She padded out into the dining hall in her bare feet, boots in hand — but it didn’t seem that either Niall or Eamon were awake yet. Well, she wouldn’t disturb their sleep if she didn’t have to. Carefully, she pulled her boots on, trying not to make too much noise, then stole out the door and into the bracing morning air. Her first day, alone in medieval Scotland — yesterday hadn’t counted, not really. Today she felt fully recovered, strong and ready to explore. She’d still take it easy, of course — but she could tell that she’d turned a corner, recovery-wise, even if her sleep had been troubled by nasty dreams about swimming in blood…
With a shiver, she picked up her pace. No sense dwelling on thoughts like that. Not when she could smell the unmistakable smell of breakfast cooking in the air… she remembered something Niall had said about the kitchens in the Keep running around the clock to keep everyone fed. Maybe she could prevail upon their hospitality for some breakfast? It would be good to see the other women if they were there, too. She was looking forward to having a conversation with them all that wasn’t addled by fever.
The staircase she’d almost climbed the day before was as steep as she’d imagined, and she was breathing hard by the time she reached the top of it, stepping out into a huge stone courtyard that made her eyes widen. Finally, she was on the inside of the walls she’d seen from the docks down below… and it was a sight to behold. A huge courtyard, already covered in men walking back and forth — there were stables at one side, and a huge pair of iron gates at another that must have lead out onto the land bridge that Brendan had told her joined the island to the mainland. But what really took her breath away was the castle. Up close, it was even more impressive than it had been from down below — it seemed to loom above the courtyard like some kind of great bird, a pair of huge wooden doors (slightly ajar) the only way to access it. She crept up the steps that led to the doors, a little intimidated despite her determination to explore. Would she be allowed in? Or would a guard stop her?
“Hey, you!”
She froze — but that hadn’t been the gruff, Scottish-accented voice of a guard. That had been — she turned, a grin already spreading across her face, to see Anna, the short woman she’d met what felt like weeks ago in the depths of her fever.
“Anna! Hi!”
“You do remember me! We weren’t sure how much of the other night was going to stick with you.” Anna laughed, pulling her into a hug. “You were pretty unwell — and we were dropping a lot of pretty complicated stuff on you.”
“I don’t remember a lot,” she admitted. “I sure do remember Maggie’s potion, though. That’d be a hard thing to forget.”
“Oh, yes,” Anna agreed with a broad grin. “And it looks like it did its work! You’re looking good as new. And the dress suits you,” she added with a wink.
“Did you have it sent down for me? That was so kind —”
“Of course. I know the skirts are kind of a hassle, but I figured something good and warm was the right move while you were recovering.” Anna wasn’t wearing a gown, Helen realized belatedly. She was wearing trousers and a tunic, clothing much more in line with what the men wore — and there was a sword at her hip. Seeming to notice her noticing, Anna grinned. “I’ll get you some trousers asap, alright? And a sword, if you know how to use one.”
“I’m good with guns. Can’t say I’ve got any sword training.”
“Well, we can fix that.” Anna shrugged. “Guns? What’s your background?”
“FBI,” she said, feeling a sense of relief that she didn’t have to explain what that was. “I wasn’t in the field much, of course, but they made us do the training.”
“Interesting. Didn’t you say you were a PI?”
“I am now. I quit the Bureau a couple years back. It was burning me out.”
“I quit the military for the same reason,” Anna said, smiling up at her. “I can see we’ll have a lot to talk about. But for now, are you hungry?”
“Starving,” Helen admitted. “I was going to see if they’d mind me grabbing some breakfast —”
“Mind? Of course they wouldn’t mind. Get in here.” Anna laughed, tugging her up the stairs. So they entered the castle together — and Helen took a sharp breath at the beautiful hall they found themselves in. An enormous entrance hall, with doors covering the walls — she could see half a dozen spiral staircases leading up into the rest of the keep, and a pair of large open doors that led through into what was clearly a dining hall. Anna was leading her that way, and she followed, trying to keep up even as she did her best to drink in the things she was seeing. This place was incredible. A real, actual medieval castle — and not just a ruin. A castle that was alive, thrumming with activity — men in armor hurrying back and forth, men and women in long robes immersed in deep conversations, handfuls of people she now recognized as servants rushing in and out of the doors… she felt like she could stand here for hours, just people-watching.
“What’s with the robes?” she asked Anna in a low voice. The woman was waiting for her at the doors to the dining hall, an amused smile on her face as she watched her take in the castle. She must look like an idiot, she thought with a grin, staring around at a place that must be completely familiar to Anna by now…
“The black robes? Sept members, mostly.” Anna shrugged. “I mean, technically we’re all in service of the Sept, but the robes indicate that they’re scholars and herbalists and the like.”
“The Sept?”
“The Sept is the organization this castle houses,” Anna said, leading her into the dining hall.
She felt torn between staring around this new, grand room — and listening to the very interesting explanation Anna was giving her of the castle’s purpose. “I’ll tell you about it once we’ve gotten ourselves some food, hm? Do you like porridge?”
“You mean oatmeal?” Helen asked, one eyebrow raised. “You really have been here for a long time, hey?”
“Guilty.” Anna laughed. “Whatever you call it, it’s better here than anything I ever had back home in America. Almost makes up for the lack of hot showers. Almost,” she added, a little wistfully. They served themselves great bowls of porridge from a groaning table at the front of the hall that was stacked with a range of breakfast options — she saw a lot of bread and grain-based foods, and a sprinkling of fruit. Anna saw her scanning the table and smiled. “There’s another thing that took some getting used to — food availability changes a lot more according to the seasons than it did back home. No refrigeration, no shipping stuff in from other places where it’s in season… still, oats keep well, so porridge is a year-round affair.”
They headed over to a table — one of maybe a dozen long dining tables with rough wooden pews that were shared by dozens of chatting, laughing people. There didn’t seem to be much segregation between the groups — she saw guards chatting with servants, scholars engaged in deep conversations not only with one another but with soldiers, too. Anna led her to a quiet corner, and they settled down together.
“You were telling me about the Sept?” Helen asked once she’d wolfed down a few spoonsful of porridge. As she’d expected, it was delicious — maybe not quite as good as the porridge Niall had made her when she was unwell, but certainly good enough to be getting on with.
“Right. So — the Sept of Clan Grant. There are maybe a hundred official members, plus the servants who work in the castle, who I’ve always thought of as unofficial members anyway. This isn’t exactly a secret, by the way,” she added with a pointed look, “but it’s sensitive, so I wouldn’t go chatting about it with just anyone, alright? Castle folk are fine, but when you start visiting the village… well, some people are a little funny about what we do up here.”
“And what do we do up here, exactly?”
“Witchcraft,” Anna said in a dramatic voice, waggling her fingers. Then she laughed. “Not really. But that’s been a prevailing opinion, unfortunately. The Sept has stood here on the shores of Loch Ness for hundreds of years
. It stands here because of the Burgh — because this is a place where there’s an active and frequently open gateway between worlds. That’s why so many of us time-stranded women wound up here. The Sept studies the Burgh, operates as a kind of diplomatic force between regular people and the Fae… and, when necessary, deals with threats.”
“Threats?” A chill ran down Helen’s spine at that. Anna’s voice was so practical, but she could tell from the look on her face that this wasn’t idle chatter. What had happened here?
“Donal understands this a little better than I do, having lived here longer, but from what I understand, there are two factions of Faeries — the Seelie and the Unseelie. I mean, it’s more complicated than that, no doubt, but —”
“We’ve got Democrats and Republicans, they’ve got Seelie and Unseelie.”
“Right. Loose affiliations, and there’s a lot more room for nuance, but overall —”
“So who are the Seelie and who are the Unseelie?”
“The Seelie are — well, roughly speaking, they’re the good guys. They’re not exactly ‘good’ in the sense that we understand it — they can be difficult to understand, and occasionally mischievous, and there have been misunderstandings in the past about the nature of their actions… but overall, they’re our allies, and, we hope, our friends.”
“What kinds of misunderstandings?”
She shrugged, swallowing her mouthful of food. “Well, for example. The Fae are famous for stealing children away, right? Changeling children, lured down to the end of the garden then disappeared for centuries... all those old stories? There’s a bit of truth to them.”
“They steal children?”
“Yes. But here’s the thing — they don’t just rip a child away from an happy home. They only take children who are unhappy, or in danger — for example, children of abusive households. Or children on the brink of starvation or death. Or the terminally ill, because they can heal things we can’t… do you see?”
“Right.” Helen was beginning to understand. “But that’s not how people see it.”
“No.” Anna sighed. “Not usually. They’re a superstitious people, the locals, and they distrust anything they don’t understand. Some of them think that Faerie magic is witchcraft — that’s when you get the influence of religion demonizing anything they don’t understand. And of course, the whole situation is made more complicated again by the Unseelie Fae, who very much do steal children for malicious reasons. Among other things.”
“Ah. Giving the good guys a bad name.”
“Exactly.” Anna smiled, tilting her head to the side a little. “Helen, I have to say, you’re adapting to all of this remarkably well.”
“Am I? I still kind of feel like an idiot. I don’t know — anything about this place or these people —”
“Oh, you’ll learn that in time,” Anna said dismissively. “I just mean — you’re not freaking out about all this wild stuff. Magic, time travel, faeries and witchcraft…. I mean, when I first got here I felt like I was going completely insane for the first few weeks.” She smiled. “It’s a compliment. You’ve got a good head on your shoulders. Hard to rattle. That’s the FBI training, I guess.”
She shrugged. “I guess they wouldn’t have taken me if I’d been easy to rattle.” It felt strange, thinking of her old career in this bizarre setting.
“That’s enough of a history lesson for now, I think,” Anna said frankly, finishing the last of her bowl. “I strongly recommend you spend the day wandering around the castle. Word’s spread that we’ve a new guest, so everyone should be friendly enough if you introduce yourself. Nowhere is off-limits, but if someone shoos you out of a place, best to obey them. Lunch and dinner are down here too,” she added, eyes twinkling.
“So I can just — wander around?”
“Absolutely. There’s heaps to see. And once you’re bored of that, let me know, and we can organize a trip to the village.” Anna smiled, reaching out to squeeze her hand. “I’ll see you around, okay? And if you need anything — if you want to talk, if you start feeling rattled — just let me know. Me or any of the women, okay? We’ve all been exactly where you are. We’ll help you find your way.”
And with that, she was off — leaving Helen with a smile on her face and an exciting day of castle exploration ahead of her.
Chapter 15
By the end of the day, Helen was beginning to understand why everyone she met seemed to be incredibly fit. The castle stairs were an absolute nightmare. Tight, winding spiral staircases led from floor to floor, and each trip upstairs seemed to add up, taking a toll on her legs. She wasn’t an unfit woman — she ran about five miles a day — but all the same, the stairs were certainly a consideration.
Her first order of business after breakfast was to get all the way to the top of the castle. She’d been wanting to get her bearings properly since she’d arrived here, and she had a feeling that if she could get on the roof, everything would be made clear. She ran into a guard or two on her way up the stairs, panting and puffing — they both gave her identical amused smiles, indicating that she wasn’t the first time-stranded woman to head straight for the roof for a bird’s-eye view of the place. Promising herself that her stair-fitness would improve sooner or later, she persisted in her climb, and was rewarded with an absolutely breathtaking view when she finally reached the top of the castle.
Up here, it was silent but for the whistling of the wind, and she took a deep breath as she crept toward the edge of the roof, where there was a low wall, complete with castle-like crenellations, stopping any hapless roof-dweller from plummeting to their death from the edge. Resisting the urge to look straight down, she put her hands firmly on the rocky ledge, and took in the view. The Loch sprawled out below her, surprisingly vast — even from this high up, she couldn’t see all of the edges of it. The sun was peeping from behind the clouds, sparkling on the water occasionally, and she smiled, thinking of what Eamon would probably be saying if he was here. Would he be trying to find the Monster? Was it possible to see the creature from up this high? Probably not — she remembered Niall saying something about the creature being nocturnal.
Her eyes moved beyond the Loch, to the shores. She could just make out a few of the jetties, though the majority of them were hidden from view by the bulk of the castle. Niall’s little home was technically in the basement of the castle, she realized, piecing together the geography of the place — it extended down, down into the base of the island on which it was built. It was a remarkable feat of engineering, especially given how long ago it had been built — she couldn’t help but marvel at the workmanship all the more, knowing that every stone had been laid by hand.
She could see further along the coast, too — she moved around the top of the castle, her apprehension at the height diminishing as she satisfied her curiosity about where she was. There was the gate she’d seen from the courtyard, the little land bridge that connected the island to the mainland… and a thick forest of trees that was held back by a road that ran along the shore of the Loch, arcing around to wind along the lake shore. She followed it with her eyes. Niall had told her that the local village lay along that road, about half an hour’s ride on horseback (or faster, in an emergency — she hadn’t asked what kinds of emergencies happened around here.) A medieval village… she was fascinated despite herself, and very much looking forward to paying the place a visit, though she kept Anna’s warnings close to the surface of her mind. No talk of faeries or time travel with the villagers.
Anna had also told her that Maggie had a cottage a little further along the road to the village, too. She wanted to go and visit the old woman, to thank her for the healing draft that had brought her back from what she was beginning to suspect had been the brink of death… and she was curious, too, to learn more about the woman. Was she really part faerie, or had that been part of Helen’s fever dreams? Would she think Helen rude if she asked her about it? Only one way to find out, she thought with a smile.
&n
bsp; As beautiful as the view was, it was a little chilly up on the roof, and Helen only spent a few minutes more up there before she headed back down the stairs, now feeling a lot better about where she was in relation to everything else. It was nice to see the trees, too — West Virginia was a forest-heavy kind of state and knowing there was forest close by oddly made her feel more at home.
The rest of the day she spent exploring. Despite Anna’s suggestion, she didn’t spend much time talking to the people of the castle — everyone she encountered seemed so busy, and she didn’t want to get in their way. They usually offered her bright smiles, though — and one gaggle of servants who were whispering when she passed dissolved into giggles when she gave them a smile and a wave, before one of their number hastily explained that they were just admiring her hair and wondering about her exotic origins.
“I don’t feel very exotic,” she admitted with a laugh. “But thank you.”
That night, she had dinner with all of the time-stranded women — Anna had taken it upon herself to round them up. They were all delighted to see that Helen was feeling better and asked her all about her adventures exploring the castle. Conversation turned to their old lives, back in the future — it felt bizarre, to talk about things like modern medicine in the past tense. Elena was particularly interested in her history as an FBI analyst and private investigator — Elena had been a police detective in Baltimore before she’d been brought back through time.
“What happened? What brought you here?”
“Nothing as exciting as your story,” Elena said. “I can’t believe that asshole cut your brakes. Hope he drowned.” She was a tough woman with very little time for the foibles of men especially — Helen couldn’t help but wonder a little at how Brendan had won her heart. He must have hidden depths of strength, to have wooed a firecracker like Elena. “But yeah — me and my partner were investigating a crime scene when some rotten stairs fell out from under me. I guess the fall would’ve killed me if the Seelie hadn’t grabbed me and pulled me through. Can you believe it? Falling down the stairs. A Baltimore cop in the middle of a murder investigation, killed by some stairs.”
Needed By The Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance (Highlander Forever Book 5) Page 9