Chapter Five

 

 

In the first week of her stay at MacCleod castle Kerry spent her time getting to know the place and its inhabitants. The initial couple of days had been a whirlwind of activity. Wherever she looked, there was noise and movement, the place crowded with people. It was incredible.

In time she began to understand things. What she thought was chaotic coalesced into a kind of order. What had seemed ugly became beautiful. What was considered beautiful in her time was missing in many places. There were no ornamental flowers in the garden for example. Nessa named each of the herbs and plants growing, all of them serving a purpose.

The kitchen was filled with functional items. Her natural interest in cooking meant she spent a lot of time in there, learning their methods and giving them some of her own. She enjoyed it most in the kitchen and the garden.

The garden was where the beauty of the place was found. The water dripping from the roof when it rained fell straight into the barrels to be used in the tanning pits. The tall undecorated walls were designed deliberately, nothing had been added that might help attacking forces or increase the cost of building.

It was so different to the castle she’d visited. Grass covered the courtyard in the modern day, paths of gravel ensuring the visitors didn’t get muddy feet. There were still gaps in her memory but she recalled something happening to her in the tower.

What it was she had no clue. It was gone from her head completely. She could remember the castle, the bare walls, the fallen stones in the courtyard, the interpretation boards put up to show what building went where.

Now she could see it all as it really was. The kitchen, smoke rising from the chimney from morning to night, the fire never allowed to die out. Next to that the chapel standing alone in the corner. There was the blacksmith’s forge, the stores, the archery range, the pig pens, the tanners, the countless other stone and wooden buildings filling the space of the courtyard. So many buildings and so many people.

Everyone had a job to do. No one ever seemed to stand idle and the only rest came during dinner, itself the single meal of the day.

And what a meal it was. Lasting for hours, one course after another was brought out, each more delicious than the last, all flavored with exotic spices and dripping with sauce. They were using some of her tips but they needed little advice. The meals were magnificent.

She was even starting to learn the etiquette of the time. If you got a bone in your mouth you spat it onto the rushes behind you, not onto your plate. You only picked up food with a single finger and thumb, never the whole hand, you did not feed the dogs by hand, you tossed food to the floor for them to fight over. You wiped your mouth on the tablecloth, never your sleeve, all things she had to learn by first getting them wrong.

“Did they teach you no etiquette at MacKay castle?” Sheena asked her during her first meal in the great hall, seeing her place a bone delicately down on her trencher.

“I have forgotten much,” Kerry replied, touching her head.

“Of course, I forgot about your injury. Forgive me.”

She ate each night in the darkest corner of the hall, out of sight of Callum. She saw him looking for her on occasion but she remained as hidden as she could and for good reason.

From the moment he’d left her in the tower on the first day she had been unable to stop thinking about him. It was a feeling she’d never experienced before. She didn’t want to see him again. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to get any words out other than gibberish. Just thinking about him was enough to start her heart pounding in her chest. She wanted him like she’d never wanted anyone before. She wasn’t even sure why. The only reason she could think of was that he reminded her of the Callum from her childhood dreams, a dream come vividly to life.

That was why she hid from him whenever she saw him coming. She had allowed herself a glance at him as he’d practiced sword fighting in the courtyard. Seeing him coated in sweat, his muscles bulging, she’d had to fan herself with her hand to cool down, the air suddenly stiflingly hot in the tower.

She felt like she was falling in love with him. It was ridiculous of course. They’d barely spoken two words to each other and on his side that had consisted of telling her in no uncertain terms that he wanted nothing to do with her. The fact that it was impossible to fall for someone that quickly had not stopped her doing it though.

She ached for him in a way she’d never thought possible for another human being, like she’d known him all her life even though that too was ridiculous.

She stayed away from him primarily because her feelings were too strong. Sooner or later she would find a way back to her own time and if she got too close to him, going home would become all the more painful. She was already feeling sad about the idea, leaving behind this world that no one else from her time had ever seen or would ever see again. It was just her alone that had slipped through time for a glimpse of the past as it was lived, not like in books or movies but real, and all right in front of her eyes.

Get to know him and she wouldn’t be able to leave. She had to leave. This wasn’t her time. What was it Doc Brown had told Marty? The slightest interference with the past could have unimaginable consequences for the present. She didn’t want to get home in a year’s time to find herself in a casino where the castle once stood, surrounded by biker gangs with Biff Tannen married to her mom.

Better she stayed out of the way as much as possible until she could get home. There was one thing she had to do first though and she wasn’t sure how best to do it.

“You need to come downstairs.”

Kerry looked across to the doorway. Sheena was standing there beckoning her.

“Why?” she replied, getting to her feet. “What is it?”

“The laird and lady have summoned you.”

“Oh.” Kerry felt nervous all of a sudden. They were bound to know what Nessa looked like and would be able to tell at once that she was an imposter. The question was, what would they do then? She kicked herself for not thinking about that sooner. She’d been distracted by a juvenile crush when she should have been planning for this.

Sheena led her down the stairs to the great hall. It had been cleared of people apart from the laird and lady. They sat together on the dais at the far end, watching as she entered the room. She winced, ready for one of them to yell, “You’re not Nessa.”

Neither said anything. She found her feet were not walking properly and the more she concentrated, the more certain she became that she was about to fall over, her legs feeling alien, not part of her.

Somehow she made it across the room on jelly ankles. “Sit down my dear,” the lady said.

A chair was brought forward and Kerry sat, waiting nervously to see what they had to say to her.

“Where is that boy of mine?” the laird snapped, getting to his feet and glancing past Kerry. “If I have to go fetch him-”

“I’m here.”

Kerry’s heart soared at the sound of Callum’s warm voice. She turned her head and felt butterflies spreading inside her as he marched across the room. He didn’t look at her once and she tried not to be disappointed.

It was a bit much to expect him to know how she felt. She had said nothing to him all week. She’d avoided being near him for precisely that reason. What could she say? “Hi, I’m from the future, I love you, let me have your babies.” That wouldn’t sound insane at all.

“My son and his bride to be,” the laird said as Callum came to sit next to her. “This is a most heart warming sight.”

Kerry looked up at him. Did he really not see she was an imposter?

“I willnae marry a MacKay,” Callum said. “I say you call this farce to an end and send her back to the bloodsoaked hands of her father.”

“Silence!” the laird snapped. “You will not say another word until I’ve said my piece and if you so much as breathe too loudly, I’ll have your balls cut off and fed to the pigs.”

“Alan,” his wife said. “Please remember there are ladies present.”

“Sorry, my dear.” He turned to Kerry. “I hear you had an injury on your way here. Are you quite recovered?”

“Getting there,” Kerry replied, her voice faint. Her throat felt dry as a bone left out in the desert sun. “Slowly.”

“Did you get a look at those who attacked you?”

“I saw nothing, I’m afraid.”

“Shame. No matter. We will catch the culprits soon enough.” He turned his face to Callum. “As for you two, you will spend the next week together. You will get to know each other while we begin the wedding preparations. In seven days time you will stand before me and you will both confirm your desire to wed or you will never sleep on MacCleod land again. Do you ken?”

Callum folded his arms across his chest and stared at his father but he said nothing.

“Good. My son, I want your solemn vow that you agree to marry this lass. Is it given?”

There was a pause that lasted an ice age before Callum spoke. “Yes, father.”

“Both of you can start now. Go for a walk together or something. Get to know each other.”

Callum stood up and was already gone before Kerry was halfway across the room. “That boy’s too stubborn for his own good,” the laird was saying behind her.

“Give him a chance,” the lady called out as Kerry looked back. “His bark’s worse than his bite.”

Kerry managed a smile before heading outside. She found him standing in the courtyard tapping his foot impatiently. “I will not marry a MacKay,” he said when she reached him. “After what your people did to my family, I can’t believe he wants us to wed.”

“I need to tell you something,” Kerry replied. “I’m not a MacKay,”

Callum had been about to continue his rant but he stopped dead, his eyes widening. “What?”

“I’m not Nessa MacKay.”

“What are you talking about? Of course you are.”

“My name’s Kerry Sutherland and until one week ago I’d never heard of Nessa McKay.”

“What? But you were on your way to the castle. Why were you coming here if you’re not her?”

“I wasn’t coming here.” She took a deep breath, looking him straight in the eye. “This is going to sound crazy but I’m from the future and this is going too far if they think I’m going to marry you but I’m not her. Something happened to me in my time and I woke up here. All I want to do is get home and I’m hoping you can help with that because if I stay here…” Her voice tapered away to nothing. She wanted to add, “I’ll never want to leave you,” but she was able to stop herself just in time. She looked up at him, awaiting the incredulous response.

To her surprise, Callum nodded. “So it’s true.”

“What? What’s true?”

“A seer once told me I’d be visited by a lass from another time. I never believed her but here you are.”

“So you believe me?”

“Aye, lass. I knew at once you were too beautiful to be a MacKay. It makes sense now. Listen, I think I know a way to solve both of our problems.”

“How?”

“There is a doorway north of here.”

“A doorway? What doorway?”

“Rumor came to us of a woman from the future who came through that doorway recently. And if that doorway brought her here, it must be able to take you back to your time.”

“Where is it? You must take me there.”

“I dinnae ken where it is but I know someone who will.”

“Who?”

“You’ll see. We shall head off at once. Soon you will be back in your own time and as I am betrothed to you, I cannae marry Nessa MacKay. I will have no bride to bother me any more.”

Kerry kept quiet as Callum called for a pair of horses. She had no idea if he was right but what choice did she have? It was that or stay by his side and end up wanting him more than ever. Which would be fine if it wasn’t for the fact his actual bride was presumably going to turn up at some point and then where would she be? Probably locked in the dungeon as an imposter and there would go her chance of a happy life with Callum.

“What about the real Nessa?” she asked.

“I dinnae know but I suspect if I sweeten the pain with news of a portal to the future, even my own father might calm down. Think what we could do with a doorway to the future. I could bring back warriors from your time and then we would have no need for a pact with the MacKays. Besides, my father made me vow to marry you. Once you’re gone, the oath remains. I will be unable to marry another. Not my fault if you’ve vanished, is it?”

The horses were brought out and Callum climbed onto his, waiting while Kerry tried to remember the single riding lesson she’d had as a child. It took several attempts before she was up and even then she almost lost her balance twice before finally settling in place on the beast’s back.

“Let’s go,” Callum said, turning his horse toward the gate.

Kerry tried to follow but no matter what she did her horse would not move. It just flicked its head as if she was nothing more than an errant fly irritating its ear.

“Could you give me a hand?” she shouted to Callum.

He looked back at her. “You can ride, can you?”

She shook her head in response.

“I never met a lass who could not ride,” he said, bringing his own steed back to her. “No matter. We shall ride together.”

With one arm he reached out and grabbed her around the waist, lifting her onto his horse, setting her down in front of him, his hand still around her waist.

“On,” he called out and the horse moved forward. Kerry held her breath for a long time, feeling his strong hand holding her in place, the tips of his fingers pressing into her skin. She closed her eyes and let out her breath as slowly as she could. The quicker they made it to the portal the better.