A Fall Through Time (Stacey and Shane Mcleod, #1)

by Rikki M Dyson

  Stacey knew Lady Margaret had left the room and then shortly afterward, she heard her speaking with a man in the corridor outside her door. After just a few words, Stacey knew it was black beard.

  “How be the wench?” he asked.

  “She be asleep.”

  “I beseech ye Mother, mind ye self, me thinks she be a spy. I know she be lying.”

  “Why do ye say this Eric?”

  “I do not trust her, Mother. Listen to her speech, ye know they do not speak thus in London. She be passing strange.”

  “Do not worry son,” Lady Margaret assured him. “We will keep a close eye on her, but what mischief can she cause in her condition?

  “Mayhap if I put her in the dungeon, she will regain her memory most hastily,” the lord of Dun-Raven, threatened.

  Stacey finally dropped off to sleep. Lady Margaret woke her to try some broth, “Mayhap ye will be able to keep this in ye stomach,” she said.

  There was a knock on the door and Lord Hampton entered. “I have come to inquire how our guest is fairing.”

  Guest in deed, Stacey thought, but thanked him and said, “I’m feeling much better. Sorry about the trouble I caused at the table.”

  Lord Hampton waved her apology away and after a bit of conversation, he asked, “Do ye feel up to answering a few questions?”

  “Truthfully, I will answer all I can,” Stacey said.

  “How came ye to Dun-Raven?”

  “This lady brought me, is what I’m told.”

  “I mean to the countryside,” Lord Hampton said, smiling.

  “Now that I do not know,” Stacey said, truthfully. “I remember being in London and a big storm blew in out of nowhere. I woke in the meadow. Other than seeing your party on the road, I remember nothing.”

  “Where be ye home and who be ye family?”

  “I don’t remember,” Stacey said, emphatically

  “Could it be ye came from the country of the Arabs, or from the lands of the Maharajah’s in the east?” Lord Hampton asked.

  “What makes you think I came from there?” Stacey asked, mystified.

  “Ye have a small ruby in ye nose and a drawing of a butterfly on ye body, which Lady Margaret mentioned to me. I understand that be a custom of the women of the east.”

  Stacey shook her head and said, “Maybe, but I don’t remember.”

  After a few more questions and pleasantries, Lord Hampton said, “Well, mayhap on the morrow ye will remember more. Rest now and eat ye broth. Ye be in safe hands with Lady Margaret.”

  Yes, Stacey thought, to herself, I may be safe in the hands of Lady Margaret, but I doubt the same can be said for the black bearded one. Stacey felt bad about lying to Lord Hampton and Lady Margaret, but she was afraid to tell them the truth. If I don’t understand how I arrived here, how can I expect them too, she asked herself.

  Chapter 2

  The Castle Grounds

  Early the next morning, Stacey was up and dressed in a shift, chemise, bliaut and girdle. She thought, to herself, what an awful lot of clothes to wear on a summer day. I hope I can ride a horse in them. The sun wasn’t up yet, so Stacey tiptoed downstairs to the great hall. The castle was awake and busy, but nobody was in the hall yet, except the great dog.

  “Hi Scooby, let’s go outside,” Stacey said as she rubbed the great dog’s ears. As if he understood, he took her to the door. “Where’s your grumpy master this morning? If he knew you were with me, he’d have a cow.” Stacey chuckled and said, “That would be a sight to see, wouldn’t it?”

  Stacey walked outside laughing, just thinking how pissed black beard would be if he knew his beautiful dog was with her. She had no way of knowing the earl of Dun-Raven was sitting in the shadows of the hall thinking on her. He was wondering, if his treacherous Uncle Hugh had placed her in Dun-Raven as a spy. He would put nothing passed his greedy uncle, but he wondered where and how he had found her. Her speech alone was suspect. The earl decided that a close eye would be kept on her without delay.

  When Stacey stepped outside, she said to the dog as she put her arms up over her head and stretched, “Oh Scooby, I’ve never seen a morning like this. The air is so clean and fresh. It’s a little cool here in Yorkshire, but it’s breath-takingly beautiful. It looks as if the earth could touch the sky. Come, show me around the grounds, I wanna’ remember all of this when I go back.”

  As Stacey and Rolf walked off, Eric wondered to himself; where be this place she speaks of going back to, back to where? He knew she was lying and he would prove it.

  Stacey was looking around the castle grounds; with great curiosity, when she saw the great double wall she remembered that it was referred to as a curtain, which surrounded the castle. It had round and square towers. The round ones were on both sides of the entrance and on all corners as well as seventeen to twenty feet along the outer curtain. Some of the towers housed the garrison and the armory. The castle itself was huge with many rooms and wings. There were rooms called solars. They were the private residence of the earl and his family members. Many other rooms of the castle were for soldiers, guests, the married knights, and their families.

  Downstairs were the kitchens and living quarters for the pages and young squires. The castle servants lived on the top floor and guests and family were on the second and third floors. The first floor housed the great hall, the chapel, the rooms of learning and the earl’s parlor. Stacey spoke French fairly well, enough to know the word parlor, came from the French word Parle, meaning to speak or talk. From what Stacey could see of the castle and grounds, it was a very large place.

  There were herb and vegetables gardens as well orchards with apple, apricot and pear trees. Out to the side was a large practice field and past that were barns and corrals. There was also a blacksmith’s place and a carpenter shop along with sheds of all kinds in the outer bailey. It would take a few days to investigate everything. There was an inner curtain also, that enclosed the inner bailey. A portcullis was at the entrance and guarded at all times. There was a drawbridge over a trench, but no water. How strange, she thought. Then something caught her attention, she couldn’t place what it was at first, then it dawned on her it was the absence of the hum of the twenty-first century. Even though Stacey had grown up in the country, she had always been aware of the slight hum of electricity lines, as well as telephone lines and poles along the highways or strung across the land. A certain amount of noise came with the Industrial age as well as the more modern nuclear age. In the modern world, one is beset by the noise of vehicles coming and going as well as trains, airplanes and jets. Although there was noise in and around the castle it was benign compared to a modern day farm or ranch. This quiet slow moving world gave her time to reflect.

  After a time, a young page came to tell Stacey it was time to break the fast; that she was to come to the great hall. “Thank you little one, but please tell them I’m not hungry,” Stacey said.

  The boy stood, looked at her and repeated, “His lordship said, ye are to come.”

  As Stacey stepped into the hall, Rodric came to meet her and said, “It be better to heed him than to argue with him.”

  “Who are you talking about?” Stacey asked.

  “His lordship of course,” Rodric said.

  Stacey was mystified. Lord Hampton had seemed so nice yesterday. Once again, Stacey took a seat at the high table. Rodric told her she was to share his trencher with him; she really didn’t mind, he seemed like a nice young man. Breakfast looked good. The table was loaded with cheese and sausages, hot home baked bread and country butter with honey and jam.

  Stacey was putting honey on her buttered bread when black beard said, “Wench, I beseech ye to keep ye vittles in ye guts.”

  Stacey gave him a cold look and said, “I’ll do my best. I don’t think your lap would hold it all.”

  At first his lordship did not understand her, however, when he did he gave her such a look that every person in the castle knew he meant, get out of his sight or suffer t
he consequences. Stacey reached for her goblet to take a drink, but she wrinkled her nose and set it back on the table. Eric, watching her asked, “Our ale be not to ye liking?”

  “No,” Stacey said. “It’s not the ale so much; I just don’t like or drink alcoholic beverages.” Stacey verbally dismissed him and turned to Lord Hampton and asked, “Sir may I borrow one of your horses to ride back to the meadow where I found myself yesterday?”

  Black beard, with his utensil half way to his mouth, turned with a gleam in his eyes to hear Lord Hampton’s reply. “I be sorry Miss Stacey, but the horses be not mine to loan.”

  With surprise in her voice, she asked, “Whose horses are they then?”

  “They be Eric’s, he be the earl of Dun-Raven.”

  Stacey looked at him in total surprise. He just sat there and didn’t say a word. He knew what she wanted, but the horses ass, was going to make her ask him. Well, he best not hold his breath, she thought. She would walk first.

  Stacey could feel his eyes on her with his air of superiority. When the meal was over, she stood up and started collecting hers and Rodric’s tableware.

  “What be ye doing?” his lordship asked.

  “I’m gonna’ earn my keep while I’m here,” Stacey said.

  “What do ye mean by that?” he asked.

  “Nothing, just chalk it up to I’m passing strange, okay.”

  Stacey asked Rodric, “Please show me the way to the kitchen.”

  The kitchens were downstairs. Stacey asked to speak with the cook. The cook was apprehensive and kept looking at Rodric.

  “Do not become alarmed, Alice. Miss Stacey asked to make ye acquaintance,” Rodric assured her.

  Stacey put out her hand and said, “How do you do, Alice? My name is Stacey. I wanna’ thank you for that wonderful breakfast, it was delicious.”

  Alice smiled at Rodric and he smiled back at her. Alice said, “Tis most welcome ye be, miss.” Alice was quite taken-a-back. Never had the earl’s guests or any of his family, for that matter, sought her out to thank her or had ever complimented her on her cooking. Alice decided immediately, that she liked this young woman who spoke strangely.

  Next Stacey asked Rodric, “Who is the Chatelaine of the castle?”

  “Lady Katherine,” he said, a bit bewildered.

  When Stacey spoke with Lady Katherine, she said, “I must need speak with his lordship, Miss Stacey.”

  Stacey turned to Rodric and said, “Good god, do you need to ask permission from him to breathe in this place?” Both Rodric and Lady Katherine smiled at her remark.

  Rodric told Stacey, “I must inquire into what I can do about the use of horses. I will see ye later.”

  When Stacey came downstairs, Scooby was waiting. She looked around and asked, “How did you slip away from black beard? You must be a Houdini. Let’s go outside, okay?”

  Stacey was walking around the grounds looking at the castle. The bailey was quite large. She had read about castles, however, never expected to be inside a real live working one. Not one in the thirteen hundred’s anyway.

  She was wandering around looking at everything when Rodric found her and said, “Come, I have a surprise for ye.” As they headed to the stables he asked, “Do ye ride?”

  “Yes, of course,” Stacey said.

  “That be good, we can ride to the meadow, however, we must take a knight with us.”

  “That’s fine by me,” Stacey said. “We can take the whole dang legion if that’s what he wants.”

  Stacey picked out a big horse and had a saddle on him in no time. When Rodric noticed she sat astride a stallion and not a palfrey, he said, “Eric not be going to like this.”

  “That’s tough,” Stacey said. “If we hurry he’ll never see us.”

  She was wrong. He did see them, but the portcullis was up and they were through and on their way before he could stop them. The earl was watching and said to himself, she may think she has won this round; however, I will be ready for the next one. It was a beautiful day and Stacey was enjoying the freedom of a fast horse between her knees. She was surprised to find a medieval saddle was similar to the western saddle, which she had grown up using. When they reached the pristine meadow, it still looked as she remembered, and the rune stone was the vocal point of where she wanted to look.

  Stacey was running her fingers over the markings when Rodric asked, “Have ye seen stones like these before?”

  “Oh, yes,” Stacey said.

  “Where did ye see them?” he asked.

  “I don’t remember,” she said, guardedly.

  “Of course ye do. It be not necessary to lie to me, Stacey.”

  Stacey felt guilty about lying to Rodric, however, she knew she couldn’t tell him the truth, so she said, “I really don’t want to lie to anybody, but sometimes you don’t have a choice.”

  “Mayhap when ye know me better, ye will trust me.”

  “Mayhap,” Stacey said.

  Rodric smiled at her use of ‘mayhap.’ Stacey was walking around the stone when he asked, “What be this stone?”

  “It’s a Viking rune stone.”

  “Do ye understand the markings?” he asked.

  “Yes, well, some of them.”

  “What do they say?”

  “I can’t read it all. This part says, ‘The hammer of Thor,’ and this says, ‘Valhalla.’ That’s all I can make out the stone is so weathered. I do know Valhalla is the Norse word for heaven.”

  “How be it that ye know this much?”

  “I’ve studied the old Viking civilization and I’ve read the Anglo Saxon chronicles,” Stacey explained. “Viking is an old Norse word meaning voyager or wanderer. One of the first raids recorded was off the coast of Wessex, in the year seven-hundred-eighty-seven A.D.”

  “Yes, I know. I have read the chronicles of which ye speak. It be a collection of early historical text first assembled around eight-hundred-seventy A.D.”

  “Yes, your right. I believe, if memory serves the last battle between the Vikings and Anglo Saxons was the battle at Stamford Bridge, about 12 miles or so east of York, in the year 1066 A.D. You do know your English history, right?”

  “Yes, of course,” he said. “That be the year William of Normandy conquered England.”

  “Yes it was,” Stacey said, “however, it might have been different if king Harold of the Saxons had not of had to fight and beat the Vikings, then immediately head south to fight William of Normandy in the south of England in ten-sixty-six A.D. It was just too much for the Saxons.”

  “Ye know much of English history,” Rodric said, suspiciously.

  “That’s because I can read,” Stacey said, realizing she had said too much.

  “That be good; most women can not read at all.”

  “That’s because your society prefers to keep women ignorant. I bet your mother reads, doesn’t she?”

  “Yes, but my mother be a noble woman.”

  “What about Lady Katherine?”

  “Yes, of course, she can read. She be the wife of Sir Giles. He be my brother’s second in command.”

  “How be it ye can read, Stacey? The truth please,” Rodric said.

  Stacey was quiet for some time and then said, “I’m an archaeologist.”

  “What be this archaeologist?” He asked, baffled by the word.

  “An archaeologist is a person that excavates studies and learns about ancient civilizations,” Stacey explained.

  “Be this what ye be doing in London?” he inquired.

  “Yes it was,” Stacey said. “You’re awfully perceptive.”

  “May I tell Eric?”

  “I would rather you didn’t. He might use it against me, but I’ll not ask you to keep a secret not yet, anyway.”

  As they rode along in companionable silence, Stacey asked, “How old are you, Rodric?”

  She remembered that young men were considered grown at a much younger age in the Middle Ages than in the 21st century.

  “I will be eight
een the first of next month,” he said. “There will be a party. Ye are welcome to attend, if ye wish.”

  “Thank you; if I’m still here I will attend.”

  “Do ye think you will be leaving?”

  “I don’t know,” Stacey said, “and that is the truth.”

  As they rode back to Dun-Raven Stacey was awed by the beauty of the countryside. As they neared

  Dun-Raven castle, Stacey caught her breath and said, “Oh, my god, Camelot could not have been more beautiful.”

  Rodric was surprised and asked, “How be it ye know of Camelot?”

  “I read, remember?”

  Confused, Rodric said, “But ye be not English.”

  “Did I say I was English? I can read Latin, but I’m not from Rome. Now, tell me about Dun-Raven. How long has it been here and who is your king now?”

  “Our king be Edward III. The castle has been here well over a hundred years or more. Eric’s ancestor, Rollo FitzMorgan, came with William the Conqueror. Eric’s father, Geoffrey FitzMorgan, died of wounds that he received while fighting in Scotland. Eric was only twelve and still fostered to Hampton keep. His uncle Hugh took over Dun-Raven, but when Eric was fourteen, he gathered an army and with the help of my father, he took back what was rightfully his. He sent his uncle to live at Finwick castle where he could keep an eye on him and his treacherous ways. For more information, ye must need to ask Eric. I know more about Hampton keep than Dun-Raven. I will be the Earl of Hampton someday, but not too soon, I pray.”

  “You’re a nice kid,” Stacey said. “You’re much nicer than your brother.”

  Rodric smiled at Stacey and said, “I am not a child, Stacey. I am a man full grown.”

  Stacey laughed and said, “Yes, sir. I stand corrected.