by Jane Stain
Lauren started to get up.
"I was just leaving. I'll let ye two—"
But Leif's face was hard, and he put his hand up.
"Nay, ‘tis best if ye stay, and I go."
He whirled around and rushed out of the room and down the stairs.
Though she had been groggy and sleepy a moment before, this brought Jessica wide awake. The man she had become attached to was angry because of something she had said. He had misunderstood! She needed to explain.
For a moment, she fought the covers, trying to get out of bed to go after him.
Why had she been so stupid? She didn't want to go to the druid castle. She wanted to stay here with him. She’d just been working out different solutions in her mind and saying out loud what she was thinking. She had dismissed that particular thought as soon as she uttered it.
What must he be thinking?
Dread pulled her down like a lead weight, and she gave in, no longer trying to get up. He wouldn’t listen to her. He would think she was involved with the druids who had caused his parents’ sickness. And Amena’s.
The druids had caused her sickness too, but he would think that was a ploy.
Why hadn’t she explained it to him better? He had even asked where she was from, back when he wanted to spend all of his days with her. She could have told him about Lauren needing to run errands for the druids in exchange for the privilege of time travel.
And now she had lost her chance.
Despair took hold of Jessica as she realized what she had done. Her body wracked with sobs and she cried out a mournful wail that she hoped Leif would hear. She hoped it would persuade him of her sincerity.
Chapter 15
Katherine’s eyes were convincingly hurt and accusatory as she passed him on the stairs, her rushing up to see Jessica and him rushing down to get as far from Jessica as he could.
Leif signaled his brother and Luag, speaking to Senga with a warning look toward his parents’ room.
"Keep Amena in the kitchen with ye."
Amena tried to run out.
“Why, Leif? What’s happening?”
But the old family cook caught the wee lassie in her arms and closed the kitchen door, barring it with a satisfying thump. There were no windows. They would be safe in there. Senga could take care of herself and Amena. He would never have agreed to captain the militia were it not so.
In seconds, Taran and Luag were following him down the hill into the village.
"What has ye spooked, Leif?”
“What is amiss?"
He was not quite running, but he wasn't walking, either.
“I went intae Father and Mother’s room tae see Jessica, and she and Lauren were talking aboot where they would go next. Jessica asked why they didna just go back tae the druid castle. Back tae those people who visited just afore Father and Mother took ill. Back tae them, na tae them the fairmaist time, but back tae them.”
Alvin, Jared, and Jacob were out working in the fields, and they waved.
Leif, Taran, and Luag waved back. They were nearing the village now, and Donnan was coming out to greet Leif, a big smile on his face and his arms open wide. His best friend was still in the distance, unable to hear, but Leif couldn't very well slow down to go greet his best friend who obviously had good news. He needed to warn the town.
Taran spoke fast.
"Leif, ye must be mistaken. The lasses hae done sae much good, and the druids tried tae take them by force. Clearly they are na friends."
Leif wanted to argue, but they were coming up on where they could be heard, so he gave Donnan his attention. For now.
"Donnan —"
Donnan rushed up to Leif and grabbed him in a bear hug.
"Wee Jana is hale again! She got through the fever and lived! I was coming up tae thank the lasses! Here and now I thank ye and Taran for taking them in and giving the lasses yer protection. If ye hadna, I dinna care tae think what would hae become o' Jana."
Still hugging Donnan, Leif fished for a way to break the news.
"Aboot that—"
Luag met Leif’s eye and shook his head no while speaking over him.
"We were going doon tae see who else has recovered.”
Leif stared hard at his friend from the Isles, but he could see no betrayal there. No deception. Only a sincere desire to prevent Leif from being rash. So be it. He could take the time to walk around the village before he went up and kicked the lasses out of his house.
"Aye, Donnan please, dae join us."
He gestured for his best friend to go in front of them into the village. When they got into town, Donnan ran a running commentary of all the changes, with wonder in his voice. Wonder and admiration.
"The lasses were right, ye ken, about the sewage running through the streets. Gammer tells me in her old village they always took the waste out tae the fields—"
Taran interrupted.
"Who knows what other barbarous things they do down in England?"
This was an old joke with them, and they all laughed. Even Leif, a little.
Donnan continued his running commentary as they circled slowly around the town, waving back at those who waved.
Luag and Taran stopped to chat with a few, but it was as much as Leif could do to stay with Donnan and listen to his commentary. No one felt slighted, however. He and Donnan had been best friends forever.
Donnan had quite a bit to say, and it slowly sank into Leif’s thoughts.
"And the cleanliness plan worked! Dae ye ken that only two people hae come doon sick syne the lasses arrived? 'Tis slowing doon, the illness. Why, the week afore they arrived, ten fell ill. Gammer tries tae claim the folk in her village practice the lasses’ cleanliness as wull, but on that I think she's fooling. Where dae the lasses hail from? I feel such gratitude for the sake o' my Agnes and my wee Jana, I dinna care if 'tis England — though the lasses’ Gaelic is far too good for that, aye?"
Before Leif could answer that loaded question, Luag came up behind them and pulled Donnan away for a hug of his own.
"Sae glad I am tae hear wee Jana is healed! This calls for a celebration! Everyone tae Gus’s. I'm buying!"
Luag said this last bit so loud that everyone around heard and cheered, following them into the town’s one tavern.
Luag sat right next to Leif on one side, Donnan on the other, and the three of them received many cheers and congratulations on Jana's recovery. Gilly came forward and said how his nieces were well. Devany came forward and said her mother had come through the fever – an amazing thing, her mother being past forty and all.
Leif lost sight of Taran for a time, but his brother came back bringing several others who testified that their relatives had been ill and lived through it.
All thanked Leif for taking the lasses in. Soon, they were asking for the lasses to come down the hill.
"Bring them doon, Leif."
"Aye, bring them doon sae we can drink tae them."
"'Tis not fitting they should miss their own party!"
Leif’s anger had cooled. Did the lasses deserve to be thanked?
Aye. He would not kick them out. They could stay.
But he would get some answers.
Chapter 16
Jessica wailed louder and louder. Once she started, she couldn't stop, such despair gripped her.
Lauren hugged her, but Lauren was distracted. She had been ever since they arrived in this time. What was that she had admitted about really talking to someone as if on some magical telephone?
Katherine burst into the room.
"What's the matter, Jessica? What happened to make Leif so angry? Is that why you're crying?
Abruptly, Lauren got up and pulled the covers off Jessica.
"It's bad, Katherine. Jessica asked me why we couldn't just go back to the druid castle, and Leif heard her.”
Katherine froze.
“Oh no."
Lauren bustled around, finding their huge woolen shawls and Jessica's leine,
then holding it up for Jessica as if she were a child.
"I know you’re sick, Jessica, but get up and get dressed. We have to leave, and we have to go now, while the men are still trying to figure out what to do."
It had taken a while for realization to hit Jessica's foggy mind, but now panic set in. Lauren was right!
“But where will we go?”
Jessica lurched to a sitting position and put her hands up so Lauren could pull the thick woolen leine down over Jessica’s night dress. The extra warmth wouldn't hurt at all. These fall nights were getting awfully cold.
The wind whistled down the chimney, punctuating that fact.
Lauren was still a moment with that faraway look in her eyes, and then she tucked the shawl more tightly around Jessica, looking about and lowering her voice as if afraid the walls had ears.
“There’s another castle off to the east close to the shore. Not the druid castle, a different one. The Highlands are dotted with them.”
Katherine perked up.
Lauren raised her finger to Katherine’s lips, warning her to keep her voice down, too.
Katherine nodded and whispered, rather than use her normally quite hearable voice.
“A castle sounds good. Lots of people come and go from castles, especially near the shore. They’re more accustomed to strangers, so we should have less difficulty fitting in.”
Lauren squinted at Katherine.
“You’re right, but how do you know so much about castle lifestyles?”
Katherine put one hand on her hip.
“I took history in college. Just because I use charm most of the time doesn’t mean I’m ignorant, you know.”
Right in between them, Jessica got up on wobbly feet.
It worked. Lauren stopped bickering and lurched to support her.
Jessica pulled on her boots and her shawl, then grabbed her purse, small help it was in these times. She did have a lighter though. She always carried one even though she didn't smoke, for such a time as this.
"I don’t suppose Senga will give us food for the journey."
Katherine shook her head no.
"Nope. When Leif instructed Senga to keep Amena with her, Senga shut the kitchen door and barred it. No one’s going in there until Leif returns."
Lauren took the quilt off the bed and put it on Jessica over the thick woolen leine and shawl, covering Jessica’s head. Then she put her arm around Jessica and helped her down the stairs, with Katherine following down behind them.
"We got here with what we have, and we can get to the next inhabited place with what we have. It's not that far, only an overnight trip. The sooner we leave, the more daylight we’ll have to get as far from here as possible before we need rest."
Jessica's training kicked in at the last moment before they were about to leave.
"We at least need to bring water with us.”
She noticed three packed travel bags stacked in the corner by the front door and started digging through one.
"Help me. There has to be water in here. We'll take it and leave the bags open, so they know they have to replace it. Ah! Got a water skin! No, two!” She strapped the water skins over her neck and shoulder, over the quilt. “I feel bad taking these without permission, but we can't last more than a few days without water, and they can take the time to go get some from the well."
Nodding, Lauren and Katherine found the water skins in the other two bags and looped the straps over their necks and shoulders.
And then they all left Cresh Manor behind them.
Without any indecision, Lauren started up the hill behind the house. There was a trail, but it was so faint as to not be much help. The way was steep.
Jessica couldn’t help looking over her shoulder at the town she had helped reshape. The streets sure smelled better. More people were healthy. Part of her hoped they wouldn't make it up over the crest before Leif came home and saw them, but only a small part of her. Most of her said it was hopeless, that he would never speak to her even if he did see her leaving.
"How are we going to avoid this happening again?" Katherine asked Lauren emphatically. "We need to have rules about what we can and can't say, and we need to keep to them. If one of us is delirious, the others need to prevent her from making trouble."
Lauren bristled under Katherine’s stare and angry words, but she nodded.
"Yeah, you’re right. Okay, the first rule is we do not discuss time travel where anyone from this time can hear us. I cannot believe you told them we were from the future, Katherine. What were you thinking? Do not do that with any of the people we meet in the next place.”
She gave Katherine just as scathing a stare as she'd been given, and then looked at Jessica.
"Along with not telling anybody we’re from the future comes not telling anybody knowledge from the future. No improvements in the next place. No cleanliness instructions. No tending the sick, Jessica."
The rest of it Jessica nodded along with, but not tending the sick? No. This she could not go along with.
"I can't agree to that, Lauren. It may seem like I'm just another corporate employee, but I took an oath when I became a nurse. If I'm able to help someone who's ill, I have to do it."
They were climbing in earnest now, just about like walking up an endless set of stairs. It was strenuous, and Jessica soon was out of breath. Her poor sick lungs were having a hard time.
Katherine put a hand on her shoulder.
"Jessica, save your breath for the climb. We can take this discussion up later when we’re resting."
Jessica was huffing. She stopped and took a long drink from one of her water skins.
"Right. The saying is ‘ration your sweat, not your water,’ and I daresay I'm sweating more from the conversation than from the climb. But as soon as we reach the top, we’ll talk about this more."
The others nodded and took long drinks from their own water skins, and then they resumed the long climb up the mountain
Jessica was tempted to open the quilt and her shawl so that the icy breeze would cool her off, but she knew she wasn't really hot. It was just her fever. Inside where it was warm it was safe to cool a fever, but out here where she might freeze to death? No. So she kept herself bundled up.
Going down was just as difficult as up had been, so Jessica get didn't get a chance to ask any of the questions that were burning up her mind.
But Katherine did. She barked them out like a teacher grilling a student.
“Do you know yet what artifact we need to find, Lauren? What are we doing here? What’s our objective?"
Lauren didn't turn to look at Katherine, though she certainly could have. The downhill trek was strenuous but not treacherous. They were amid rocks and grass, not trees which might have thwacked her in the face.
"We’re running away from people who think we’re in league with those who caused their parents’ fatal illness. You know that."
What! Jessica took in a laboring breath, readying herself to give Lauren a good what for.
But Katherine assured her with a look that she was on it and Jessica could concentrate on walking, which was difficult enough, with her illness.
“Come on, Lauren. We’re better friends than this."
Lauren still wasn't looking at them. Her tone was tentative, as if speaking in front of her parents or something, afraid she'd say something they didn't approve of.
"We’re looking for— We’re scouting for a —"
Katherine persisted.
"How long are we going to be here looking for it?"
Lauren was fighting to get words out, struggling with each and every one. Some words made it out of her mouth and others got choked back.
"We’ll be here until the event happens that leads to the discovery of the— of the object we’ve been sent to find."
Katherine's sales techniques were kicking in. Her face grew animated.
"What sort of event?"
"A famous— a conflict," said Lauren.
&nbs
p; "Does this famous conflict have a name?" Katherine demanded.
"Yes, it’s—" Lauren’s mouth just wouldn’t form the words.
"Do you know the date it happened?"
"The—" Lauren rolled her eyes heavenwards when the words failed her.
Lauren struggled to say more, but she just couldn't. Whenever she tried to speak, she sounded like she'd been gagged. So her story of being prevented from speaking seemed true enough.
Maybe tonight would be the night Kelsey finally came into their dreams so that Lauren could speak freely. One could only hope.
Lauren went relentlessly down the hill. Once they got down to the bottom of the canyon, she turned down the trail while at the same time grabbing Jessica's hand and Katherine's hand.
As soon as she did, the three of them became invisible.
Chapter 17
Leif clapped an arm around Taran’s shoulders as they walked up the hill to Cresh Manor in the midday warmth.
"Ye hae my debt, Taran. I thank ye for making me see reason. I heard the word druids, and the fever o' battle came upon me. But o' course the lasses were na tae blame for Father and Mother’s sickness."
Taran gave Leif a knowing look.
"Ye hae gone soft on Jessica. Even if ye dinna ken, everyone else does."
Leif nodded.
"Aye. I did come aware o' it when she sacrificed her sleep tae care for Amena. She has such compassion. ‘Tis what I most admire in a woman."
Taran hugged Leif and then let him go so they could walk up the hill.
"Well dae I ken that, Leif. ‘Tis glad I am for ye."
Leif gave his brother a playful blow on the shoulder.
"And how well dae ye ken that ye hae a soft spot in yer own heart for Lauren, eh?"
Taran made a face that said ‘Twas a goodly attempt tae draw us away from ye, howsoever all o' our cares be upon ye, brother.’
"I like Lauren, aye, but my devotion tae her is na nearly sae strong as yers tae Jessica. Dae ye ken that yer eyes follow her wherever she goes, when she is in sight?"
Leif turned around to look down the hill at his brother.
