my friends? We planned to spend time playing out this holiday and it seemed I was now stuck back in some other time, oh heck. What about school? I loved school and history but being here in the past, forever, now seemed my fate. Oh, how I wish I had left that shield alone. My Mum was right about making decisions and I had made a blinder of a decision in lifting it up from the beck bottom. Now I had to go through with whatever was my fate, I tried hard to be brave.

  Sir Kay must have seen all of the above play out on my face because he took my hand and looking into my eyes told me not to worry; all would be well, there were things that I wouldn’t understand at the moment but would be revealed to me as we fulfilled our destiny. I didn’t really want a destiny, I wasn’t really sure what it meant, but it all sounded a bit final to me and I was trying so very hard not to cry, not to be a big baby. I could hear Hugh’s voice in my head telling me not to be a wuss. I was brave for a girl, which was maybe why I had been chosen to fulfil this destiny thing, so I decided to breathe deeply and continue with what was happening to me. I would find out as much as I could about this time and report back to the others as soon as I could. Sir Kay could not hold me against my will. I would show him what I was made of. Anybody who could stand up to my sister could sort out a knight of the realm, surely.