A Knight to Remember: Merriweather Sisters Time Travel (Merriweather Sisters Time Travel Romance Book 1)

by Cynthia Luhrs

  And if she couldn’t get back, if she were truly trapped here, well, then she’d find work. She could cook, clean, garden. She could crochet. Maybe some other guy with a castle would employ her. She could always build her own shack next to a wall, tend a small garden and hope to survive.

  It was better than worrying about being murdered every waking moment.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Lucy packed quickly. She had the dress and apron she was wearing. In the satchel the seamstress had made her, she put the other clothes. She looked longingly at the gorgeous blue velvet dress hanging on a hook and decided to leave it behind. It wasn’t like she would need the dress. She was going to have to work for a living. There would be no dancing.

  In any other situation she would tell the guy why she was leaving him. But she couldn’t take the risk. What if he killed her on the spot? He was the law of the land. He could kill her in broad daylight and no one would blink.

  He been nothing but kind to her, given her no indication he meant her harm. But the voice inside her head spoke up. You thought the same thing about Simon, and look where that got you.

  The voice in her head was right. She had to leave now. How would she escape her guards? Lucy thought for a few moments before opening the door and speaking to the guard on duty.

  “Would you have a bath prepared for me?”

  They wouldn’t notice the sack she was carrying. In the kitchen she could pack food for a few days. She had to get as far away from the castle as she could. Did she dare take a horse?

  With a horse she could go further. But she didn’t know enough about caring for the animals. She would worry she wasn’t doing something right and the animal would suffer. Nope. Lucy had two good legs. It would take longer, but she would walk. Wasn’t like she was in a hurry.

  Before she left the room, Lucy took the raggedy dress and shoes and stuffed them in the bag as well. She always carried her jewelry and the pins from her hair in the pouch that hung on her waist. Call it superstition or whatever, but she felt like if she had them, she was always ready if an opportunity came up to go back to her own time.

  Though after William told her he loved her… Damn. She’d fallen hard for the wrong guy. Again. How could she have been so stupid? Her heart broke all over again. But this time was different. She didn’t think she’d survive this loss.

  A couple of the women were busy working in the kitchens.

  “I’m going to have a bath. Would you prepare me something to eat?”

  The kitchen bustled with activity, giving her plenty of time to grab food and stuff it in the sack. One of the new girls brought a tray to the bathing chamber.

  “Thank you. I don’t need help undressing. You can go.”

  The girl curtseyed and left. Lucy called out to the man guarding her, “You can stay in the kitchens or go do whatever you want. I plan to be in here for a while.”

  The man nodded. “I will be in the kitchens if you have need of me, mistress. Thomas does not want us far from you. My lord would disembowel me if anything happened to you.”

  Lucy seriously hoped not. She didn’t want another death on her conscience. Alan’s death weighed on her heart. The man who’d saved her from Simon. She couldn’t bear another.

  The water steamed and smelled like lavender. She decided to go ahead and take a bath. Who knew when she would get another one? As she washed, she tried to figure out where she would go. A large town? Or something small?

  She knew traveling alone was a risk, but it couldn’t be helped. The men might serve as her personal guard, but they were loyal first and foremost to William.

  With a jolt she sat up, water splashing over the side of the wooden tub and onto the stone floor. There was a door in this very room. A door leading down through the secret passages out to the cove.

  She could follow the water and make sure no one saw her by staying close to the rocks. Then she would make her way up and around the castle.

  Now she had a plan, she didn’t want to stay one minute longer. Lucy dried off and dressed as fast as she could. Finished the meal that had been brought to her, made sure everything was packed and, with a sad glance at the closed door, she pressed on the wall, the passage opened and she slipped through.

  The cobwebs were gone, the steps scrubbed clean. She kept quiet, listening before moving to make sure no one else was in the passage. Ever since they’d been discovered, the men and boys liked to pop out of the passages unexpectedly.

  The smell of salt air reached her as she turned the corner. A weathered door beckoned. Lucy put her hand on the door to open it and someone reached out from the passage to her left, grabbed her and covered her mouth before she could yell for help. The voice next to her ear gave her chills.

  “If it isn’t the witch.”

  Lucy’s stomach dropped like when you’re on a roller coaster and come to the first drop. It was Clement the pig.

  “Sneaking away? Not so fast, mistress. I have plans for you.” She saw movement and then a shattering pain on the side of her head.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  His protective instincts flared as William kicked the wall of the battlements. “Bloody hell. Where the devil is she?”

  He rolled his eyes to the heavens. Why couldn’t he have fallen in love with a nice, quiet girl? One who didn’t cause the villagers to make the sign of evil every time they saw her. It was getting better, but some still did. He’d seen them do it as she wandered through the village, oblivious.

  Thomas cleared his throat. He offered his sword to William. “Kill me, my lord. For I have failed. Mistress Lucy went into the bathing chamber. I had a guard outside the door. He drank too much ale and fell asleep. When he woke, she was gone. He assumed she had gone to her chamber.”

  The captain of Lucy’s guard looked as worried as William felt.

  He handed the sword back. “’Tis as much my fault. Her lady’s maid said she was going to her chamber to sleep.” William cursed again. “I didn’t want to disturb her. After dinner I took food to her chamber. It was empty. Her garments are missing.” He did not say he’d opened the trunk at the foot of her bed. Searched in vain for her future clothing. She’d left him.

  “I will check the wine cellar and stables again, my lord.” Thomas backed out of the room looking miserable.

  Why would she leave him? Had she planned all along to betray him, like Georgina?

  The thought was enough to send him back to battle. There was always a battle raging somewhere. Perchance he could fight until he could forget her enchanting gray eyes.

  William snorted. Not bloody likely. She was a part of him. Some days he felt he couldn’t breathe until he’d seen her. He was like a young boy following around the woman he wanted to woo. Had she finally found a way to go back to her future? The thought struck terror into his heart. He slumped down in her chair in front of the fire, staring unseeing into the flames.

  Lucy came to cold and shivering. The room she was in was dark. Quiet. She could feel rough stone walls. Was she in one of the unfinished buildings, or maybe one of the towers that hadn’t been repaired yet?

  A candle cast a small circle of light. “I see you are awake.”

  “You,” she spat. “William will kill you when he sees you. He banished you.”

  Clement knelt down beside her close enough she could see the madness in his eyes. No one knew where she had gone. When they found her room empty and her clothes missing, they would assume she’d run away.

  Would William search for her? Or would he move on to his next victim?

  Her captor handed her a hard piece of bread and wooden cup filled with wine. “’Tis all you get.”

  “Are you going to untie me so I can eat?”

  He looked at her a long moment and fear sliced through her heart.

  “I cannot decide whether to kill you or bed you.”

  Oh hell no. She opened her mouth and screamed for all she was worth.

  Clement chuckled. “Go ahead. Scream as
loud and as long as you like. No one will hear you.” He smirked. “And if they do, they will think there are ghosts at Blackford.”

  He untied her hands and tied the rope to a ring in the wall. She shifted to loosen the bonds around her waist.

  “Eat.” He stood next to a corner of the wall. When he pushed on it, the wall swung open and Lucy realized she was in a tiny room in one of the secret passages.

  “The door bars from the outside. No one will find you. They haven’t explored these passages. They don’t connect to the others.”

  He started to leave and terror filled her. “How long are you going to leave me here?”

  “Long enough.”

  With that, the door swung closed and she heard the bar slide into place. She would not let her fear of being left here to die overwhelm her. First things first. Lucy ate the gritty bread, drank the wine then stood and explored the tiny room as best she could, given the length of the rope. The crazy man was great with knots. She gave up trying to untie them. When she tried to push on the door where she’d seen him go through the passage, it wouldn’t budge. She was trapped and at the mercy of a total lunatic.

  Lucy found both her satchels in the darkness, grateful Clement had thrown the bags in with her. She opened up one bag and ate some of the cheese she’d put in for her escape. Then she used the satchel containing her clothes to rest her head on. With her cloak wrapped tight around her, she tried to sleep.

  Were there rats in here? Lucy listened. The only sound was her heavy breathing. Thank the stars there weren’t rats. Things always looked better in the morning. Maybe then she’d come up with a plan.

  Lucy woke sometime later not knowing where she was. She’d slept fitfully, with visions of all kinds of gruesome deaths Clement might have planned for her.

  Even if she escaped him, then what? She had no means. A tiny bit of food. But no money or transportation. And given her abysmal sense of direction, she most likely would end up in Scotland and be burned at the stake. Based on the people she’d met so far, she didn’t think anyone would help her. They’d either know she came from the castle or think she was strange and turn away from her.

  Lucy would have to find a way to rescue herself. And then she would have to figure out what came next. One thing she knew? She wouldn’t put herself in danger by staying with William. Somehow she had to find a way back home.

  William didn’t get any sleep that night. His men swore they heard screaming in the walls. Some of the young girls working in the castle said it was haunted. And many of the smaller boys believed them. It was enough to make him want to leave. Find the first battle he could and lose himself in the fight.

  William and his men searched the passages throughout the day. They found no trace of Lucy. It was if she had disappeared. Had she found her way back?

  It had to be the only reason she wouldn’t tell him she was leaving. Two days she’d been missing and he knew he would find no sleep tonight. He paced in front of the fire in the hall.

  “I do not believe the lady has come to harm.”

  Wymund sat down in a chair in front of the fire and William reluctantly sat down across from him waiting.

  His captain looked weary.

  “Tell me,” William demanded.

  “When she was in the village, she heard talk.”

  Dread coursed through his body.

  “Thomas found the two women she was seen having speech with. They told her you murdered Georgina.”

  William cursed. She wasn’t hurt. Lucy had left him. After she’d told him how Simon betrayed her, it would’ve been her first instinct to run far and fast. She would be all alone. Unfamiliar with the lands around her. He leapt to his feet.

  “Send the men out. We need to find her before harm befalls her.” He started for the door but Wymund stopped him with a hand on his arm.

  “William, ’tis the middle of the night. The men will search for her in the morning.”

  His captain placed a hand on William’s shoulder. “We will find her. She won’t have gone far. She has a terrible sense of direction.” He smiled, and William felt the tiniest bit better.

  He would find her and then he would tell her the truth about Georgina. Hope she would forgive him. If she did, he would drop to his knees and beg her to marry him.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Two long days. Lucy was beginning to wonder if she would be trapped in this tiny room forever. She shuddered thinking of Clement leaving her and letting her starve slowly to death. What a horrible way to die.

  The man took great pleasure in detailing all the ways he was going to kill her. All of them involved William being present. So she would see him one last time before she died. And she laughed to herself. Clement would kill her instead of William. Did it really matter which one ended her life?

  She thought she was losing her grip on reality. The door opened and her captor sauntered in. At least, she assumed it was him. The candle gave off a pitiful amount of light. But then she sniffed and smelled him from across the tiny room.

  “It’s time.”

  She tried to make a run for it, but he knocked her to the ground and she felt her cheek scrape against the stone. He tied her arms behind her and yanked her up by her hair.

  He marched her out of the tiny passage through a narrow passageway and up several flights of stairs. When the door opened, she blinked at the moonlight. After being in darkness, it seemed unnaturally bright.

  She was on the roof of one of the towers. She opened her mouth to scream, but the sound was cut off as he anticipated what she would do and tightly tied a gag around her mouth.

  There was a huge cistern on the roof. He saw her looking at it and grinned.

  “The water collects here and is carried to the lower floors through pipes. That’s how the cold water comes out in the chambers.”

  He sneered at her. “The castle was built on the site of an old Roman fort. I would wager you have nothing as fine where you come from.”

  She stared back at him, furiously trying to come up with a plan that didn’t involve throwing herself over the battlements to her death.

  The cistern was rectangular in shape, and if she had known it was there before, she would’ve thought it was some kind of medieval swimming pool. She shuddered thinking how cold the water would be.

  “Death by drowning is a suitable end for one like you. I had William well in hand. He would have been content to let me run the castle while he went back to warring. In time I would have poisoned him, gained favor with the king and been rich. Then you showed up and ruined everything.”

  He pulled her closer to the low stone lip of the pool. It didn’t look deep, but considering she was tied, he could easily drown her by sitting on her.

  Lucy tried to scream again, but all that came out were muffled sounds. If only someone would see her up here.

  “I saw him watching you. Knew he would make you the next lady of Blackford. So I plotted to have him tried for treason. You thwarted my plans. At every turn you have caused me a great deal of effort and trouble.”

  He pulled out a knife and put it to her throat. “Step on my foot and I’ll gut you like a pig.” He jerked her hair hard and she nodded. “I’m going to remove the gag. Scream and I’ll slit your throat where you stand.”

  She gave another jerky nod. When the gag fell away, Lucy licked her chapped lips. Panic threatened to overwhelm her. Hold it together. No one will find you. You have to save yourself.

  “Bless your heart. You can try drowning me, but I thought you knew…witches can’t drown.” There. See if that statement would buy her some time.

  He looked at her in horror then pressed the knife harder against her throat. She felt a prick like a needle and a warm trickle.

  “If you are a witch then turn into a bird and fly away.”

  The rectangular pool took up most of the floor space on the tower roof. There was a small area between the lip of the pool and the wall, which ended at the back of her knees. She lean
ed against the low wall, trying to dislodge stone, and heard a few pebbles fall. If only someone heard and investigated, she would be saved.

  She had to buy time. “I will not turn into a bird and fly away until I punish you first for your disrespect.”

  He made the sign of the cross at her with his free hand. As she pulled away, he grabbed her hair and yanked her close, the knife nicking her collarbone.

  Lucy decided it was now or never. Either he would slit her throat and she would die quickly or he would drown her and it would be slow. No matter what, she knew she was going to die.

  A sense of quiet and clarity settled over her. She took a deep breath and screamed with all she had. He cut her, and she leaned in and bit his ear as hard as she could, gagging when she tasted blood. Clement yelped and dropped the knife, and it clattered over the edge. Lucy screamed again as he lunged for her. For the first time in her life, she wished she had short hair.

  They fell into the water with a splash. She struggled to get up as he pushed her under with both hands and sat on her. Damn, he was heavy.

  Lucy saw the moonlight from under the water, could see Clement above her, his hands pressing down on her chest as Lucy kicked and thrashed, cursing the heavy dress. The garment weighed her down. He was so heavy she couldn’t get him off.

  Her lungs ready to burst, she heard a sound muffled by the water. A sound like a cry. A black shape hurtled toward Clement’s head.

  He threw up his hands screaming and Lucy sat up with a gasp, greedily sucking in air.

  A raven attacked him. The bird flew at his face, raking him with its talons and pecking him.

  She gathered up her sodden dress as best she could and started to run. Adrenaline gave her the energy she needed to focus. Blindly Lucy ran down the stairs through the passages, stumbling, searching for a way out.

  She came to a passageway where she could hear the ocean. It seemed to be a long corridor. At the end, she entered another door, ran up the steps and heard voices.