Chapter Fourteen

 

 

Kerry had made her mind up. She would wait until they got to the old hall and then cry out for help. The place had been deserted when she’d last been there but Callum had told her why. They had all been summoned to the castle or something like that, leaving the way clear for a MacCleod to enter MacIntyre land without sparking war.

There were bound to be people there this time. She might not be able to escape the painful grip Edward had on her but she wouldn’t need to. Once they got there and she started screaming the entire population would come charging over and in the confusion she’d run for it. She’d get through the portal on her own and keep running. In her own time the police would be able to help her keep Edward away. Here she could only rely on herself.

There was no point trying to get to Callum. She would only make his life worse.

He had to marry Nessa. That was the conclusion she’d reached as they grew closer to MacIntyre hall. She kept looking around her for any sign of life but there was nothing yet.

She’d decided it would be better for him to marry the woman he was supposed to. Even if he did love Kerry it wouldn’t be possible for the two of them to be together, not really. They were from different worlds. He was used to violence and death surrounding him but she wasn’t. Not only that but if she stayed she risked causing clan war.

Edward would keep chasing her too and she shuddered to think of the damage he could do to a medieval people. What if he brought a gun back with him? Even the strongest medieval highlander could do little against a revolver or a shotgun.

Or what if he tried some sports almanac shenanigans? The future might be President Edward. The idea didn’t bear thinking about.

She would get through the portal and then she would destroy it. That was the only way to protect the past and the future. How could she destroy it? She would work that out when she got there.

The main thing she needed to do was break free from him. Could she get through the portal and destroy it before he got through? Could that work? Leave him stuck in the past to get an arrow through the throat when he picked on the wrong highlander. That might just work.

She would be in the present and it would be as good as killing him but without any of the moral complications. He’d be trapped in the past and she’d finally be safe.

The downside would be that she would never get to be with Callum. She did her best not to think about that part.

They turned a corner and there was the hall in front of them. A plume of black smoke was rising from it. The hall itself was ablaze.

It was a hellish image and for a moment Kerry couldn’t take in what was happening. There was too much to see.

Edward’s hand slipped from hers as he stood in shock staring at the sight before him.

An old woman burst out from the flames, appearing in the doorway and then staggering away. At the same moment a group of men carrying flaming torches were running over to the hovels next to the hall. Another group of men on horseback were riding in from the road to the right.

“We need to help them,” Kerry said, taking a step forward.

Edward blocked her way. “No we don’t. We need to go home.”

“But there are people in trouble.” Already the men with torches were setting fire to the hovels, the thatch was alight, more dark smoke rising into the air. “They need our help.”

“Don’t you get it? These people are already dead. They died hundreds of years ago.”

“No they didn’t.” She saw another person bursting out from the doorway, this one also somehow not ablaze. “They’re alive right now.”

“Listen, we’re going home and that’s all there is to it.”

“How?”

“What?”

“How are we going home. The place is an inferno.”

“She just came out of it and that guy just ran inside. It can’t be that bad.”

Glancing from side to side, Kerry thought about screaming but realized the noise would be lost against the roar of the fire. As she looked past the village she saw the old woman stagger back and vanish out of sight.

Edward had let go of her again and was busy staring at the fight. She took her chance, running as fast as she could toward the old woman. She heard him shouting behind her but she didn’t look back, sprinting across the grass toward what she saw was a steep riverbank.

She stopped at the edge and looked down into the foaming torrent. There she was, her head just vanishing below the waves. “Hold on,” she shouted, sliding her way down the bank, her arm outstretched. She tried to stop at the edge but the grass was slick with dew and she was unable to prevent herself from losing balance.

With a single gasp she fell headfirst into the river and was immediately lost under the water. Opening her eyes she saw the old woman floating nearby, the two of them being fast washed downstream. Putting on a spurt of speed she kicked her legs and grabbed hold of the stranger, lifting her head to the surface so she could breathe.

The current was too strong for her to do anything but hold onto the unconscious woman and pray they both made it out of the river alive.

She had no idea how long they floated through the churning torrent but after an eternity of fighting for breath and spitting out foam the current finally began to slow and she was able to look around her. On both sides were trees lining the bank. The smoke from the fire at the old hall was nowhere to be seen. The only sound was the river and her own labored breathing.

Rolling onto her back, she kicked with her legs, keeping her arm around the old woman who still hadn’t moved. Eventually she made it to the bank, using the last of her strength to drag her companion onto the grass.

Utterly exhausted she laid back, her eyes closing at once. The sound of the river faded away.

The next thing she knew she was lying in a lumpy bed hearing someone say “She’s alive. I know she is.”

Opening her eyes, she said, “Who’s alive?”

She was in some kind of large hall,

“My daughter,” the old woman next to her said. “She’s at MacIntyre hall.”

“That’s a coincidence,” Kerry replied, sitting up and looking around her. Who was the woman next to her? She knew her from somewhere. “That’s where I was headed. Where am I?”

“Crossraguel abbey apparently.”

“How do you know that?”

“The abbot just left. Is it true that you dragged me out of the river?”

All of a sudden the memories came flooding back. “I remember. You fell in and I went in after you. It had gone for a moment but now I remember.”

“What’s your name?”

She knew that without having to think. She knew everything that had happened from falling out of the window in MacCleod castle to that moment. “Kerry Sutherland.”

“Janet Dagless. Thank you, for getting me out of the river I mean.”

“Don’t mention it. Any idea how we got here?”

“I think one of the monks found us on his way to a grange.”

“A grange?”

“Like a farm but run by the abbey monks instead of tenant farmers.”

“Oh, I see. So we’re in an abbey. Is that allowed, us being women and all?”

“I heard them talking about that very subject. They want to move us to the guesthouse when we’re well enough.”

“I feel fine now. How about you?”

“All I want to do is get back to MacIntyre hall and find my daughter.”

“Your daughter. What did she look like?”

“Like me but younger and with fewer wrinkles.”

“What was she wearing?”

Janet described perfectly the woman that Kerry had seen walking out of the inferno moments after her mother. “I saw her,” she said when the older woman was done. “She came out right after you.”

“So she’s alive? Thank god. I have to go find her.”

“Hold on. You’re heading up to MacIntyre hall?”

“Right this minute.”

“Then let me come with you. You look like you’re struggling to walk.”

“I’m fine.” Janet climbed out of bed and staggered on her feet for a moment. “Which way’s out?”

“Come on. We’ll go together. Find your daughter and then get back to our own time.”

“Our own time. What do you mean our own time?”

Kerry swung her legs out of the bed, testing her balance as she stood up. Nothing seemed broken though she felt as bruised as she had when she woke up in the middle ages for the first time. “Brace yourself for a bit of a shock but this isn’t the twenty-first century.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“I’m not. This is the twelfth century and we’re in the middle of clan territory in the highlands.”

“Are you sure you didn’t hit your head when you went underwater?”

“You’ll see soon enough. Come on, let’s get going. The sooner we head north, the sooner we get home.”

As they made their way outside, Kerry thought fast. They needed to get to the old hall. That part should be easy enough. Edward might be hiding there though, waiting for her to come back. She would need to keep an eye out for him.

Once she was certain it was safe she would get the two of them through to the present, hopefully with Beth with them too. Then she would find a way to destroy the doorway so Edward couldn’t follow them.

That was if the doorway was still there. What if the fire had destroyed it? She tried to think about how it had looked. It was made of stone. Wouldn’t that give it a chance to survive the inferno?

Eventually she decided not to worry about it. There was nothing she could do but get there and find out for herself whether it still existed.

To do that they needed to get out of the abbey, not easy when the entire place seemed surrounded by a tall stone walls.

When they got near the church she heard the sound of male voices singing in unison, the sound echoing out toward them, loud in the quiet of the day.

“They must be in the middle of a service,” she said. “Perfect timing for us to get out of here.”

“How? There’s a guard on the gate.”

Kerry tried each door they came to. She found what she wanted on the third attempt. A pile of clothing waiting to be washed. “Put this on,” she said to Janet before slipping a habit over her own clothes.

A few minutes later they were outside the walls and heading north, just two laborers walking from one job to another.