A Fall Through Time (Stacey and Shane Mcleod, #1) (2 page)

Lady Katherine returned with the clothing and a potion for her head, which Stacey drank down fast and then asked, “Who was the big man chasing after me?” 

“That be Sir Perceval; he be trying to help ye. Ye scratched and bit him badly, young lady.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’ll apologize to him,” Stacey said, “but he really scared me.”

“Can ye tell us from where ye came and how ye arrived on the road?” Lady Margaret asked.

“I came from London,” Stacey said, “but I don’t know how I got here.  I’ve been wondering that myself.”

The two women helped Stacey change her clothes.  When they saw her black lace bra and bikini panties they asked, “What manner of clothing be these?” 

“They’re my underwear,” Stacey said and began to put the clothes on over her underwear and she kept her Nike’s on too.

As they came down the stairs, the big knight was waiting for them.  Stacey went to him immediately to apologize, but was surprised when he knelt down on one knee to say he was sorry.  Stacey was embarrassed and bid him to rise. With the people in the hall watching she said, “No, no, Sir Perceval, it’s I who must apologize to you.  I didn’t realize you were trying to help me.  You really scared the bie-jee-bies out of me.  I’m so sorry I hurt you.”

This remark set the whole hall laughing.  To think this snip of a girl, thought she could hurt this battle harden knight. In the great hall, tables were set for the mid-day meal.  One was on a dais; it was toward this one that Lady Margaret took Stacey.  As soon as Stacey saw the black hair, bearded one, she tried to pull back, however, Lady Margaret would not hear of it.  She guided Stacey to the high table and sat her beside her younger son, Rodric.

Black beard sat at the end of the table with Lord Hampton and Lady Margaret on the other side.  There were many other folks there too, but Stacey didn’t know any of them except, Lady Katherine and Sir Perceval. There were young boys called pages who helped serve.  Stacey racked her brain trying to remember her British history.  Rodric was trying to get her attention to let her know she was to share his trencher.

“Thank you,” Stacey said, “but I’m not really hungry just kind of thirsty.  My stomach is a bit upset and it seems to have a mind of its own.” 

Stacey reached for the pewter goblet sitting in front of her.  She took a big swallow but it tasted awful, whatever it was, so she took the smaller one.  She was sure it had water in it.  No sooner had she put it to her lips than she realized she had made a faux pas.  She had drunk from the finger bowl.

Oh, lord, Stacey knew she was going to throw up any minute.  The mixture of the headache potion along with whatever was in the goblet was making her nauseous.  She jumped up from the table to run outside but didn’t know which way to the door?  She simply didn’t know how to get outside.  As she started around the end of the table, the black bearded one grabbed her wrist and jerked her back toward him.  Stacey could not understand what he was saying, but she was trying her best to get away.  His hold was like a vice.  Stacey put her other hand to her mouth, but it didn’t help much.  She vomited right in his lap. He quickly turned her loose, jumped back and said, “Ye filthy, bloody wench!”

Stacey screamed at him, “Don’t you call me names you big bully.  It’s your own darn fault; I was trying to get out of here before you grabbed hold of me.”

The Great Dane had moved just in time.  Black beard yelled for someone and left the hall. Rolf came over to Stacey and she knelt down and put her arms around the big dog’s neck. Lady Margaret took Stacey back upstairs to lie down.  She told her to remove her clothes and get in bed.  She left no room for argument, so Stacey did as she was told.

“I’m so sorry about that,” Stacey said, “but I was trying to get outside.” 

“Do not concern ye self my dear, that be not ye fault,” Lady Margaret assured her.

The understanding of Lady Margaret made Stacey feel much better.  She wondered how this lady could be so nice and her son such a grump.  Stacey laid in bed trying to figure out how she got there.  The whole situation lacked reality and her thoughts were running wild.  As far as I know, it’s impossible to go back in time and there’s no way I can let them know I come from the 21
^st
century. At this time in history, women with knowledge are thought of as witches, so I must watch what I say and do here in this incredulous period.

Stacey had been lying with her eyes closed. She was remembering being in England and how this had all come about. Stacey would be entering her senior year at Baylor University this fall.  Professor Garrett Cooke had chosen her along with three other students from Baylor to participate in the dig at Druid’s Grove.

Stacey’s best friend was Anne Rutledge, a Professor of archaeology and director of excavation.  Stacey and Annie had met on a dig in Turkey three years before.  The next summer they had worked on a dig in Greece and now this summer in England. Stacey was very fond of her friend, Annie. She was concerned, what would her friends and her parents think when they couldn’t find her? They would be worried sick so it was imperative to find her way back.

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.

The Castle Grounds

E
arly 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 the 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.