Exiles in Time (The After Cilmeri Series) (27 page)

“
It definitely could have
been worse,” said James. “The ruffians have been vanquished, at
least for now. I don’t see the point of further pursuit.” James
looked past Walter to Callum.

Callum shook his head. “The
MacDougalls are long gone.”

“
The boy you sent mentioned
that the MacDougalls were to blame.” Walter swung around to look at
his men. “Secure the perimeter.”

The men moved to obey him, and Marty
started shooing his people away from the green again. “Show’s
over,” he said, though before he said it, Callum wouldn’t have
thought that the phrase meant the same rendered in
thirteenth-century Gaelic as it did in their old world.

Walter turned back to James. “Are you
able to ride, my lord?”

“
I will be able to.” James
looked at Callum again. “The boy is awake.”

Callum nodded and canted his head at
Cassie, inviting her to come with him into Marty’s house. John
wasn’t actually sitting up in bed, but he had his arms clasped
behind his head and was gazing up at the ceiling. He lifted his
head to look at them as they entered. His pinched look cleared and
his face split into a grin. “Cassie!”

She walked to the bed. “Hello, John.
So you aren’t completely out of your head after all. James said you
were raving.”

James choked from behind her. “I did
not—!”

“
He what—?”

Cassie laughed. “I’m teasing you
both.” She took John’s hand in hers. “How do you feel?”

“
My head aches.” John’s
grip tightened on Cassie’s hand. “Can you help me to sit
up?”

“
Of course.” Cassie pulled
him to a sitting position on the bed with his back against the wall
behind him. She handed him a cup of water.

“
Why did the MacDougalls
abduct you?” Callum said.

“
I-I don’t know,” John
said.

“
It was you they wanted
even more than James,” Cassie said.

Callum allowed himself a smile at
Cassie’s continued use of James Stewart’s first name. She should
have said ‘Lord James’ at the very least. James didn’t correct her,
however, and John acted as if he didn’t notice.

“
I went to bed in my
father’s house and woke up in the bed of a cart,” he
said.

“
How were you injured?”
Cassie said. “It’s just your head, right? They didn’t beat
you?”

“
That I banged my head was
my fault,” John said. “I tried to escape too soon instead of
lulling them into a false sense of security.”

“
An honest mistake,” said
James, coming forward. “I did the same thing.”

John looked at James as if he didn’t
believe a lord such as James could possibly have done such a
foolish thing.

James ignored the look. “Will you
speak to William Fraser of all that has befallen you?” He paused.
“And us.”

“
Yes,” John
said.

It seemed that the honor of the
Grahams ran true in this son.

“
I will send word to your
father of your survival just as soon as we arrive at my castle at
Doune,” said James.

John nodded. “Thank you.”

While James stood beside John’s bed,
quietly talking to him, Callum tugged Cassie towards the door. “I’m
almost afraid to ask you this, but you’re coming to Stirling Castle
with me, right?”

Cassie wrinkled her nose at him. “In
all our running around, I almost forgot what you were doing in
Scotland in the first place.”

“
I was supposed to figure
out what was going on among the players for the throne,” Callum
said.

“
Admittedly, you’ve made
headway on that issue,” Cassie said.

“
And then I was supposed to
find out who murdered Princess Margaret,” Callum said. “I haven’t
even started on that yet.”

“
David doesn’t think she
died like they said?” Cassie said. “From the flu?”

“
Do you?” Callum said. “I
think everyone’s pretending it was natural so they don’t have to
think about it. They’ve convinced themselves that King Alexander
fell off that cliff all on his own, too, but I don’t believe that
either.”

“
They’re going to love you
in Stirling,” Cassie said, unable to hold back a smile.

Callum laughed. “David
envisioned a week of state dinners, not that we’d get ambushed
before we’d even started. I haven’t even
met
Balliol and Grampa Bruce
yet.”

“
David thought you could
have politics in the Middle Ages without murder and mayhem? I
thought you said he’d lived here since 1282?”

That prompted another laugh from
Callum. “So, what do you say?”

Cassie chewed on a nail, her eyes on
James and John. Samuel had fallen asleep on his stool, his back
propped against the wall and his chin on his chest. Finally, she
nodded. “I’ll come. I want to know how this turns out,
too.”

Callum let out a breath. He’d been
worried that he’d have to do some serious persuading. “At the very
least, with whatever is between the MacDougalls and the Bruces
still unsettled, I don’t want you returning to your house alone. It
wouldn’t be safe.”

Cassie met Callum’s eyes. “You don’t
have to worry about me. I can take care of myself.”

“
I can’t help worrying,”
Callum said. “Daddy Bruce is marching on Dunstaffnage. The
countryside won’t be safe for anyone.”

“
I’d almost forgotten that
too.” Cassie turned to James and switched back to Gaelic. “You know
Robbie’s father better than we do. Do you think Robbie would have
gotten into trouble for helping us?”

“
The Bruces and the Comyns
hated each other long before this week. I trust Robbie’s instincts,
and if he helped you to leave his father’s camp, we have to assume
he knew what he was doing.” James glanced at Callum. “We need to
have a conversation.”

Callum woke Samuel with a hand to his
shoulder. With John watching bright-eyed from the bed, Callum sat
on the bench next to Samuel while James and Cassie pulled two
stools close. James eyed Cassie for a second, and then seemed to
come to the decision that whatever needed to be said could be said
in front of her. By now, James had to know that he shouldn’t expect
Cassie to behave like any other woman he’d ever met.

“
I am concerned about how
to approach the other Guardians and Parliament with what has
happened,” said James.

“
That makes two of us,”
Callum said.

James looked hard at Callum. “Kirby is
a bishop and an advisor to the King of England. Before I make any
move against him, I must consult with my advisors. I would hope
that I might include you among them when I reach Doune.”

“
Of course,” Callum
said.

“
Kirby should be locked in
a dungeon, sooner rather than later,” Cassie said.

“
Do we have definitive
proof of his duplicity?” Samuel said.

“
We have the testimony of
Robbie Bruce and of Cassie,” Callum said, with a glance at
her.

Cassie nodded. “I witnessed the
ambush; I saw Kirby’s decoy fall. Robbie was the only one to escape
before the ambush, and Callum was the only man left alive after the
MacDougalls marched the prisoners away.”

“
Which means that for Kirby
to have reached Robert Bruce’s forces before Robbie, he had to have
already been on his way there when the MacDougalls attacked,” said
James.

“
Yes,” Cassie and Callum
said in unison.

“
Robbie himself reported
what Kirby did and said?” said James.

“
Again, yes,” Cassie
said.

James rested his elbows on his knees.
“That should be enough for the other Guardians and any reasonable
man. Kirby will deny all culpability, of course.”

“
He’s very good at
talking,” Callum said, “and plotting. We need to have a clear plan
for dealing with him when we encounter him again.”

“
There’s still too much we
don’t know,” said James, “and won’t until we reach Stirling. Has
Comyn retaliated against Bruce for the burning of his castle? Has
he sent men after the Bruce army? What have Robert Bruce the elder
and John Balliol been doing all this time?” James shifted on his
stool, holding his hand to his side. Blood hadn’t penetrated the
bandage—yet.

“
I feel as if time is
short, but we can’t answer those questions today. You need to rest,
my lord,” Callum said.

James nodded. “Today we will break
bread with the people of this village, who will forever have my
thanks, and then we all must rest. We will ride to Doune in the
morning.” James paused to nod at Callum. “If that is acceptable to
you, my lord.”

“
Of course,” Callum said.
To ask for Callum’s approval was diplomatic of James. The man had
class. Besides which, staying the night in the village was fine
with Callum. Despite his heroic efforts to keep upright, if he were
driving a car, he would have had to pull over and take a
nap.

As James was aware (and fortunately
for Marty and the villagers), Walter and his men had brought enough
food for a two- or three-day journey. They broke it out. In turn,
the villagers emptied their homes of tables and stools, a few
unsuspecting rabbits were brought out and cooked, and by late
afternoon, everyone gathered on the green for a meal. Nobody
mentioned Callum’s gun again. Callum took that fact for the gift it
was and tried to put it out of his mind.

Marty seemed in his element, the
center of accolades from James, who toasted him and his village
more than once as the meal progressed. Eventually, however, Marty
left the main table and came to where Cassie and Callum shared a
bench. They were both exhausted from days of nonstop activity and
not enough sleep. Cassie sat with her chin in her hands, chewing
laboriously on a tough piece of meat.

“
What happens next for me?”
Marty planted himself in front of Callum and spoke American, though
in a low voice that didn’t carry.

Callum looked up at him. “What do you
mean?”

“
I mean—what does the
future hold for me? I have a wife and a child on the way, and I
need to know what you intend to do with me.”

“
I don’t intend to do
anything with you,” Callum said.

“
Are you worried that we
would force you to leave? That King David would demand it somehow?”
Cassie said.

Marty’s brow furrowed. “I imagine
neither he nor his mother have a favorable view of me. With a word
in the ear of the Earl of Menteith, King David could make life very
difficult for me.”

“
I’ve never heard either
the king or his mother speak badly of you. They only spoke of you
at all to wonder what became of you,” Callum said. “You are under
no obligation to change your ways or your life. Stay here or go as
you please. I guarantee that you’ll be welcome in London or
Caerphilly if you want to go there, whether for a visit or to
stay.”

“
Besides, it looks to me
like James Stewart has taken an interest in your village,” Cassie
said. “Even if he hated you, King David currently has bigger fish
to fry than pursuing revenge over a five-year-old
grudge.”

Marty turned to look at his people,
eating and talking among James’s soldiers. “I like it here,” he
said softly. “When you told me how Meg had gone back to our time, I
was excited at first, but I’ve been thinking about it. Maybe I
wouldn’t go back even if I had the chance, not unless I knew I
could return.”

“
That’s always the
question, isn’t it?” Callum said.

“
We’re stuck here, too,”
Cassie said. “Same as you.”

Marty nodded. “I started out just
having to make the best of it, and now that I’ve taken a step back
to examine what I have here, I’m thinking it’s pretty good.” He put
his heels together and gave Callum a quick bow before heading back
to the table and his seat beside James.

Cassie watched him go while Callum
watched her. “I think about my family back at home every day,” she
said.

“
Would you go home if you
could?” Callum said.

“
I would,” Cassie said.
“I’m not committed to staying in the Middle Ages forever. I spent
most of my first year here hiking around Scotland, looking for a
way home. Correctly as it turned out, I’d decided that I’d fallen
through a fault in the space-time continuum, though I didn’t know
that the fault was in a person and not a cave or a ring of standing
stones, or I might have lived differently.”

“
You didn’t meet Marty when
you visited this village, though?” Callum said.

Cassie shook her head. “I don’t
remember him. He wasn’t the headman then, but he obviously fit in
well. They trusted him enough to ask him to lead their village.”
She moved her hand as if she would put it on Callum’s knee and then
stopped herself and clasped her hands together. “You’ve done the
same thing—you and David and Meg. It’s like you were born to be
here.”

“
But you don’t think you
were?” Callum said.

“
Meg and David believe
coming here was their destiny. I don’t believe in destiny.” Cassie
coughed a laugh. “I don’t really believe in anything, to tell you
the truth. All the same, I can’t help but ask why this destiny was
mine.”