by K. C. Dyer
Brodie laughed, but looking at Kate’s tear-stained face, he sobered quickly. He stood up and walked to the wall of the cave. “We have to decide what to do now.” He turned to Darrell. “I know all about caves and fossils, but I have no experience with whatever’s happened here. You’re the expert now, Darrell. What do we do next?”
Both sets of eyes turned in the grey light toward Darrell. She swallowed. The magnitude of what had happened hit her like a blow. She had brought her friends through some kind of hole in the fabric of time. Whether she meant to or not didn’t matter. They were here. Now what was she going to do?
The sound of a bark startled them and they all jumped. In the dim light of the cave, a dog ran in with something in his mouth. He dashed up to the group, spun in a tight circle, and dropped what he was carrying. He began licking Darrell’s face.
“Delaney! Am I ever glad to see you! Good boy. Lie down.” The dog lay obediently at Darrell’s feet. He wriggled in place and put his head down on his paws, content. Brodie shook his head.
“Ah — Darrell, that’s not Delaney. Delaney is a golden retriever. This dog, well — I don’t have a clue what this dog is. Maybe he’s a really dirty Lab. But he’s not Delaney.”
Darrell ruffled the dog’s fur. “I’m sorry, Brodie, but you’re wrong. When I went by myself through the cave the first time, Delaney was with me. When I got to this cave, I realized he looked different ... but inside, he was the same dog. He belonged to Luke’s aunt from Arisaig. But he’s still Delaney. Watch this.”
She turned to Delaney and showed how he would sit, roll over, and shake a paw just as she had taught him over the summer. Finally, she gave him one of the peppermints to sniff and held her hands behind her back. She brought her two closed fists in front of Delaney and he gravely placed his paw on her right hand. She opened her palm and he licked the candy once before lying down in the sand, tail wagging gently.
“Dara! Are ye in here, lass?” A voiced echoed through the grey cave. The colour completely drained out of Kate’s face. Brodie put a finger to his lips. Too late, Darrell reached to place a warning hand on Delaney’s head. He barked joyfully and sat up.
The voice came again. It sounded relieved. “God be praised!”
The sound of armour echoed off the walls of the cave. Delaney jumped to his feet and ran to the figure who strode inside.
Darrell looked at Brodie and Kate, who stared back at her mutely. “It will be all right,” she whispered and turned to the man who had joined them. She stiffened, and her stomach clenched at the sight of a uniformed soldier in the cave.
“Praise be to God,” he said. “When the dog appeared again, I knew he must be bringing ye safely back to us.”
Suddenly, Darrell recognized the soldier, and relief flooded through her.
“Luke!” she cried, and threw her arms around him. “You’re all right! I thought you were one of the soldiers who chased me ...”
His blue eyes gleamed. “I am a soldier of the Laird’s personal guard, Dara. Much has happened in the year since I have last seen ye.”
Darrell gaped. A year! She did some rapid calculations in her mind, but came up blank. Time seemed to have a strange way of compressing here in the past. It had been two weeks since she had returned to Eagle Glen from her visit with Luke. Enough time for at least a year to have passed here in the fourteenth century.
Darrell felt a surge of panic. “How are Maggie and Rose? What has happened to them?”
Luke smiled sadly. “They are alive, but ...”
From the shadows of the cave came the sound of a muffled gasp. In one smooth motion, Luke pushed Darrell behind him and drew the small sword he wore in his belt.
“What is yer business here?” he spat.
Darrell stepped forward with a grin and squeezed his arm. “It’s all right, Luke. I ... I have brought two friends to meet you this time.”
Luke looked in confusion at Darrell. “I’m ... terribly sorry,” he said. He pulled his back ramrod straight and turned to face Brodie and Kate as they stepped out of the shadows. “I offer ye my most profound apologies.”
Kate’s mouth hung open slightly and she appeared unable to speak.
“No offence taken,” Brodie said quietly.
Darrell spoke up again. “I want to hear everything that has happened, Luke, every detail. But first you must meet my friends. Brodie and Kate, this is Luke.”
Brodie put his arm around Kate’s shoulders and steered her forward. He nodded toward Luke and even managed a nervous smile when Luke sheathed his sword.
Brodie turned to Darrell. “Darrell ... uh ... Dara ... what do we do now?”
Darrell smiled at Brodie but turned to Luke. “My friends and I have travelled a very long time to meet you, Luke. We are very tired and need to get our bearings. Is there a safe place for us to stay unseen for a little while?”
Luke looked troubled. “I was at the end of my watch, and I ... ah ... thought I would have a look along the beach. It was then that I saw Aileen’s dog. I knew ye would be close by. I followed him straight to yer hiding place, and so I have made no preparations for ye to stay, as yet. But my mother will be so happy to see ye! I’m sure we can find a place for ye to stay in the castle ...”
“Luke ... uh ... I don’t have time to explain now, but let’s just say that we have been shipwrecked here, and we are seeking sanctuary with you from the plague.”
Luke looked puzzled. “I do not see the remains of a ship ...” he began, but was interrupted by a shout. Darrell watched a horse thunder up the beach.
“Luke! There ye are! Our watch is over, we must return to the castle.” The soldier looked down with some curiosity at Darrell.
Luke stiffened a little. “Angus. I have just discovered three victims of a shipwreck, washed up on our shore as they were heading to the north. They seek sanctuary within the walls of Ainslie Castle.”
The other soldier looked discomfited. He turned his back to Darrell and whispered loudly, “I do not know how Hamish will take the news of strangers, Luke.”
Luke frowned. “I serve Sir William and no other, Angus, and he would be the first to welcome stranded travellers into his home.”
“But Sir William is gone, and probably dead from the plague on some distant shore.” He looked nervously at Luke. “Hamish is captain of the guard,” he insisted.
“Ye mustn’t heed the chatter in the servant’s hall, Angus. I have faith in Sir William yet,” said Luke with a wry grin.
Darrell watched the soldier scratch his head and then several other places on his body. “All right,” he said finally. “But we must report them immediately to Hamish. He is the captain and it should be his decision.”
“Agreed.” Luke turned to Darrell. “Miss,” he said, with exaggerated formality, “we have a wagon on the lane above the beach, as we are escorting the lady of the castle on an outing. We can give ye a ride, if ye’d like.”
Darrell smiled. “That would be most excellent, sir. We accept your kind offer.” She watched as the two soldiers rode up the beach and the grassy bank near the stone steps that she remembered so clearly from her last visit. She twirled on her heel and re-entered the cave.
Once back inside, Darrell slipped over to kneel beside Kate and Brodie.
“Just follow along with me here,” she whispered. “From the looks of our clothes, I think the best idea is to pretend you are my servants. We’re going up to the castle. Luke is here, so I think things will be okay.”
“Servants?” said Kate, her face incredulous. “What language is this that we’re speaking? And how is it that I can understand a language I don’t even know the name of?”
Darrell reached out and put a hand on the arm of both her friends.
In a whisper she said, “I’m not sure how it works, but it happened before when I went through the cave. We are speaking Scottish Gaelic. Did you see the plaid that the soldiers have wrapped around them?”
“They sure doesn’t look like any kilts I
’ve ever seen,” whispered Brodie, “and my mother was born in Edinburgh!”
“Look,” said Darrell, “it will make things easier if you can just accept that something we don’t understand has happened here. Somehow we have ended up in the fourteenth century, and this is long before they made kilts that look like the ones we know today, believe me. Things happen for a reason. We must be meant to do something special here in this time. Whether it is to teach us something or to help someone else, I don’t know. All I know is that we have to go now!” Darrell glanced over at a cleft in the rock near the cave opening. She rubbed at the crease on her forehead. “There’s something different here,” she muttered. “And it’s more than just these new clothes. I just can’t quite put my finger on it ...” Shaking her head, she turned back to Brodie and Kate. “I think that we’re safe for the moment, anyway. Just play along. We’ll have a chance to talk soon.” Limping slightly, she made her way out of the cave.
Brodie looked at Kate, and he gave her hand a quick squeeze. “Hang in there, Kate. We’ll have you back to your computer screen in no time.” Kate smiled back, tremulously. She knew that Brodie was sounding more confident than he felt. With a heavy heart, she followed him out into the bright sunlight.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The brilliant sun seared their eyes after the dim cave, and it took a few moments before they could see the world into which they had journeyed. Shading his eyes from the sun, Brodie looked about in surprise. “Look at this place ...” he began. Kate clutched tightly at his arm, her lips pinched in a fearful line.
A rugged landscape surrounded them, with no sign of the heavily forested mountains they had left behind when they entered the cave near Eagle Glen. Instead, the land rose up in rocky fells covered with scrubby heather and low brush. A soft breeze that smelled of the sea gently blew their hair and cooled the heat that beat down from the dazzling sky.
Walking gingerly, Darrell led them along a sandy trail that ran up to a cart path on the hillside above the beach. Looking back, she could see the entrance to the cave was as well hidden as she remembered, blending into the rocky outcropping overlooking the water.
Luke was waiting at the foot of the stony pathway that rose up from the beach. He had dismounted from his horse and helped Darrell up the steps with a gallant air. At the top of the steps stood Angus, holding the reins of the two horses. Now that he was used to the idea of the shipwrecked strangers, he had begun to affect a heroic manner.
“These are lawless times and the plague has taken good men as well as bad. There are fewer now to guard the safety of travelers such as yerselves.”
Darrell smiled to herself. “And we count ourselves lucky to have been rescued by so gallant a hero.”
Angus blushed and turned to address Brodie. “Where is yer mistress’s cloak, and the rest of her things?”
Darrell spoke up smoothly, though her face coloured. “We lost all in the shipwreck, good sir. The sea has stolen all we possess, except what we carry with us. Our — ah — cloaks went down with the ship.”
A loud clatter precluded any further conversation as a carriage drawn by a pair of enormous black horses rolled up to the group and stopped. The horses were flecked with foam as though they had been running hard.
“Lady Eleanor, may I present the Lady Dara of ...” Angus turned in some confusion to Darrell.
“Of — of — Eagle Glen,” she said, stumbling only slightly.
Lady Eleanor nodded, gently. “Angus tells me that ye have been shipwrecked,” she said, her eyes shining. “How absolutely thrilling. I must hear all about it.”
Angus helped Darrell enter the carriage and swung the door closed. She looked up in alarm.
“What about my frien — ah — servants? How are they to travel?”
Angus laughed. “Why, space will be found for them in the wagon that follows.”
Darrell bit her lip and leaned out of the window to peek back at the wagon. “My servants are very precious to me. Will they be safe?”
“Of course. We are well-armed men who guard the Lady. Our journey is not far, and they will be delivered safe to ye once we reach Ainslie Castle.”
Darrell craned out the window to watch as Kate and Brodie found themselves unceremoniously boosted up onto a prickly pile of hay on the rough cart behind. Delaney hopped up beside them and flopped down in the straw, tongue lolling. The soldier sitting on the rough board seat at the front clicked to the large brown workhorses who pulled the wagon. They set off along the path, slowly, with much creaking of wheels and bumping of ruts. The strong black horses set off again and the carriage pitched forward. Darrell’s last glimpse of the cart behind was of two heads, one red, one dark, bobbing together in close conversation.
In the carriage with Darrell were Lady Eleanor and an older woman, whom Lady Eleanor introduced as her chaperone, Ernestina.
The carriage itself was made of wood and was little advanced in design over the cart in which Brodie and Kate rode. There were cushioned seats and a roof, but it still rolled on rough wooden wheels and jostled up and down with every rut in the road. Since the road was no more than a well-used cart path, there was not much opportunity for conversation, as the riders were too busy trying to hold on to take time to talk.
Darrell tried to get her bearings by staring out of the carriage window. She could see the village below, and she looked at it carefully. It was interesting to look down upon it from a new vantage point. The houses were tiny and had roofs that were made of a mixture of mud and hay. The spire of a church stood out like a beacon above all the small dwellings below. Several children chased a hoop they smacked along with a stick in the muddy, heavily rutted roads, and she watched one child herd a flock of geese. A few women stomped energetically at a washtub of clothes, keeping an eye on a group of toddlers nearby. Darrell just caught a snatch of song, borne on the wind as the women kept time with their stomping feet. In the distant fields beyond, she could see men at work, swinging scythes to reap early grain and using other strange, unfamiliar tools to break up the soil.
The small entourage rode on with the carriage only a few hundred feet ahead of the bouncing wagon. They rounded a corner, and Darrell saw that the track followed a ridge along a rocky coast. The water of the ocean was a brilliant azure until it dashed with snowy exuberance on the rocks below. The path began to drop, and Darrell saw the lines of a grey stone castle rise up, built on a cliff that overlooked the ocean. As they drew closer, she saw that the castle was on an island, connected to the land by a thin road that ran along a sandbar.
Darrell could feel the carriage surge as the horses hurried down the hill. Behind them, she could see Brodie and Kate bouncing on the back of the cart, as the work horses struggled to reach the island castle before the tide swept in. Luke and Angus rode at the rear of the group, keeping a careful watch on the vehicles as they approached the castle.
With splashing hooves, the horses pulled the carriage and the wagon up onto the small island. The water lapped over the sandbar behind them, and their connection to the mainland was temporarily lost to the tide. The castle that stood above them was breathtaking in size and grandeur. The walls that surrounded it were topped with a corbelled parapet patrolled by armed soldiers. A tall tower or keep stood at one end of the irregularly shaped courtyard and a number of other low stone buildings sprouted like mushrooms within the castle’s walls. The carriage and cart thundered through the front entrance to the castle and pulled up to a halt.
High above, Darrell could see soldiers peering through the machicolations, the openings through which rocks or hot oil could be dropped on the heads of invaders attacking the castle, though there was no sign of oil or any other substance on the floor of the entranceway. For the moment, the only sound was the heavy breathing of the horses after their hard workout. Then Luke’s horse clattered up and he leapt off. He swept open the door to the carriage and offered his hand to help Darrell get out.
“Welcome, my lady, to the Castle Ainslie, home o
f Clan MacKenzie.”
As Darrell stepped down, the hem of her over-skirt snagged on the carriage and tore as she jerked it free. Lifting her skirts up more carefully, she made her way slowly along the cobbled surface to where Brodie and Kate were plucking the straw out of their clothes. They looked around open-mouthed at the inside of the castle.
“See to the horses,” Lady Eleanor called to the boy who ran up to greet them. Angus slapped Brodie on the back and pushed him gently towards the stable boy. He turned to Darrell. “M’lady, yer servant here is a great strong fellow. He can help with the horses, with yer permission.”
Darrell grinned at Brodie, who raised his eyebrows in alarm. “A fine plan, Angus,” she said. “I will come down to collect you for the evening meal, Brodie.”
Brodie scowled and, carrying a bridle and bit, trailed after the much smaller stable boy. Angus shook his head. “That servant of yers has a strange foreign look to him, m’lady. Is he a good worker, and dependable?”
Darrell laughed. “He is. And don’t worry about his black frown, Angus. I would trust him with my life.” As he has trusted me with his, she thought wryly.
Lady Eleanor spoke up. “He is welcome to join us in the Great Hall after he sees to the horses, or to eat in the kitchen, as ye wish, Lady Dara.”
Kate scrambled over and stood close to Darrell, worried that she, too, would be sent on an errand. Darrell smiled at her reassuringly.
Lady Eleanor spoke up. “If ye are not too weary, Lady Dara, I will take ye on a tour of my home.”
Darrell patted Kate encouragingly on the arm and, eyes wide open to the strange new world around them, they set off.
The entranceway into which they had driven was the main opening into the castle keep. At the moment of their arrival, it was a hive of activity. Stable hands and soldiers mixed with women hauling baskets filled with foodstuffs and clothing. Children ran through, chasing chickens and other livestock. The place had a rich, barn-like smell.