by Sherry Ewing
Slowly, she walked to the window to stare with sightless eyes at the view he had been gazing upon but moments before. She quickly realized she had awoken to her worst nightmare and, in her utter sorrow, could only now wonder if she had, perhaps, dreamed and imagined the whole damn thing…
* * *
The earth began moving forcefully beneath her as she cried out in terror with her fear of falling through space.
“Katherine, awake my love. You are but dreaming.”
She heard his voice, as if from afar, and almost refused to answer his calling. If she could stay in her dream, knowing he was still with her just a few minutes longer, she would have done so. But it wasn’t to be, if the insistent shaking of her shoulders was any indication. Someone was, annoyingly, demanding her attention.
Her eyes flickered open to the darkness of their chamber, and her immediate recognition of who was gently attempting to wake her caused a gasp of delight to rush from her lips. She quickly flung her arms around Riorden’s neck and held on, as if her survival depended on him to save her. She was sure she heard him groan from the force of her embrace as he wrapped her in the comfort of his arms. She was safe.
“What is this you do, Kat?” he asked with concern. “You act as if you have not seen me in some time.”
“It’s not that, Riorden,” she said still trembling from the nightmare that had plagued her dreams.
“Then tell me you enjoyed our lovemaking afore you decided to sleep the eve away. Did I bore you so much, ma cher, that sleep was the better alternative than my clever conversation?” he teased.
She took his face between her palms and tenderly caressed the planes of his cheeks with her thumbs, as if this might be the last time she saw him. Trying to find the words to express what she was feeling seemed an improbability at the moment, so she merely continued to look intently into his eyes. She gently stroked the lids of his eyes, ran her fingers through his hair, touched the stubble on his chin, and felt the silkiness of his lips.
Nothing in her life had ever prepared her for the deep and abiding love coursing through her veins for this man she had taken as her husband. To call it only love was almost a sin. Surely, what she felt for Riorden was more than just some small, four-letter-word term of affection.
“Why so serious, my lovely Katherine?” he pondered aloud and kissed her lips.
“I thought, I had lost you,” she answered in a simple declaration of the sorrow consuming her.
“Never,” he vowed.
“Tell that to what’s going on inside my head, Riorden. Look...” She held out her hands to him. Her fingers shook until he took them in his hand and brought them to his lips. “I can’t make them stop. I had a dream I went back, or forward, to the future and─”
“Hush now. Time would not be so cruel as to tear us apart now that we have found one another,” he said with a stern voice of disapproval. “Do not even think I would allow you to be taken from me in such a manner.”
“You’ll keep me safe then? You won’t let me fall through the time gate when the others are leaving us?” she said frantically.
He laughed at her foolishness. “Stay here in our chamber if I cannot convince you I will keep you safe. We shall then have no worries about such a happening.”
“I have to see them leave with my own eyes. I have to know─” she quickly halted midsentence and sat there waiting. One look at Riorden’s face and Katherine knew he had felt the same sense of urgency. “Riorden! They have to go and now!”
“We must make haste.” He leapt toward the door with her following closely in his footsteps.
They made their way to the chamber next to their own and rapped on the wooden door. It opened slowly, and once Gavin saw who stood there, he opened the door wider to admit them.
Gazing around the room, Katherine confirmed that Juliana and Emily were already impatiently waiting. It was when her eyes fell upon Danior and Tiernan that she became angered.
“Are you two out of your minds?” she admonished, noticing the two men had donned their normal everyday garments. “Where are the dresses we had made for you?”
Danior went to Juliana and tucked her hand within the crook of his arm while Tiernan did the same with Emily. They stood together in a united front of determination, and perhaps this was a good sign the men would become friends someday.
“I shall not be going to the future, or anywhere else, for that matter, dressed as a woman,” Danior exclaimed.
“Damn your pride to hell, Danior! Do you want to get yourself killed?” Katherine exclaimed.
“Aye!” Tiernan chimed in. “’Twas unmanly enough the first time to have to use such a ruse to gain entrance to the castle. I willna be making a fool o’ myself again, showing up in Emily’s future world dressed as a lass.”
Riorden laughed, although from Katherine’s perspective it wasn’t anything to laugh over.
“Leave it be, Katie,” Emily urged.
“We’ve already tried a million times, and they won’t budge,” Juliana exclaimed, rolling her eyes.
Riorden came forward, breaking off any further conversation. “We must away, and now. Katherine and I know the time is right for your traveling this eve. You must go, and you must make haste, afore the portal closes,” he declared, ushering the group toward the door. He held up his hand to Gavin and Brianna. “Keep your lady here, brother, where there is no chance she may fall from your side where you may not wish to follow.”
“But I have to go see them off, too,” Brianna cried out and flung herself into the arms of the three women, who already had their arms wrapped tightly around each other.
Katherine turned to her young friend. “Please Brie, do this for me. Quickly, say your goodbye’s and stay here where I know Gavin will keep you safe until I return.”
Brianna nodded mutely and gave Juliana and Emily a brief hug before she threw herself into Gavin’s arms and sobbed out her misery.
Katherine stood there also, in mute silence, holding on to her sisters’ hands. “I’m really not sure what else to say that we haven’t already said before.”
Juliana and Emily both smiled at her, and perhaps this was the way she would like to remember her friends’ faces, knowing they would find a lifetime of happiness.
“We’ll see each other again, my dear sister. Perhaps not in this lifetime, but surely when we meet back again in the heavens above,” Juliana promised.
Katherine smiled and gave them each a kiss on their cheeks. “Well, you know what I’ve always said about us…I like to think we were together there once before, waiting to come down to this earthly planet. I can see us all just sitting around on a lovely bench, chatting away in a beautiful garden created by our Heavenly Father. It’s why I think we always felt so close from the very first time we met.”
“You know, we’ve felt the same way, too, Katie,” Juliana replied honestly.
Katherine gave them one last hug before she whispered in their ears. “Brianna and I will be waiting for the both of you. You’ll just take a wee bit longer to join us again, that’s all.”
“Ah, damn it, Katie,” Emily sniffled, “you’re gonna make me cry. Anyway, I just may pop back here, from time to time. You know, just to check in and make sure you haven’t gotten tired of that handsome devil you married.”
“Not a chance, Em.”
“Ya never know,” Emily said, with a wink toward Riorden.
“Ladies…” Riorden urged, opening the door.
Riorden and Katherine led the way as they raced down the passageway towards the tower where they had traveled more than eight hundred years before. She could feel the necessity to hurry, since they had taken longer rounding up their group than they should have. At last, they finally reached the entrance where they could see the eerie glow, confirming they were right in their assumption that the portal was active.
The two couples took each other’s hands and Juliana was about to step forward when a gut wrenching feeling assaulted Katherine. Sh
e quickly took hold of Juliana’s arm and jerked hard, practically wrenching it from its socket.
“Ouch! What the hell’s the matter with you Katie?” she grumbled irritably, rubbing her abused limb.
Katherine watched Riorden intently and waited to see if he came to the same conclusion as she of the premonition she had felt just seconds before. “Well…what do you think?”
He looked down upon her and nodded. “Aye, Kat, you have it aright. ’Tis the wrong way.”
“What the heck do you mean, it’s the wrong way?” Emily gasped. “We went down these same set of stairs when we traveled through time, remember? I knew this was a bad idea.”
She was silenced when Tiernan placed a quick kiss upon her lips.
“Aye, you went down the stairs to travel back in time,” Riorden explained and began rushing them through the passageways and toward another tower so they could back track and arrive on the correct side of the portal. “You must go up the stairs to return to your time, or so Katherine and I think.”
“It’s just a hunch, but it would make sense,” Katherine added as she ran to keep up with her husband.
“Just a hunch? You people are all friggin’ nuts,” Emily yelled. “Do you actually mean to say we would have been hurdled back even further in time just now?” Emily said in a state of panic, and Tiernan’s lips met hers again in a hasty kiss to, obviously, shut her up.
“God help us,” Juliana prayed.
Katherine was attempting to calm her friends, when Riorden came to a screeching halt as his boots slid across the smooth stones. She could see the tower stairs, and how the future awaited her friends to return back to their own time period. They had but one obstacle to get through that rapidly turned into two, and then three.
Riorden drew his sword as shouting from the corridor brought another into their sight. A total of four obstacles now stood in their path. From the look of things, the king’s guards were just as surprised to see the man who they considered an enemy to the crown. The sound of steel being released from the scabbards of Danior and Tiernan echoed in the air as they looked to Riorden for their orders.
“Do not kill them,” Riorden commanded. “I will not have their blood on my hands when I must needs answer to my king.”
He pushed Katherine behind him, and stumbling, she grabbed Juliana and Emily’s hands as they huddled near the entryway to the tower. She could almost feel the pull of the future, trying to urge her into the stairwell in order for her to return to her proper time. But she ignored the prompting and further distanced herself from the steps.
Her gaze traveled to her husband and she swore she held her breath while he engaged first one guard and then another. The three men fought valiantly as the sound of steel clanging against steel resounded loudly in their ears. True to his words, one by one, the guards were knocked senseless and landed in a heap on the floor. Then a fifth guard began running down the passageway, coming to aid his fallen comrades. Riorden again brought up his blade.
“Go,” he yelled at Danior and Tiernan, and they grabbed their ladies.
Katherine was torn between watching after her lady friends and keeping an eye on her husband. She saw Riorden stumble and land on one knee upon the floor. Sounds of the footsteps of yet another guard were heard, fast approaching. With her decision made, she gave a quick glance of goodbye to her friends before hurling herself forward. She began pounding her fists on the sixth guard’s back, despite the pain she felt from his chainmail underneath his tabard. He stood and began moving backwards, trying to disengage Katherine from around his neck.
“Katherine! Nay!” Riorden yelled as he engaged the newcomer with his blade of steel.
All at once, everything seemed to Katherine as if it occurred in slow motion. She saw how her friends, along with their men, stood in a glowing haze on the steps of the tower, as if they were between two worlds. She could actually see the electric lamps shining brightly on the walls of twenty-first century Bamburgh.
She heard Juliana and Emily, as if they were in a tunnel, call out her name in warning at the same time the guard at last gained his freedom by pushing Katherine off his shoulders. She lost her footing and began toppling backwards to fall inside the turret.
“Riorden!” she screamed out his name with an anguish born of desperation, knowing Time was pulling her forward and away from him. She saw his fists swinging at his two adversaries, pelting them until he knocked the guards out, one at a time. He turned and immediately leapt towards the portal.
Reaching out her hand, she felt him firmly grasp it, and yet his face strained with all his might to pull her back to his side. Those unwelcoming tiny lights that originally brought her happily back into the past began to brighten before her eyes. The floor beneath her feet began to tremble. And then she knew without a doubt, while she stared for the last time into her husband’s beautiful eyes, what she had dreaded all along would happen. Only another miracle could save them.
Chapter 35
Riorden watched the horrified look on his wife’s visage and felt a force beyond his ken attempting to rip Katherine from his life. He continued to hold tightly to her hand, even whilst he felt her slipping from his grasp. Merde! No one or thing would wrench this woman from his side. She belonged to him, and he would be damned if Time would take her. He tugged harder, hoping to bring her back to him, once more.
He watched her mouth moving and was frightened for the first time in his life when her words whispered inside his head, as if she was a ghost, yet again. Bloody Hell!
“I love you, Riorden. Throughout all time will I love you…”
“Nay, Katherine. Do not leave me," he bellowed and reached out with his other hand to take a firmer hold upon his wife. “God, I pray, do not take her from me. I beg of You!”
Struggling to maintain his grip, he watched in alarmed fascination as Tiernan and Danior disappeared afore his very eyes while Juliana and Emily stared in shock at their now empty hands. They were at least still with his Katherine, and yet they seemed not of this world whilst they earnestly attempted to reach their friend.
Suddenly, the two women frantically dove forward and gave Katherine a mighty push, causing his wife to momentarily teeter on the edge, between the present and the future. And then… miracle of all miracles, Time released her, as if against its will, and Katherine violently slammed forward into his arms. He crushed her to him as they stumbled onto the floor from the sheer force of power that had held her captive.
“Thank you, God,” Riorden whispered whilst he held on to his wife as if he would never let her go.
Katherine swiftly regained her senses and turned, staring for the last time at her friends. The two women became more and more transparent afore her eyes until they were but shadows. Together, they blew her a kiss in a final farewell, took each other by the hand, and vanished into thin air.
Just as quickly, the time gate rapidly diminished with fading, glowing lights. Abruptly, they were cast back into the dimness of the castle and life in the twelfth century. The torches began to sputter, giving off smoke, and all appeared as it should, as if nothing out of the ordinary had just occurred.
There was not much in this life that could cause Riorden to lose his composure, and yet holding his wife as she turned and cried on his shoulder was almost more than he could bear. He swore he was shaking almost as much as Katherine whilst she began to mutter incoherent sentences of what he assumed was gratitude to a higher being. They had much to be thankful for, and he could spend the rest of his days humbly praying and still ’twould not be long enough to show his undying love for this woman God had given back to him.
The guards roused from their stupor upon the floor, quickly rose brandishing their blades, and looked for the threat that was surely surrounding them. In a daze of confusion and seeing nothing unacceptable, they put their swords away and turned to stare at the couple, who stood there, silently waiting to be put under arrest.
“Is the lady not well, my lord?” one of th
e guards questioned.
“Excuse me?” Katherine whispered as her gaze flew to Riorden, who only shrugged his shoulders.
“Did you perchance fall?” the guard asked again, looking more befuddled than afore.
Riorden watched in surprise whilst the king’s men turned as one and began to leave the passageway. The only knight remaining was still looking around, as if some form of trouble was about to sneak up on him.
“There is nothing amiss,” Riorden proclaimed whilst tucking Katherine under his arm and holding her as she wiped away her tears. “’Tis just a minor misunderstanding that has been resolved.”
The knight nodded, as if at last understanding why the lady had been in tears. “’Tis best they know their place early on in the marriage, my lord. Made the mistake of letting my wife have her way from the start, and now I have a most vile mother-in-law meddling in my affairs, day and night!”
They watched as he nonchalantly turned and strode after the other knights, calling for them to wait up. Stunned, they could only stand in numb silence, wondering what had just occurred and why they were not being led away in chains. ’Twas difficult to comprehend the significance of such a matter and what the outcome would mean to their future.
“I don’t get it,” Katherine said as her breath left her in a swift rush.
“I am most bemused, as well, Kat,” Riorden agreed with a shake of his head. Reaching down, he pulled his wife back into his arms. He felt her shudder until she took another calming breath and raised her face to his. ’Twas the most beautiful sight he had ever beheld in his entire existence.
Her eyes widened, suddenly, and she turned slightly to glance down the corridor where the knights had just left. It was empty now, with no one in sight.
“We changed history,” she whispered breathlessly.
“Impossible!” Riorden gasped as he, too, followed her gaze. “There must be another explanation.”
“Didn’t you see their faces, Riorden? They had no idea they had been chasing Danior and Tiernan before the time gate swallowed them up, or even fighting with us, for that matter.”
