by Jane Stain
Emily was smiling serenely. “OK. Now the rest of you gather around Vange. Good, now you sit here, and you sit there. Make contact with her when she sits here, and she’ll take Peigi home.” Emily gestured for Vange to sit on the floor in the spot she had indicated.
OK, that was … whatever.
Vange sat down on the kitchen floor.
Peigi came over and sat next to Vange close enough that their arms were touching.
Vange figured she did need to take Peigi home before she addressed this weird hippy Bohemian commune problem that her best friend was entangled in, so she would just do that and then—
And then Peadar smiled at Vange, which was distracting enough, but he sat down in front of her, so close that his knees were touching her knees.
And fireworks went off.
They started in Vange’s knees and went up her body in shivers, making goosebumps break out all over her skin.
“Vange.”
Vange jumped a little. “Huh?”
“Let me see the settings, Vange.”
“What? Oh.” Vange swam out of the depths of Peadar’s eyes. It was difficult. There was a strong undertow, pulling her in. Once she’d looked away from him, she was able to think again and to concentrate on the Time Management app and setting the destination Emily had told her to set.
She held it up for inspection. “OK. Here it is.” She was still kind of feeling sparks fly out of Peadar’s knees into hers, so she avoided his eyes, knowing her brain would turn to mush as soon as they met her own.
“It’s set right. You guys are good to go.” Emily was using her proud teacher voice again.
“Are you guys ready?” Vange asked Peigi and Peadar while looking only at Peigi.
“Aye.”
“Aye.”
Vange pushed the ‘Go’ button.
The world spun round.
The next thing Vange knew, she was staring at a cat. At the same time, she remembered being in this attic crawl space behind these trunks before. She remembered meeting Peadar when he was a cowboy out on the range—and that he was Dall’s son.
But she also remembered the huge allergic reaction she’d had from this cat’s hair. No way was she going through that again.
“I want a do over.”
Vange figured that was what she was saying in Gaelic, anyway.
They were back in the trailer again.
“I did the do over, Em. No way am I going to be with that cat hair again.” Vange said as soon as the world stopped spinning.
“Vange. You remember?” Emily asked.
“Remember what?” Vange asked. “How to do the settings to get back? You just checked my settings to get there and said they were fine.” She smiled up at Em. “Don’t worry. I’ve got this.”
“OK, go ahead.” Emily said. And a second later, she said it again, “Do you remember?”
“Em, if you’re trying to be funny, it isn’t working. Quit asking me if I remember and just let me take Peigi home, already. Gosh.” Vange chuckled a little to take the edge off her anger, but she was starting to get kind of mad at Em.
“OK OK, Vange. Maybe this time you will.”
“What do you mean, this time?” Vange was confused.
“Never mind, just go.” Emily said. And a second later, almost sounding like her normal self, Emily said to Dall, “Wow. She remembers for just a few seconds when she first gets back, just long enough to complain about the cat, and then she forgets again.”
“Aye, lass. They will be needing to arrive outside. However, we ken she knows the Gaelic well enough, for your ‘do over’ phrase, aye?”
Emily smiled at Dall in this way they had, and he smiled back.
Usually, Vange thought it was cute, but right now it sort of made her uneasy. It was like they’d forgotten about everyone else in the room. She cleared her throat. “Ahem. We’re still sitting here, you know.”
Emily didn’t snap out of it, but at least she saw Vange and the other people again. “That means they will need to arrive pretty far away from the settlement, just so they aren’t seen, and then they’ll have to walk in.”
“Aye.” Dall was sizing Vange up.
She wanted to feel indignant, but the thought of arriving outside of town and having to walk a long ways didn’t thrill her, until…
Peadar stood and went over to Dall and Emily’s stash of 16th century weapons. He looked them all over, selected a claymore and several daggers, and stashed them in various places all over his person.
Surprising Vange, Peigi did the same.
The two of them stood over Vange as if she were their child.
“We will protect her, you ken?” Peigi said.
Nodding to Peigi as if she were a soldier and he an officer, Dall moved to Emily’s side and held her close by the waist. “Aye. Very well.”
Emily grabbed her phone out of Vange’s hand and fiddled with it for a minute, then handed it back. “Alright, I’ve set the destination on the map, up and over the shortest mountain and then around a valley. If anyone is there when you appear, they’ll be traveling too, not established, so you should be safe. If you see anyone when you arrive, you can take a ‘do over’ and change the destination for the mountain on the other side of the settlement. But hopefully that won’t happen.”
Vange had a thought then. “Shouldn’t Peadar and Peigi wear English clothes, like me?”
Peadar plucked at the blue kilt of the Campbells and smiled at her. He liked that idea.
Encouraged, Vange went on. “I mean, it isn’t like they can get away with claiming they’re Campbells. Wouldn’t we all be safer as English peasants?”
“Aye,” said Dall.
“Sort of,” said Emily at the same time. “I mean, how did three English peasants come to be wandering through the Scottish highlands?”
“Eh,” Vange made a sound that said the ‘why’ of it was unimportant. “I doubt anyone will ask, and if they do, we’ll just claim we were out hunting with some English lord or other and we got lost.”
Peadar spoke up then. “Well enough, lass. However, that does leave all the speaking to you, for if Peigi or I speak up, they will know we are as highland Scottish as any.”
“I may as well do the speaking,” Vange said, “because you and Peigi will need to do all the swording.” She snorted a laugh at her own joke.
Fortunately, the rest of them thought it funny too and laughed along.
“Ok,” said Emily, “I guess it’s back to the costume shed we go.”
“Nah,” said Vange. “Peigi can wear your English trew outfit and be a boy peasant, and Peadar can wear Dall’s.”
And they did. They also fixed up the leather backpacks full of 16th century camping gear and provisions. Finally, Peadar, Peigi, and Vange looked like English peasants: two men with swords and a woman with wildly colorful boots.
When Dall tried to hand Peigi her English trews, the two of them had a long conversation in Gaelic. They even dragged Emily into it, which surprised and impressed Vange. Her friend must be good at languages.
Their talk started out nice enough, but it got more and more heated the longer it went on, until Peigi’s face was red and her breathing was heavy and her voice was kind of loud.
“What was that all about?” Vange asked Emily once Peigi was finally in the pink bedroom changing.
Briefly, Emily bunched her mouth up and moved it to one side of her face, but then her face relaxed into that eerie calm again.
“Aw, that’s right, you don’t remember. Peigi’s supposed to meet her boyfriend the night after you all arrive. The two of them are running away to get married. She doesn’t want him to see her in trews. Says can’t she wear her own clothes and have you bring her straight to his house. I explained we don’t have his house marked as a destination, so we can’t reliably get you guys there. She doesn’t believe me. Oh well.”
“I’ll make Peadar explain it to her,” Vange said with a wink meant to tell
Emily she
had influence over Peadar, and wasn’t that cool?
But her normally fun friend Em was all uptight suddenly.
“Vange, there’s something you should know. If you have sex with Peadar there, married or not, then you will be stuck there. And the 16th century is fun to visit, but you will see what I mean when I say you do not want to be stuck there.”
Vange gulped down a lump that was suddenly in her throat. “Really Em? I could get stuck there?”
Emily nodded, her face a weird combination of uptight and serene. “Yeah, so watch yourself, OK?”
Vange nodded slowly, eyes focused on nothing in particular. “Yeah, I will.”
“OK you guys,” Emily called out loudly but calmly, “gather back around Vange, and stand up this time and face away from each other, like the away team does in Star Trek’s Next Generation.”
Vange laughed at Emily’s comparison, noticing it was lost on Peadar and Peigi. It was then she realized it was true. She was really going to the 16th century.
She was excited enough about that, but then Peadar was right up close and personal, with his arm around her waist. The sparks that had flown between her knees and his were nothing compared to this. She almost couldn’t breathe, it was so awesome and intense and … exhilarating.
Peigi was there, too, but Vange barely noticed her.
“Whenever you’re ready, Vange.”
Vange felt a gentle push on her back and realized that Em had said something. Oh yeah. She got the phone out of its solar charger brooch where she had stowed it. Yep, she could see on the map where they were going. Great.
“Are you guys ready?”
“Aye,” said Peadar with a smile and a twinkle of his eyes.
“Aye,” said Peigi angrily, all but snarling the word out.
Dang. That woman was impatient.
“Hang on everybody, here we gooooooooooooooo.” Vange said in her best impersonation of Peter Pan’s ride at Disneyland. She could hear Emily laughing for just a second.
And then everything spun round and round.
Vange came to awareness inside a thick grove of trees and stood up off the dirty ground with an “Ew.”
The grove was on top of a hill overlooking a green valley. Mountains loomed majestically in the distance, and the sky was frothy with clouds. And in the green valley were cattle, scattered tiny houses, dirt roads, and some sort of farmer’s market.
A bunch of birds squawked and took off from nearby, apparently startled by her and Peadar and Peigi’s presence. They weren’t the only ones.
“Rrraaaaaaggghhhhhhh.” Peigi was screaming and wailing—and clutching to Vange’s side as if she would collapse if she didn’t.
“Och, Peigi, be still, aye? Och, be still.” Peadar was trying to calm his sister—
“Huh.” Vange gasped. “Oh my gosh.” she said to Peadar, “I remember it all now. You’re Dall’s children.” She looked at Peadar. “We rescued you from the English out on the range somewhere.” She turned to Peigi. “And you were a servant in your own house. We rescued you, too.”
But Peigi lunged at Vange.
Peadar held her back, and the two of them struggled while Peigi yelled at Vange.
“I did not need rescuing. And if you have made me betray the one man I do love, then forgive you I never will.”
“You’re welcome,” Vange sang out to Peigi while she checked the map on Emily’s phone. “‘Dinna fash, lass,’ as they say in Outlander. We’ll get you to your rendezvous with your fella in time to leave with him tonight. OK, this says we need to go this way.” She pointed and started to walk in that direction.
Peadar and his sister followed behind. They argued in Gaelic for another minute or so, but their struggles got less and less animated.
“Didn’t Dall and Emily get this all worked out with Peigi in Emily’s trailer?” Vange asked Peadar while moving to casually put a hand on his arm.
But he recoiled. Not in disgust or anything, he just moved subtly out of the way. Closer to his sister. Protectively.
Vange felt a whole lot more alone than she had a moment before.
“Nay,” Peadar told her. “And where be Emily and Da?”
Realization dawned.
“Oh no. You don’t remember anything that happened while we were in Emily and my time period, do you.”
Peadar and Peigi both shook their heads slightly no. But it was obvious they knew about time travel. They didn’t look at her as if she were a lunatic or anything. She was curious how they knew, but …
“We need to get moving if you’re going to meet Alan,” she said to Peigi.
“Aye,” said Peigi, turning away from her brother to look ahead and walking faster, which wasn’t easy considering there wasn’t any road and they were in a thick forest. The woman clearly did not want to waste any time meeting her man.
Peadar worked his way in between Vange and his sister. “Nay, I do not have the recollection of being in any other time but now.” He kept looking ahead at the branches he had to move out of the way to keep moving, but he held them out of the way for Vange, too. “Howsoever, I do not recollect how I did come to be here, though, nor why I be dressed as an Englishman, nor especially why my sister be. I am grateful, though, to be free of the English.”
Vange looked around. “Do you know where we are?”
“Aye, lass. We be in Scotland.” Peadar s huge smile transformed him.
Vange laughed and adjusted her leather backpack. “I knew that much. But do you know where your old house is from here? The one Peigi wants to get back to?”
Peadar shrugged. “Nay, however Peigi does say she knows the way.”
“Oh, well that’s good. I guess we’ll just follow her then, and make sure she gets home safe.” Tentatively, Vange smiled at Peadar.
“Aye.” He smiled back.
But it was the smile you gave a stranger. They were starting over.
A few moments passed by in silence while they wound their way through the woods. Peigi didn’t have any trouble at all, and so Peadar was following her.
And Vange was following him. Her boots were getting much dirtier out here in the wild than they did at the renfest, but she would shine them when she got home. She got her car cup of bubblegum out of her pouch and grunted when she spilled some of it before grabbing one and popping it in her mouth. She was about to offer Peadar some, but he started talking again.
“So, now we be moving. I would that you told me where our da is. Before he came to free me of being captive, I had not seen him for nearly twenty years.”
Vange stopped in the middle of blowing a bubble. “Oh yeah, well … I’m from the future. You know that, right? And we’re talking five hundred years in the future.” She looked at him to make sure he believed her.
He did. “Aye.”
“OK, well, your dad is there, and I’m here. We’re just supposed to take Peigi home, and then your da expects both of us to go back there, to the future. You and Peigi are dressed as Englishmen because the MacGregors and the Campbells are feuding now…” Vange told him everything she knew about their situation, which now that she was talking about it, she realized was not much.
They were almost out of the woods when trouble found them.
One second Vange was following Peadar over logs and under branches, and the next second both of her arms were being grabbed from behind and she was lifted up off her feet.
“Eeeeaaaaahh.” Vange screamed.
She kicked and struggled.
She had her dagger sheathed in her boot, but her hands weren’t free to reach it. She was kind of afraid of what might happen if she did, anyway. The man who had grabbed her might grab it and use it against her.
At first, she didn’t see what would stop him.
But then Peadar and Peigi had turned around and were running toward her, shouting.
Other men were with the one who had her. Blue kilted men. They passed her by and ran out to meet the disguised MacGregors.
Peadar and
Peigi had drawn their claymores off their backs, and they met the Campbells fiercely.
All Vange heard for the next minute was swords ringing off each other and grunts and the odd snatch of Gaelic—which might as well have been Martian, for all she understood of it.
Dall’s children put up a good fight, but Vange was surprised when they were the last ones standing among so many attackers.
Except for the man who held Vange. He growled at the brother and sister, shaking Vange in front of them.
Her heart sank. She was his human shield.
But Peigi sheathed her sword, ran right up to Vange, caught her in a hug, and started pulling her out of the man’s grip.
Vange clung to Peigi for all she was worth. Tears were streaming down her face, and she let out a few sobs along with saying, “Ouch. Ouch.” at the way the obstinate man held on.
Peadar must have gone around behind the man and attacked his legs then, because the man fell.
“Ahhhhh.” Vange yelled, sure she was going to fall too.
Peigi held on to her though, pulling her free of the man and then steadying her until she was standing on her own.
And then the man behind her grunted and screamed. She heard him fall.
“Do you ken if any of them did get away, lass?” Peadar asked Vange as he came back around into view, looking everywhere at once.
“No, they all fell. It almost seems like someone was helping you guys, because I didn’t always see one of you close by when one of them fell.”
Peigi spoke up then in the tone one would use while instructing a child.
“Men do not fall from sword wounds straight away. Nay, they do bleed for a bit and then succumb to the pain and fall over.”
Peadar imitated them falling over.
Peigi laughed.
Vange smiled, but she was still getting over being scared to death, so laughter was going to have to wait awhile.
Saying something that appeared to be a joke, Peigi turned around and started walking again, toward her old house, toward Alan, her man.
