Exiles in Time (The After Cilmeri Series) (36 page)

“
The love Callum is
offering you is special. Do you really want to toss it aside?”
Samuel said.

Cassie stopped in the act of adjusting
the straps on her backpack. “Is that what you think I’m
doing?”

“
Isn’t it?”

“
This isn’t about love,”
Cassie said. “It’s about living. Besides which, you’re a fine one
to talk. Callum tells me that you’ve been secretly courting a woman
for years. Why haven’t you married her?”

“
She’s a Christian. I’m
Jewish.”

“
The times, they are
a’changing,” Cassie sang. “You should be embracing the change, not
running from it. King David and Callum both would support your
request for her hand. You know they would. That should be enough
for anybody.”

“
You don’t
understand.”

“
I
don’t understand?” Cassie said. “You’re a coward, that’s what
you are.”

“
And that makes you—what?”
Samuel said.

Cassie shot him an
aggrieved look but didn’t reply. His issues were not hers, nor her
business. The only thing left to say was
goodbye
.

She slept rough the first night, as
she had in those months of wandering Scotland during the first year
she’d lived in the Middle Ages. The next day, she woke early and
set off again. She was just approaching the place where Callum’s
company had been ambushed when the cantering hoof beats of a single
horse sounded behind her.

Cassie spun around, bow in hand and
arrow nocked. Her heart pounded in her ears, but even as the
adrenaline rushed through her, she acknowledged that she wasn’t
afraid of whoever was coming; she wasn’t afraid because she thought
it might be Callum.

That won’t do at
all!

Cassie leapt up the slope that
buttressed the road and crouched in the brambles to hide herself
from the rider, all the while telling herself that of course he
couldn’t be Callum. Cassie had told him how she felt and he would
respect her decision. Even so, as the man rode out of the mist,
Cassie’s breath caught in her throat. He wore mail, sword, and a
helmet like Callum’s. But then he was past her and he wasn’t
Callum, and Cassie was alone again.

She arrived home, unscathed but not
unchanged. She spent the next week mending her relationship with
Donella, renewing her supply of herbs and foodstuffs, and tending
to her garden. May turned to June. Lord Patrick returned to Mugdock
with the news that Scotland’s Parliament had chosen John Balliol as
their new king. Cassie thought it appropriate that the man was
given a fair chance, given what had happened in the old
world.

Five days later, Cassie was in the
midst of picking the first vegetables from her garden, with dirty
knees and sweat-soaked hair tied back from her face with a leather
thong, when a rider appeared in the clearing in front of her
house.

Cassie had been so absorbed that she
hadn’t heard him coming. She glanced up, her heart pounding with
the idea that it was Callum, and then she recognized Samuel. Cassie
hastened to him, brushing at the dirt on her hands and trying to
batten down her flash of fear, since he wouldn’t have come if all
was well. “What’s wrong—?”

“
He’s sick,” Samuel said.
Neither of them had to clarify who
he
was.

All the blood drained from Cassie’s
face. “With what? Who’s tending him? What have they tried?” She ran
to wash her face and hands in the bucket of water she’d left by the
door to her house. Cassie plunged her hands into the cool water and
scrubbed at them, internally cataloguing what herbs and salves she
had on hand that she might need to bring.

“
Nothing anyone does for
him seems to help,” Samuel said. “He needs you.”

“
Did he ask for me?” Cassie
straightened, mopping at her face with a cloth. At the silence
behind her, she lowered her hands and spun around.

Samuel stood with his hands behind his
back, studying Cassie. A small smile played around his
lips.

“
That was a dirty trick,”
Cassie said. “You mean he’s lovesick. For me.”

“
I had to be sure of how
you felt,” Samuel said. “Now I am. Why did you really leave him,
Cassie?”

“
I told you why. I told him
why.”

Samuel gazed around at Cassie’s little
steading. She kept it neat and clean, probably more so in recent
days than she had in the past. It had been important to keep busy.
“You’re really so happy here?” he said. “You like these Scottish
mountains that much, do you?”

“
I do.” Cassie swept loose
strands of hair from her face. “You wouldn’t
understand.”

“
I understand that you’re
afraid,” he said. “I understand that you aren’t as happy here as
you want me to think.”

Cassie laughed, though the sound came
out strained.

Samuel went on. “Callum has become my
friend, and I hate that you left him. He mourns the loss of you as
you do him, and you’re both too stubborn to fix this.”

“
Who says I’m unhappy?”
Cassie said.

“
As soon as you learned
that he was ill, you could think of nothing but going to
him.”

Cassie swallowed down a scathing
retort. Samuel was right, of course. “Does Callum know you’re
here?”

“
He’d have my head if he
knew. As I said—stubborn.”

Cassie folded her arms across her
chest. “Whether or not we miss each other doesn’t change the fact
that I’m not the right girl for him.”

“
He thinks you
are.”

“
But
why?”
All of a sudden, Cassie’s throat
was thick with unshed tears. “I don’t want him to love me. I don’t
want to need anyone as much as I need him. Everybody I have ever
loved is
gone
.”

As soon as Cassie said the words, she
wanted to take them back. But God help her, they were so much the
truth it left her breathless. She couldn’t believe she had shared
so much of herself with Samuel when until now she hadn’t admitted
how she felt, even to herself.

Samuel, however, was neither moved nor
sympathetic. “Everybody needs someone, Cassie.” He turned and waved
a hand. Cassie’s mouth dropped open as a woman rode out of the
woods and came to a halt beside Samuel. He reached his hands up to
her waist and helped her to the ground. “You see, Cassie. I
accepted your challenge. This is my betrothed, Elspet. It seems to
me that if I’ve had to change my ways, you have to change yours
too.”

* * * * *

“
You’re wearing a
dress.”

Cassie smiled at the amusement in
Callum’s voice and turned around. “Ah … but I’m wearing pants
underneath. Don’t get too excited.”

Callum entered the room and closed the
door behind him. He leaned back against it and looked at Cassie,
while she drank in the sight of him. His quarters at Stirling
Castle were well appointed and private, indicating his high status.
“It’s about time you showed up,” Callum said. “Another day or two
and I would have come looking for you.”

Cassie clenched her hands into fists.
Now that she was here, her confidence had evaporated. “You would
have?” It felt like she hadn’t taken a full breath since she’d seen
him last.

Callum pushed off the door and came
closer, stopping two paces away, his hands loose at his sides. If
he didn’t know what to do with them, Cassie had some good ideas.
Before she lost her courage completely, she stepped closer and put
her arms around his neck. His hands went to her waist.

“
Is this a change or am I
reading too much into this?” Callum said.

“
You can read whatever you
like into this,” Cassie said.

Callum bent to touch his forehead to
hers but didn’t speak.

Cassie didn’t have a lot of practice
with this sort of thing, but she recognized that for the moment,
she was going to have to do the talking for both of them. “What’s
next on your list of things to do and countries to save? Are we off
to London to give Bishop Kirby his comeuppance?”

“
Actually, no,” Callum
said. “King David still isn’t satisfied with the official story of
what happened to Princess Margaret. Since I’m already here, he is
sending me to Orkney to see if I can uncover what happened to her.
It’s his guess, as it is mine, that we may find Valence’s hand in
that as well. At the very least, I can get the full story from
those who witnessed her death.” Callum bit his lower lip. “Did you
say
we?
Last I
heard, you wanted to stay here.”

“
I do,” Cassie said. “Part
of me still does.”

Callum pulled Cassie a little closer.
“I can’t stay here, Cassie. The election is over and I have so much
to do.”

“
I know,” Cassie said.
“That’s why I told Lord Patrick that I would be leaving my house
and most likely, unless I entirely misunderstood your wishes, not
coming back.”

Callum swallowed hard. “You mean
it?”

Cassie nodded.

“
What changed your mind, if
I may ask?”

“
You did,” Cassie said.
“You never wavered, even as I kept trying to make you out to be
someone that you’re not, with ideas that you don’t have, just
because I’ve known so many men who aren’t as amazing as you
are.”

Callum actually blushed. “As for this
dress issue, I really don’t care what you wear.”

Cassie laughed and looked down at her
feet. “I can wear a dress sometimes if it keeps people from asking
too many questions. I don’t have to be a medieval woman, even if I
look like one occasionally. I just need you not to expect
it.”

“
I never did.” Callum
seemed to be having difficulty getting any words out, and when he
did speak, his voice was thick with emotion. “I love
you.”

Cassie was having trouble
breathing herself, but if she was going to do this, she was going
to do it right. No half measures or second thoughts.
“
For as long as the rain falls on these
green hills, I will stand with thee.
Isn’t
that how the vow goes?” she said.

Callum drew in an audible breath.
“Every day—every day—I thought about what I would say to you when I
saw you again. I meant what I said. In another day, I was going to
beg you to come with me.”

“
I don’t want you to beg,”
Cassie said. “You shouldn’t have to beg, though if you wanted to
say nice things about me, I wouldn’t stop you.”

Callum tipped back his head and
laughed. And then he looked down at her and Cassie finally got to
kiss him again.

“
Oh! I forgot to tell you.”
Callum pulled away a few millimeters. “I received a message from
King David yesterday. Have you heard?”

“
No,” Cassie said, suddenly
wary. “Heard what?”

Callum gave Cassie a huge grin. “It’s
a boy.”

The End

A Note from the
Author

I’d like to thank each and
every reader who has stuck with the
After
Cilmeri
series now for six novels.
Exiles in Time
has allowed
us to wander off into Scotland, where the culture and history are
different from medieval Wales, though no less exciting and complex.
Since I was writing a novel and not a dissertation, most of the
research I did in creating the book didn’t make it into the actual
story. For those of you who are interested in the historical
context of 1289, I’d like to direct you to my web page and the
following topics in particular:

Languages of Medieval
Scotland:
http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/scots-scottish-and-gaelic-whats-the-difference/

Medieval Scottish
Clans:
http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/medieval-scottish-clans/

The Succession of
1290:
http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/the-succession-of-1290-scotland/

The Welsh Longbow:
http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/the-welsh-longbow/

Early Parliament:
http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/early-parliament-and-representative-process/

Medieval Bathing
Practices:
http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/did-medieval-people-bathe/

Medieval
Administration:
http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/would-a-medieval-prince-have-had-an-office/

Messenger Pigeons in the
Middle Ages:
http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/messenger-pigeons-in-the-middle-ages/

Could Time Travel
Happen?:
http://www.sarahwoodbury.com/could-time-travel-happen/

The next book in the
After Cilmeri
series is
now available for preorder!