Knight Errant: A Highland Passage Novel

by J. L. Jarvis

  Robert glared at the abbot but held his tongue.

  “And to think, I’d nearly sent him away. He had far overstayed his welcome and showed far too much interest in your mother. But when I caught him trying to leave with the wee child, I was certain that he was the father. Once I’d figured that out, it was easy to keep him from leaving. I made a bargain with him. He could stay at the monastery with you if he became a monk and made relics to give to our benefactors in exchange for their generous donations, which did not always go to the church. I made money and waited for some small crack in his armor that might lead me to the scroll. It had disappeared, but I was sure that he had it. It was only a matter of time before it turned up. And it has.

  “And now here you are, ready to help me.” The abbot looked at Robert as though this were no more than a routine daily matter. “Enough talk. Get up, both of you.”

  Robert reached out to help Violet to her feet. Still vexed, she refused his assistance and stood on her own—until her foot caught on her skirts. She had to grab Robert’s arm to steady herself. But instead of standing beside him as he expected, she stepped toward the abbot, who thrust his pistol toward her.

  Robert was fuming but managed to speak in a hush, “Stay beside me, lass. That's an order.”

  Violet gasped and made little effort to keep her voice down. “An order? Well, who could argue with that?” Refusing to engage in further discussion with Robert, she turned to the abbot. “Look, Father Abbot, I can see you're upset. If you'll just take a moment—and maybe put down the gun—I’m sure we could find some common ground here.”

  The abbot looked at Robert with a grimace. “If you love her, you’ll silence her now.”

  Robert shrugged and shook his head. “I cannae do that, but if you'll stay by the side of the cave over there, we can send the lass home.”

  Violet planted her feet shoulder distance apart and stood her ground. “The lass isn’t going home, so you can both disabuse yourselves of that notion.”

  The abbot took her refusal far better than Robert did. He was furious. Had he made a mistake in thinking he could grow used to her modern ways? Perhaps they were simply too different. But he loved her. He would have felt more at ease sending her home to safety, but if she was determined to stay, then he was equally determined to find a way through this. “You heard the lass. She isn’t going home.”

  Violet turned to him, looking both stunned and pleased.

  “It matters little to me what she does,” the abbot said.

  “Good, then shall we proceed?”

  The abbot lowered the gun and slid it under his belt. “Don’t give me cause to take it back out, for I’ll shoot you both with no further thought.”

  Robert nodded.

  The abbot said, “I want to go back.”

  “If this is about my mother, I’ll not take you there.”

  “Your mother? No. Oh, I did love her, but she didn’t share my feelings. And I was a priest, after all. How could she have been part of God’s plan?”

  “Oh—and pointing that gun at us is?” Violet rolled her eyes.

  She might have gone on, but Robert squeezed her hand again, which by now must have had indents from his fingers on it—not that it kept her from talking. His fear was that without meaning to, she might provoke the abbot into doing something violent.

  The abbot said, “Since you posed the question, the answer is yes. If what my men and I do furthers God’s purpose, then what we do is God’s work.”

  Robert tried not to glare at him. “So chasing us out of Perth, killing Henry, the attack on the bridge, and at the castle—that was all God’s work?”

  “Aye.”

  “God’s been busy,” Violet said dryly as she leaned against the cave wall.

  “If only you had handed the scroll over, we would have been done with all of this.” The abbot glanced outside at the sun masked by thick morning mist.

  With narrowing eyes, Robert watched him. “But it was under your nose all those years. Why bother now?”

  “I didn’t know about it until you brought it to me.”

  “You could have taken it then.”

  The abbot shook his head. “No, you would have caused a stir and made things uncomfortable for us.”

  “Uncomfortable?” Robert thought of how uncomfortable he and Violet had been when they were being chased over the countryside and attacked by the abbot's men.

  “I wasn’t about to let a hasty decision spoil years of work. We have kept our sect a secret while we waited for the chance to accomplish our goal.”

  “Which is?” Robert's brow creased.

  “Returning the Church to power.”

  Robert said, “The church that would have killed my father, given the chance? Or have you forgotten my father was a Templar?”

  “Aye, he was. And he carried one of their secrets, which he passed on to you. Which brings us to you.”

  Robert tried not to scoff. “I’ve nothing for you.”

  The abbot tilted his head and smiled. “But you do. First we’ll get the scroll, then you’ll tell me what you ken about how to travel through time.”

  Robert frowned. “I dinnae ken how it works.”

  “But you ken how to do it. The map is no good without that.”

  “Time travel is not without peril.” As he spoke, sunlight shone into the cave. Robert glanced outside. The mist was clearing, and a gap in the clouds brought the sunlight they needed to travel. But more clouds threaten to block it again.

  The abbot paced. “I don’t need a lecture from you about the perils. I need you to take me to the scroll.”

  Robert studied the abbot. “But your men have it. They took it from me at Rosslyn Castle.”

  The abbot frowned in confusion then opened his mouth to speak, but he appeared to think better of it. Robert wondered at that. Either one or more of the men had run off on their own with the scroll, or he and Violet had altered events when they went back to retrieve it. They hadn’t only rescued the scroll, but they had altered its fate.

  Seeing doubt in the abbot’s eyes, Robert pressed his advantage. “If that’s what you were hoping to find here, then I’m afraid we must disappoint you.”

  “Take me back to the last place and time that you saw it.”

  Robert shook his head. “We cannae do that.”

  The abbot paced before Robert. “You can, or you would not be here. Where were you planning to go?”

  “Nowhere now. It’s too late.”

  Violet’s eyes shot toward the sun, which still shone into the cave. Her glance did not escape the abbot’s notice.

  His eyes lit with sudden realization. “The sunlight?” He watched her reaction. “That’s it, isn’t it?”

  Violet looked at Robert, her eyes full of regret.

  Robert turned his attention to the abbot. “If that’s all this is about, we’ll not stop you. You’re here, so you must ken what to do.”

  “I saw Brother Thomas and Sister Claudine coming out of the cave once. I’ve tried to change times, but it didn’t work for me.”

  Robert nodded. “Aye, well, allow me to assist you. Nothing would make me happier than to see you disappear.”

  Anger burned in the abbot’s eyes, but he choked it back and kept his attention on Robert, who had what he wanted.

  “Stand over here, facing the light.” Ignoring Violet’s stunned look, Robert indicated a spot in the center. “It’s important to find the spot with the most intense light, or it willnae work. Here.”

  Robert tentatively approached to guide the abbot to the right spot. When the abbot averted his eyes to follow Robert’s instructions, Robert struck him on the wrist and knocked the pistol to the ground. But the abbot countered by seizing Violet about the waist. And the two disappeared.

  15

  ADRIFT IN TIME

  Robert rushed to the spot where Violet had stood moments ago, but a cloud crossed the path of the sun. He cried out her name—not because he thought she might hear
him, but because he knew she would not. He had lost her. She was in some other time, in the past or the future. For all of the abbot’s years of working with wealthy patrons, he had learned to read people and how to use them. He had to have known that Robert would never tell him where the scroll was, no matter what torture he might have inflicted. But Violet didn’t understand people like the abbot. Jesuits lived by different rules and weren’t bound by things like truth and honor. She would try to withstand his coercive tactics for Robert, but that was exactly what Robert didn’t want her to do. As he imagined her with the abbot, he wanted only for her to be safe. The scroll, which had once been Robert’s sole mission, was no longer important. Violet was everything to him. If he thought it would save her, he would hurl the scroll into the crashing waves from the highest tower of Castle Girnigoe.

  Castle Girnigoe. Violet was too clever to fall prey to the abbot. She would try to outsmart him. But how? She would lead Robert to them. Where else could she go and be sure Robert would follow? Castle Girnigoe. She knew Robert would look for her there. Although going there would put the scroll at risk, it would bring them together. After that, they would focus on the scroll. No other place made as much sense. All he needed to do was to find a way to get there first, before the abbot and Violet arrived. As the plan took shape, the sun burst through the drifting clouds and shone into the chamber, and Robert was gone.

  * * *

  HE AWOKE in a place that looked unfamiliar. Waves pounded the rocks and sent spray back to the sea. He stood in ankle-deep water and went to the mouth of a cave. No one was about, nor was there a sign that people lived anywhere near. The thought formed that he might have gone back to a time when there were no people, if there was such a time. Before him was the sea, and behind him, rough-edged cliffs stretched skyward. Cut away from the cliffs was a sort of channel that sloped upward. He walked up its path to the top of the cliff, where he paused, unable to believe the sight before him. His father had once told him that destiny played a part in the journey through time. If landing at the very castle he sought wasn’t a matter of destiny, then it was uncanny good fortune. But as he drew closer, he saw that the castle, as well as the cliff it rested upon, was in ruins and crumbling into the sea.

  Robert cursed as he sank to the ground. “I’m too late.”

  He buried his face in his hands. He had come to a time in the future, leaving Violet somewhere in the past with the abbot. But where? Until now, they had always arrived close to when they expected. Brother Thomas had told him that time made no mistakes and that people were taken where they needed to be, even if they didn’t understand why. If that were true, why was he in the future and not by the side of the woman he loved? How could he help her from here?

  He could try to go back, but if he believed Brother Thomas, that was the wrong thing to do. One thing he did know was that the journeys were never exact. He might be a day early or late. If he left, she might arrive the next day. How would he know? If he did leave, he could spend an eternity looking and failing to find her. In the end, he decided to trust that his travels had brought him to the right time and place.

  During the days that passed, people arrived in cars like the ones he had seen when he traveled to New York during Violet’s time. People walked about what was left of the castle. In secret, he watched them come and go, but Violet wasn’t among them. At night, he made camp down by the water. After the visitors left but before darkness fell, Robert went in search of fresh water to drink but found none. From stones that lay about, Robert fashioned a cistern to collect rainwater.

  On the third day, he was rewarded with rain. While water collected, he caught some fish and cooked it over a fire beneath the shelter of overhanging rocks. When he ate the fish, along with some plants he had gathered, it felt like a feast. He leaned back against the rocks and, soothed by the warmth of the fire, thought of Violet. He wondered if she were warm and content. He felt strangely connected to her, but he loved her. Why would he not? But rather than find comfort in feeling her presence, he felt deeply troubled. The last time he saw her, she had been in grave danger. He said her name as if the sound of it would bring her to him. It was all he could do, and it wasn’t enough.

  * * *

  AWASH with the bright light that always blinded her during the journey, Violet felt the abbot's firm grip on her arm. They stumbled and fell onto the floor of the cave. They were in the same place, but what year it was, Violet couldn’t have said.

  The abbot pulled her to her feet and yanked her toward the cave entrance. “Hurry. We've a scroll to find.”

  Still disoriented from the journey through time, Violet could think only of how her arm hurt as he pulled her toward the light. When they got to the mouth of the cave, she had to squint into the sun. She glanced back. If she could free herself, she might have a chance of escaping through time and leaving the abbot there. But his grip was too firm. She had seen enough of his martial arts skill to be cautious, if not afraid.

  He pushed her forward. “You go first so I can keep an eye fixed on you.”

  Digging in her heels, she leaned away from him and tugged her wrist back to resist him. “I can’t. I’m afraid of heights.” While it was true, she had never been quite so dramatic about it.

  “Och! You vexatious hellion.”

  He reached for his pistol, but he had left it behind. Seeing this, Violet turned and put all of her weight into yanking her arm free. The force threw the abbot backward, and he fell. Violet stared at the cave opening, too stunned to think clearly.

  Then she heard Robert call to her, like a lost memory. She turned and rushed to a spot on the cave floor that was still bright with sunlight. A gust of wind stirred the leaves. The next moment, she found herself cold and wet, water swirling about as she lay on loose rocks. Pulling herself up, she staggered and grabbed hold of the side of a cliff. She tried to call out, but no sound came. She leaned on the rocks, gathering strength for more steps. She proceeded like that, a few steps at a time, until weariness overcame her, and she sank to the ground.

  * * *

  ROBERT SAT in the tower of the castle and watched clouds drift drowsily over the moon as its broken reflection cast a path over the sea. He had spent five such nights since his arrival with no sign of Violet. While he would never give up searching for her, waiting there wasn’t bringing him closer to her. Over the past week, he had thought about what to do next and had planned every step with attention to detail.

  Before leaving, he had to leave some sort of sign that he hoped she would find if she came searching for him. So he had roughly etched a scroll in the wall of the time travel cave he had arrived in. He had troubled over how much else to include, since the abbot and his men might also see it. If he wrote down a place, they would follow—providing they knew when to arrive. But that would be a problem with Violet, as well. She might know the right place but not know when to arrive. And that assumed anyone had control over the timing.

  Robert thought back on everything they had been through together. Along with nearly every word she had said when they first met, Robert recalled a road she had mentioned. At the time, she had believed she was still near her home on Farmers Mills Road. He wouldn’t write the road name in case others saw it and eventually pieced things together, but he was sure she would figure it out from the initials. Because it was part of her life before meeting him, she would also know to go back to her time, where he would find her. So inside the scroll, he scratched FMR.

  His plans were made but he was unable to sleep, so he went up to the castle tower for some peace before the next leg of his journey. High above the vast stretches of water and land, he felt removed from his troubles. He dwelled upon how he loved her and further imagined their future together. It had all seemed so impossible in the beginning. They both had their own lives that were so very different—too different to meet one another halfway. He had fought against falling in love with her, even though by the time he was fighting it, he had already fallen. She fell late
r but put up even more resistance. But love would not be denied. He still didn’t know how or when their lives would come together again, but he knew that—if he ever found her—they would. There was no other way he could live.

  Robert headed down to his crude camp by the water. Tired but restless, he lay down while the gulls mewed him to sleep. He sat halfway up when a strange sound punctuated the chorus of gulls. They almost sounded human. He lay back down, attributing his reaction to too much time alone.

  He was drifting to sleep when he heard it again.

  “You’re a fool,” he said to himself, but he got up and walked toward where the groaning had come from.

  The quarter moon shed little light by the shadowy wall of the cliff. He approached a large shape in his path, which turned out to be a large piece of driftwood with a smooth silvery trunk and gnarled branches. He gave it a swift kick for good measure and chastised himself all the way back to camp. He was about to settle back down when, behind him, he heard the faint crunch of footsteps on the stone-covered ground. He pivoted toward the shadowy figure. Whoever was after him ran away, but Robert caught up and tackled his would-be attacker by the waist, throwing both to the ground.

  “Och, you’re just a wee thing—in skirts,” he said. “Lass, what do you think you’re doing?”

  She took in a sharp breath. “I was looking for you.”

  Robert loosened his hold. It was too dark to see, but he knew her voice too well. “Violet.”

  She flung her arms about him and held on to him. She said his name while she touched his lips and face and combed her fingers into his hair.

  Robert’s arms tensed, and he started to pull himself up. “The abbot—did he follow you?”

  “No, he’s dead. I didn’t mean to—”