Seeds of Time (18 page)

The meal was a feast in celebration of a local saint, and Darrell and her friends were welcomed with great ceremony. As ranking officer in Sir William's absence, Hamish began the evening with a toast. He presented a container of salt to Lady Eleanor, who responded with reddened cheeks and a beaming smile. Then a baker came in and cut the top off of a beautiful round loaf of bread. The upper crust was divided among the Laird's family and the guests, and the rest of the bread was sent further down the table for the other members of the household to enjoy.

Lady Eleanor played hostess to the introduction of a succession of delicious dishes. There were twelve courses in all, beginning with a fruit tart in pastry and including a tiny omelette, roasted salmon and chicken, and a selection of cakes and cheese.

Darrell made a concerted effort to avoid Hamish's gaze. She noted with some interest how he lavished attention upon Eleanor throughout the meal. Seated on her right, he ordered the servants brusquely to ensure that her plate and cup were never empty, and he spent much of the meal with his hand resting lightly on her arm.

Wanting to avoid Hamish's eye as much as possible, Darrell turned to Lady Eleanor's chaperone from the carriage, Ernestina. “Has this region been much affected by the plague? It seems there is much sorrow to be found in the village.”

Ernestina nodded. “I, myself,” she said piously, “take time out every day to pray at the Monastery of St. Columba of Iona, that I might help the people with God's holy strength. That is where Eleanor and I were today, when we came upon ye near the water.” She rolled her eyes heavenward and rubbed the rosary she wore around her neck.

The couple sitting between Darrell and Kate stood up and strolled away. Darrell looked thoughtfully at the Ernestina for a moment and then turned in her own chair to listen to Kate and Brodie, now within earshot.

“I can't understand how these people can be so small when they eat so much food,” whispered Kate to Brodie.

He grinned and swallowed a small cake from a platter in front of him. “Think of how you eat after you have been doing tae kwon do for an afternoon,” he
replied in a low voice. “These people have no labour-saving devices. They do everything from scratch and they have to work very hard.” He started to tick things off on his fingers. “No cars, no phones, no water pipes, no washing machines, no computers ...”

“What is this ‘
computer
'?” interrupted a young girl sitting beside Kate who had been listening with growing puzzlement to Kate and Brodie's whispered conversation.

Brodie turned red and looked at Kate for help.

She grinned at the girl. “I'm sorry,” she said sincerely, “he is just an ignorant boy who comes from a far and distant place. Still, I am fond of him, and I keep him around to help me, all the same.” Kate looked at Darrell and they dissolved in giggles, while Brodie and the young girl gazed at them in great puzzlement.

Lady Eleanor went to bed soon after the evening meal, bringing the girls up with her. After making use of the garderobe to their great amusement, Darrell and Kate readied themselves for bed. Eleanor, attended by her maids, was rolled up in her covers and securely enclosed by the heavy linen hangings around her bed.

Once she was sure that Eleanor was safely tucked in bed out of earshot, Kate rolled over toward Darrell on her nearby pallet and they conducted a whispered conversation.

“Did you see the mess on the floor after the meal?” whispered Kate, disgust in her voice. “These people just throw their bones and scraps on the floor after they eat. It's awful.”

Darrell smiled sleepily. “I think they were throwing the scraps to the dogs. I saw at least three dog fights over the course of the banquet.”

“No wonder the Great Hall stunk so badly when we walked through it today.” Kate punched the straw pallet she was lying on. “And I'm sure I saw one puppy pee in the corner by the door to the kitchens. At least Delaney's house trained.”

Darrell smiled in spite of her sleepiness. “Make that
castle
trained.”

“Do you think Brodie is okay? Where do you think he's sleeping?”

“I'm sure he's fine,” replied Darrell, keeping her voice very low. “Since he's taken on the job of stable boy, I'm sure he must be down there with Delaney.” She changed the subject. “I want to go back and have a peek at the cave again tomorrow. When Delaney came in, he had something in his mouth, but I didn't get a good look at it. I have a hunch it has something to do with why we are here.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don't know, Kate. And I'm not really sure ... just something about the cave was different from
when I saw it last. We left the cave in such a hurry that I didn't get enough time to properly look around. And I couldn't even get a good look back from the carriage ...”

“Right, I remember that,” interrupted Kate, sarcastically. “
We
got to ride on the back of a creaking wagon filled with straw. My back is still killing me from the ruts. And I'm sure that Brodie is down in the stable right now, sneezing his head off as your loyal servant should. As I recall,
you
were riding in air-conditioned comfort in a padded coach.”

Darrell snickered quietly. “Okay, okay, so the coach was better than the wagon. It was still pretty bumpy, y'know. And definitely not air-conditioned, except that there was no glass in the windows.”

She paused. “Anyway, in the coach, I was thinking that this whole trip has to do with what we were learning from Professor Tooth this summer. Eleanor confirmed it this afternoon. We are smack in the middle of the European outbreak of the Black Plague.”

Kate closed her eyes and leaned back on her bed. “I know that must be true,” she whispered, “but I still find it so hard to believe.” She looked at Darrell's face, lit by the flickering light of a small tallow candle, and her eyes filled with tears. “I really want to go home now, Darrell. There are so many things that have happened that I don't understand.”

Darrell nodded and reached over to pat Kate's arm. “It will all work out, Kate. Somehow everything is tied into this cave. I'm sure by tomorrow we will be able to make it back to the school.”

Darrell woke the next morning before dawn, feeling restless and worried. She was missing something, and she couldn't think what it could be. She got up and dressed quietly, cringing a bit when she touched the slightly sticky mints that were still in the pocket of her skirt.
I'll have to get rid of this mess somewhere
, she thought absently as she tiptoed downstairs to the stables. She could see the small stable boy at the end of the dark aisle carefully carrying an oil lamp. She put up her hand to hail him when she tripped and stumbled over something in the dark. She grabbed the low wall of one of the stalls and managed to keep her feet. Looking down, she saw Delaney, curled up like a brown apostrophe on the hay. He smiled up at her and held up his front paw, which had a small dirty bandage wrapped around it.

“Delaney,” she said with dismay. “What happened to you?”

“He got his paw under Primrose's hoof, m'lady.” The small stable boy had heard Darrell's clumsy entrance and come over to investigate. “I think the bone is broken,” he added.

“Oh, Delaney!” She patted him gently on the head.

“I've left yer servant to sleep, miss,” the stable boy whispered. “I tried to rouse him this morning but he just rolled over and would not get up.”

Darrell smiled weakly, still worried about Delaney. “I do need to speak with him about the dog, so let's try a wet rag on his head. I'm sure that'll do the trick.”

The stable boy sped off to get the water, giggling.

Darrell turned back to Delaney and found he was holding something in his mouth. She took it and stood up to peer at it in the gloomy lamplight.

A wool stocking
, she thought.
Where have I seen this before?

A voice behind her made her jump. Quickly, she jammed the stocking into her pocket before she turned around.

“Here's the water, m'lady.” The stable boy grinned impishly.

“I'm sorry,” Darrell muttered. “I've changed my mind. Let's let him sleep a while longer. I've just remembered something I have to do ...”

Ten minutes later, Darrell was scrambling down the road to the beach. The kitchen had been a flurry of activity as she ran out the door to the garden (
Just like Eagle Glen
, she thought with a pang) and she was sure that no one had noticed her departure. She had stopped on the way through the great hall to pick up an old hawthorn stick she had seen lying discarded in a corner.

Using the stick as a cane tremendously aided her progress, and by using a hop-step combination over the many ruts, she was able to almost run down the road to the town.

My leg must be getting used to this prosthesis,
she thought sardonically.

In less than half an hour she made her way down the stone steps and onto the beach. As she limped down the final steps, Darrell heard a scratching sound behind her, and her heart jumped into her throat. She whipped around, only to find Delaney limping down the path behind her.

“Silly dog,” she muttered quietly. “You should be home resting that sore paw of yours.” She patted his head and stepped onto the beach. Slowing down to catch her breath, she watched Delaney snuffle off down the beach. She pulled the stocking out of her pocket and picked her way across the rocky shore to the entrance of the cave.

She didn't smell the smoke until she had actually stepped into the opening itself, and then it was too late.

A dry voice spoke behind her. “And who might ye be, lass?”

Darrell whirled around to face an old man, wildly bearded and wearing little more than rags.

Darrell's heart felt like it had frozen in her chest. Her feelings of unease had been justified.

“I ... I found this stocking at the castle,” she said lamely. The man stared at her through blue eyes that looked strangely familiar. He nodded for her to continue.

Darrell groped for something to say, and then decided on the truth, or part of it. “I was here yesterday, and I saw the mate of this stocking tucked in the cave here. I ... I ... just came down to ... to satisfy my curiosity.”

The old man looked at her calmly.

“Well, my dear,” he said. “I'm afraid ye couldn't have chosen a worse time to be curious.” He called into the cave. “Sir William, I believe we have a problem.”

Darrell turned to see the entire doorway of the cave filled with the bulk of an enormous man wearing a uniform similar to that of the castle soldiers. He was wrapped in a swath of plaid, and the links of his mail clinked and rattled as he stepped out of the cave. He was as heavily bearded as the old man, but almost twice the size.

Darrell was speechless. In an age where she qualified as a large girl, this was surely a giant. And yet the voice, when he spoke, was gentle.

“I've never seen ye around Ainslie, my girl. I would've remembered that wee wooden foot, I'm sure. Are ye a friend to my daughter, then?”

Darrell swallowed. “I ... we ... my friends ... ah ... servants and I were shipwrecked on your beach,” she stumbled. She took a deep breath and tried again. “The Lady Eleanor has welcomed us into Ainslie Castle, that we might find sanctuary from the Black Plague.”

The giant roared with laughter. “My Ellie,” he said with evident delight, “was probably so excited by yer adventures that she kept ye up all night.” He sat down on a large boulder with a clank and turned to the old man. “As she's a friend of Ellie's, Iain, I guess we'll just have to leave her here in the cave until all the nonsense is over.”

Darrell looked from one bearded face to the other with dawning understanding. She pointed her finger at the giant.

“You must be Sir William, Eleanor's father.” She turned and looked at the old man. “And if I had to guess from the colour of your eyes, I would say you must have a son named Luke.”

The old man grinned through his beard and spoke
to the giant. “She's a quick study, this one. Perhaps she can deliver us news from the castle ...”

He was interrupted by a shout, and Darrell looked up to see Luke careening down the road from the castle on his horse. The animal scrambled down the bank and then thundered up the beach to where they stood.

“Father ... Hamish is mounting his men!” he gasped, and slid off the horse. “I took the fastest horse, but they were but moments behind me.”

Darrell grabbed Luke's arm. “Please tell me what's happening.”

“Dara! There is no time! Ye must flee back to the castle. Take this dirk!” He pulled a slim knife from his stocking. A ray of sun crept over the horizon and gleamed on the blade of the knife. She heard a crash and looked up to see what seemed a river of mounted men, pouring down from the castle road onto the beach.

Leading the charge was Hamish, looking much more imposing atop his horse than on foot.

Darrell recognized several of the soldiers who rode beside him as those who had surrounded Luke and his family and frightened her on her first visit to this place.

Sir William put his hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her behind him. Darrell stepped back against the rocks, her hands behind her. Sir William looked up at Hamish, ignoring the other mounted soldiers. “Hail,
young Hamish. Would this be a wee committee to welcome me home from my travels?”

Hamish quailed for a moment at the sight of the large man. He looked around at the troops mounted beside him and swallowed.

“Not quite, Sir William. Ye have been gone so long, we at Ainslie Castle had taken ye for lost.”

“So I have heard from my shipmate's son, Hamish. He tells me that there may be other plans in play ... something to do with my daughter?”