"I've been thinking about that a lot myself," Sarah admitted. "I can't say I know much about science or physics or whatever, but presumably there's some explanation involving … wormholes, maybe? I read something once about time and space being –"
"I don't think it's a wormhole," Carissa said drily, raising an eyebrow as she swallowed a mouthful of food. "I think it's magic."
Sarah laughed… but her smile faded at the look on Carissa's face. "Seriously? You think magic's a better explanation than science?"
Carissa gestured around the dining hall. "I mean… I don't know about you, but a castle built by an immortal witch and increasingly populated by women from the future… that sounds like magic to me, yes."
"Built by a what?"
"Her name is Scathach," Carissa explained, leaning forward with a conspiratorial smile. "My mother-in-law, Erin says she's met her, but only in dreams. She's a tall, dark-haired woman with a blade at her side… it's said she built this castle as a headquarters in which to teach her students, before giving it over to the MacLeods centuries ago."
"Right," Sarah said faintly, torn between thinking the idea was ridiculous… and not wanting to alienate her new friends. She could see Maria hiding a smile at the other side of the table, and she lowered her eyes to her food, trying to think of the best way to pick her own skeptical holes in this theory without being downright rude. "I mean, I'm sure that … there are a lot of stories and explanations about why something so amazing happened… but I mean, we used to think it was magic that made the sun rise in the morning, right? I'm just saying it's probably best to assume there's a rational explanation for things like this."
"Magic's rational," Edith said, her wide blue eyes serious. Sarah had met plenty of women like Edith before. Well-meaning, very sincere, often very hard-working… but with a naiveté that would see them taken advantage of and mislead again and again. She reminded her a little of a much younger Agnes, her client who'd had the jewels stolen from her. For the longest time, Agnes had considered Damon DeBeers a friend – a charming, charismatic companion who'd spend hours with her, entertaining her… she'd barely been able to believe it when he'd been responsible for the theft of her sizable jewelry collection. And her fondness for DeBeers had been a big part of why it had taken so long for Sarah to get on his trail – she'd simply been unwilling, or unable, to confront the evidence that it was her precious friend Damon who'd robbed her…
Sarah realized with a start that her mind had strayed back, yet again, to DeBeers. Well, no wonder, she thought crossly. He was out there somewhere, getting away with his crimes scot-free, while she was stuck here having stupid conversations about whether magic or science was a better explanation for the portal in the basement that had brought the three of them here. Thankfully, it wasn't long until the subject changed to less irritating subject matter, and Sarah didn't have to worry about alienating her two new friends.
Carissa, it seemed, was a poet – she'd been visiting Scotland as part of a prize for a poetry competition when she'd found her way through the doorway in the basement. But Carissa, it seemed, had been more or less happy to start a new life here. Things hadn't been going so well in the future – and the minute she'd arrived here, she'd met Hugh MacLeod, her now husband. Edith, too, was married to a MacLeod – Cameron's second-in-command, she recalled Maria saying the night before. It made Sarah think back to her interactions with Kieran, and she narrowed her eyes with vexation at the thought that the other three might have suspicions that she'd follow in their footsteps…
"I don't really have time for romance," she said bluntly when Carissa asked her about her own love life back home. "My job's more important than all that. I was chasing a murdering jewel thief when I came through the gate."
"Maria did mention," Edith said brightly, her eyes enormous. "A jewel thief and a murderer! How exciting! Like something out of a movie."
"I miss movies," Maria sighed, taking a mouthful of her dinner.
"He came through with me," Sarah said, grimacing a little as she remembered. "He's out there right now, in fact, because the esteemed guard captain saw fit to let him go –"
"You're not thinking of going after him, are you?" Carissa looked shocked. "With everything going on at the moment out there… Sarah, promise us you'll stay in the castle grounds?"
She hesitated. The truth was, she had no intention of staying within this stupid castle's grounds when her quarry was out there, getting away with his crimes… but she didn't want to worry her new friends. Especially not in their condition – the two of them had fallen pregnant shortly after marrying their men, though Edith was due quite soon and much further along than Carissa. The idea of giving birth in medieval Scotland was deeply frightening to Sarah, but Carissa explained cheerfully that the local midwife was absolutely top-notch. Well, she'd take her word for it.
"Really, though, Sarah," Maria said softly when they'd finished dinner. Carissa and Edith had said their goodnights and headed off with their husbands, but Maria lingered by Sarah's side, her eyes troubled. "I know that look. I've seen it in the mirror a few times. This obsession with DeBeers –"
"I'm not obsessed," she snapped, irritated by the accusation. "I just have an interest in criminals being punished for their crimes. Does that make me crazy?"
"Only if you endanger yourself in the search for that justice," Maria said, her eyes blazing, and Sarah could see the New York cop she'd been, even under the medieval clothing. "Because it's not just yourself you'll endanger. It's Kieran, too, and every guard in the castle."
Sarah took a deep breath, feeling her temper burning in her… tempered by the cool logic of what Maria was telling her. She was right – it was irritating, but she was right. If she went charging out there by herself, looking to single-handedly track down DeBeers and serve justice, she'd be putting the guards of the castle in danger… because they'd be sent after her. And who knew what DeBeers was capable of? She already knew that he was capable of murder in cold blood. But what if he wasn't the most dangerous thing out there? What if she went looking for him and found a pack of medieval bandits instead? She didn't have a weapon on her, didn't have any of the resources she was usually working with… it would be foolish to go by herself.
But still… the knowledge that DeBeers was out there weighed on her, pressed heavily on her conscience. The idea of giving up on him just felt… awful. "I just… I need something to keep my mind on," she said softly, shaking her head. "All of this… all of this is only manageable if I can keep myself distracted. Investigating DeBeers is basically my only tie to the real world right now."
"This is the real world," Maria said softly – but Sarah could tell that she was sympathetic to her situation. "It may not feel real, but it is. And you won't always feel so lost and overwhelmed. I did at first, too. So did Edith, and even Carissa. But we all settled in, and soon you will, too." She took a deep breath, looking thoughtful. "But if it's an investigation you need… why don't you try studying the doorway that brought you here?"
She frowned, considering the prospect. Part of her was very, very curious about how she'd gotten here… she'd felt herself tempted to wander down into the basement again, to take a good close look at that archway. "I'm not a scientist. I'm a detective."
"Still," Maria shrugged, "it's something you can spend time thinking about that's safe and sound on castle grounds. Better than risking your life out there in the bandit horde."
She couldn't help but chuckle at that image. "I guess so. Thanks, Maria. For talking me through all this."
Maria put an arm around her shoulders and squeezed her in a one-armed hug – a brief, but meaningful gesture that filled her chest with warmth. "Just looking out for you. One cop to another."
That threatened to bring tears to her eyes, and she cleared her throat hard. "I won't leave the castle while it's not safe, okay? I promise."
"I'll hold you to that," Maria warned her sternly. "And look – when the bandit problem's dealt with, I'll do e
verything I can to help you find DeBeers. Okay? He sounds like a right piece of work," she said, wrinkling her nose. "Someone like that deserves to face justice. It might not be the same kind of justice as he'd face back home, but… well, the locals have their own way of dealing with wrongdoers. He'll see justice, Sarah. You just have to be a little patient."
She nodded, though the prospect of being patient filled her with dread. Patience was supposed to be one of her virtues… but it turned out that it was more like stubbornness than true patience. She could spend hours, days or even weeks working the same case. She'd always thought that that was patience. But the moment she was asked to simply wait – to refrain from doing something she wanted to do – she realized that a conditional virtue wasn't really a virtue at all.
Maybe this would be good for her, she thought as she headed back up to her room after dinner, full of new thoughts to brood on. Maybe this would be an exercise in… what? In being patient. In relinquishing control of an operation, in at least trying to trust other people to do what was right… her mind kept straying back to Kieran. By all accounts, he was a good captain. The kind of person she could trust to help her track down DeBeers safely. Maybe in the morning she'd go and find him, apologize for the confrontational tone she'd taken in talking to him that morning… could they still be friends? Use their respective stubbornness for good purposes, instead of just bickering furiously with one another?
Still in the depths of that particular quandary, Sarah didn't even notice when she fell fast asleep.
Chapter 10
The next few days passed slowly. Mindful of what Maria had told her – and not wanting to upset her new friend and closest ally in the castle – Sarah remained obediently inside of the castle walls. She even dropped by the guardhouse to apologize to Kieran one morning, but to her dismay, his office was empty. A curious guard explained that the Captain was out on patrol, and likely to be patrolling for several days. She bit her lip, regretting how sharp she'd been with him. Maybe if she'd handled the conversation differently, she could have convinced Kieran to keep an eye out for DeBeers on his usual patrols… gotten a little more information about the guy, instead of just getting angry that she couldn't keep conducting the investigation her way.
Still, the trip to the guardhouse wasn't a complete bust. She chatted with a few of the guards sitting around in the common area, most of them looking like they hadn't slept in three days or longer. It seemed these handful had just come in from being stationed at various farms around the area, keeping an eye on properties that had been attacked by bandits in the past – which explained how exhausted they seemed. But they were entirely up to date with all the recent news of bandits outside the castle walls and seemed happy enough to share with her when she shared the bundle of freshly-baked buns she'd brought from the kitchen as a peace offering for Kieran. His loss, she thought happily as she bit into the delicious baked good.
From what the guards told her, there'd been no sign of DeBeers. A few bandits had been caught and soundly reprimanded, of course, but from what the guards reported, there were no English accents among the people captured, or any unusual clothing reported. So DeBeers remained at large, she thought, grimacing. Trust him to evade law enforcement. Where could he be? Holed up somewhere, maybe staying with some farmers or something? Or could he have found a way to earn his keep somewhere? He'd always been a good storyteller – perhaps he was making a living that way in town somewhere? Worst case, of course, he was robbing people… but she had a feeling he wouldn't resort to that just yet. He'd be wanting to lie low. He knew Sarah was here, knew she was still after him… he'd keep a low profile for a little while at least.
She hated the thought of the trail going cold, but there was nothing she could do other than talk to the staff and guards of the castle who'd been outside the castle walls. It was a good way, at least, to get an understanding of the lay of the land for when she finally did receive permission to leave. She drew up a rough map of the area for her own benefit, marking rough locations of the nearby village, and of various houses and farms that were nearby. It felt good, to keep her mind and hands active, even as she worried and fretted about DeBeers getting further and further away…
And as Maria had suggested, she tried investigating the small doorway, too. That, unfortunately, was far harder to get any information about. She did try talking with the castle staff, but none of them seemed particularly interested in the small doorway down in the basement – it was simply something that was there, in a little-used room that none of them seemed to mind much about. One quiet woman did mention offhandedly that she'd had some strange dreams about the doorway, something that reminded Sarah of what Carissa had said about her mother-in-law's dream of the mythical figure who had supposedly built the castle… but it wasn't exactly concrete information.
Nor did it help to stand in front of the blasted door. She stood, hands on hips, in front of the doorway, three days after she'd gone through it and found herself in medieval Scotland. It was stubbornly, almost spitefully normal when she looked at it. No sign of mystical runes carved into it or any kind of magical qualities whatsoever… not so much as a shimmer to the air around it. She crawled through it a few times, feeling a little ridiculous as she experimented with various ways of approaching it… she crawled through forwards, duck-walked through, got down on her belly and pulled herself through, then tried all of those again, but backwards, with her eyes shut, but each time found herself in a little cubicle room with no other exit She tried walking through, just hunched over too but nearly lost her balance and fell. That would be a fairly pathetic end – breaking her head open on the stone floor of this stupid room. She sighed, sitting cross-legged on the ground inside the doorway. Whatever had brought her here – magic, or science, or some mix of the two – it certainly wasn't active now.
"Scathach, was it?" she said aloud, feeling a little silly as her voice echoed from the walls of the empty room. "Well, if you're around, could you drop by for a minute? I need a favor." She sighed, feeling tears prickling unexpectedly at the backs of her eyelids. "I want to go home."
It was true. She'd have given just about anything to go back through that doorway right now, to find herself in the ruins of the castle. To get on a bus and trundle back to the cheap hotel they'd been staying in… and oh, what she wouldn't do to step into a hot shower. Bathing was easy enough here, of course – the servants brought her a basin of hot water to bathe with every night – but nothing compared to the joy of indoor plumbing, and that was the truth.
How was she going to survive here? If she really couldn't get the gate working again… was this her life now? Was this her new normal?
She didn't go back to the room with the doorway after that. Sarah knew, on some level, that she'd exhausted all the options, and the investigation into the doorway was one that she quietly left behind. She'd focus her attention on DeBeers – and on getting out of the castle someday. That was her best option.
The next step, of course, was to talk to Kieran MacLeod, see if she couldn't worm her way into his good graces. Even as some kind of advisor, she might be able to exert a little influence to see if DeBeers could become a priority to the guard… she practiced arguments about him being a threat to the locals, a known thief and most probable murderer with a great deal of experience – not to mention his twenty-first century insights, which would give him a unique advantage. He might even join up with the current bandits, making the threat worse.
But to her dismay, Kieran was nowhere to be seen in the castle. It seemed it was the norm for him to go off on patrol for days at a time, pushing his body to the limit as he stayed out longer than any of his guards, sleeping by the road, doing everything in his power to serve and protect the people of the area. Typical workaholic cop, she thought irritably the fourth time she came by the guard house to be told that he was still out. He'd burn himself out before his fortieth birthday, and then where would he be? Still, a part of her couldn't help admiring his dedicat
ion to his work. She had to admit, Maria hadn't been far off when she'd suggested the two of them had some things in common… he reminded her a little of herself. Hadn't she often worked herself to the bone and then some when it came to a big case? Hadn't she in fact just been trekking across half of Europe in pursuit of one pesky murderous jewel thief?
As the days wore on, the fatigue and dizziness she'd felt in her first few days at the castle began to ease. It helped, of course, that she was eating three square meals a day and getting plenty of rest. And the sea air felt good for her, too. She spent a lot of time on the battlements of the castle, staring out to sea, breathing the fresh, cold air and trying to get as much of the weak sunlight as possible. It was surprising how warm the dresses she wore were – something about the layers of petticoats and undergarments kept the wind from cutting right through her the way it had when she was wearing her more modern clothing.
She found herself itching to leave the castle, though… not just because she wanted to find DeBeers, who was never far from her mind, but also out of a genuine interest in seeing what the countryside was like. She listened to the stories and gossip of the servants, plotted point after point on her little hand-drawn map… but she wanted to see what it was actually like out there. She'd never been much of a history buff, preferring to keep her focus on the here and now, but now that history had become her here and now… well, she wanted to know more. But the threat of bandits was enough to keep her from breaking her promise to Maria. She was good with a gun, but that skill was basically useless now… and these bandits were serious business, from what she could gather. Several deaths had been reported, along with the usual reports of robberies and injuries.
Kieran and his delegation of guards arrived back at the castle just before dinner on the day that Sarah was celebrating – or at least acknowledging – one full week of medieval living. She, Maria, and Carissa were deep in conversation at their usual table when the doors opened to admit Kieran and his men, a ragged cheer going up from a few of the gathered castle folk when they saw their captain back safe and sound. Sarah straightened, feeling a burst of excitement rush through her when she saw him – but, mindful of Maria's thoughtful gaze, she quickly cleared her throat and turned back to her meal.
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