Journey in Time (Knights in Time) (40 page)

“And if he doesn’t get to Wales?”

“If he’s caught by the king’s men, he might be executed--depending on what excuse he gives to explain his absence.”

“Like?”

“If he says you disappeared and he was chasing after you, which is what I’d say, then the king will order him to stop being a fool and---”

“Send him to France with the army, where he’ll die.”

Ian nodded.

“But you said he might make a successful escape.”

“Maybe, if he left now. He won’t though. He’ll search for you. The delay will cost him dearly.”

Only someone stone deaf wouldn’t hear the accusation in Ian’s tone. It killed her to hear him confirm the fact she may have cost Alex his life by running away.

Miranda who’d been listening from the archway to the kitchen came back to the drawing room with three coffees and set them on the coffee table.

“I could return to the outcropping and see if this time portal is still open,” Shakira suggested.

“To what end? If it is open, then you’re both stuck again,” Ian said.

“I don’t care if I’m stuck. I can insist we leave for Wales immediately.”

“You’re assuming you’d return to the same year. You stand an equal chance of ending in a different time and a worse circumstance.”

“I’ll risk it.”

“Risk arrival in a Roman encampment? I’m sure the legionaries would thoroughly enjoy themselves with you before they shipped you off to a slave market. Or, you could find yourself in the midst of a bloody battle,” Ian said.

She thought of the woman and child Alex dreamt about and the fate she faced if Ian was right. She sagged against the corner of the sofa, defeated by his logic.

     
“Neither of you had any idea how this portal, for lack of a better description works?” Miranda asked.

     
“We brainstormed different concepts but didn’t come up with anything useful. In the end, we just kept riding out on a regular basis hoping one day it would happen.”

"Tell me everything from the beginning again, including the storm part," Ian said between breaths as he blew on the coffee.

She repeated the story. This time she added the details about the agitation in the horses and the resultant static electricity. “Eclipse had similar skittishness this morning.”

“This weather thing...” Ian didn’t finish. He stared out the window, a faraway look in his eyes. “I wonder--”

Shakira perked up and sat forward. “You have a theory, I can tell. I’m game to hear anything, so, please go on.”

“I wish I did, but Stephen Hawking I’m not.”

“Now you sound like Alex.”

“Well, it’s true. Science isn’t our expertise. However, Hawking might be the way to go, if he’d talk to us. Does anyone at your law firm know him?” The intense expression disappeared as Ian made a dismissive gesture with his mouth. One of those,
like that’ll happen
expressions. “Not that he’d believe us anyway.”

“I’ll ask, but I doubt it. That’s if I still have a job. Speaking of the weather, what day is this? It was frigid when I left.”

“September seventh, why?”

“It can’t be. The time shift occurred September fourth, and we’ve been gone three months.”

“No, it’s only September. Alex told me last Friday you were coming for the weekend. If you’d been gone months, we’d have made inquiries.”

“But we were gone months. Christmas is in a couple of weeks.”

“Can this be true?” an incredulous Miranda asked Ian.

     
“You both seem to think I have the answers when I’m as in the dark as you are.”

They quietly sipped their coffee for a few minutes. The conflict in the passage of time bewildered Shakira. She’d taken only the mandatory science classes required by the university. Now, she wished she’d taken more or paid greater attention in the ones she’d attended.

Finally, Ian offered a possibility. “I remember reading one common theory says time,
spacetime
isn’t linear, but curved.”

When the statement drew blank stares, he elaborated. “As you travel and spacetime bends around, you’ll eventually reach the point where you started.”

“Sorry, still lost,” Shakira said and lifted her shoulders in silent apology.

“I’m afraid I can’t articulate the concept any better, but I have an idea.” Ian turned to Miranda. “Our parent company has special interest channels in the States. They do shows on hypotheticals including interviews with astrophysicists and theoretical physicists on time travel. Let’s ask them for a name and contact information of someone who might meet with us.”

The prospect cheered Shakira. An expert with the tiniest of clues might help with Alex’s situation. She’d never forgive herself if she cost him his life.

Ian rested his arms on his thighs and leaned closer, in a fatherly way. “I need to ask you something. Think hard before you answer.”

Her moment of cheer faded. The little caveat about “thinking hard,” before she answered wasn’t good. People say that when they’re going to ask a question you won’t like. She swept the air with an open hand. “Ask away.”

“This business about joining the abbey-why there, why chose such an obvious place to hide?”

“I felt I had no choice. I had no money. If I simply rode off, I had no means to buy food and shelter for Eclipse and I. I don’t know how to live off the land. Even if I somehow managed, without protection, how long before I was discovered by a band of men and raped or worse? The abbey offered the only sanctuary.”

He listened, an inscrutable expression on his face. Silent for what seemed an eternity, he finally spoke. “I know Alex like I know myself. He’d never have gone to the outcropping without you. If Miranda and I were in the same circumstance, I wouldn’t, not without her.”

Shakira had a sick feeling where Ian’s questions were leading. She opened her mouth prepared to explain further. Ian gave her no chance.

“With a stable full of adequate mounts, you left on your favorite one. The abbey is a straight shot from Elysian Fields, but you didn’t take the direct route. You stopped at the outcropping, allegedly to see if the gauntlet disappeared. You say you hoped it had, for Alex’s sake. It would indicate the portal opened and might again.”

“What do you mean allegedly?” she snapped back, getting increasingly pissed off by Ian’s tone.

“Could you have had another motive, a subconscious reason you don’t care to acknowledge or discuss?”

“It’s apparent you already have one in mind. I’d like to hear this subconscious reason.”

“Did you go secretly wishing you might catch the portal open and accidentally find yourself returned?”

“What a cruel thing to suggest.” The rebuke came from Miranda.

His brows shot up a fraction. “I think I have a right to ask. Alex is my best friend and his life’s in jeopardy. I’m curious how he just happened to get left behind.”

“This is my fight Miranda,” Shakira said.

Offended, she turned back to Ian. “He’s your best friend but my husband. I love Alex. I left because I thought it was best for him, for his safety. I stopped, yes. If the glove was gone, I’d know he stood a chance of coming home. That’s the reason, the only reason. Why don’t you believe me?”

“I merely questioned if you might’ve had another motive.”

“What am I supposed to say in my defense? Where is this doubt coming from?”

“To me, your behavior isn’t logical. Let’s analyze it. You bought into gossip told by a jealous woman. If that wasn’t enough, who do you ask to verify this story—a simple liege man to Alex.” Ian’s demeanor shifted from fatherly to condemning.

Shakira started to respond to the challenge.

Ian raised his hand cutting her off. "You, a lawyer, trained to ask questions and look for the loopholes, didn’t question the logic of Blanche or Simon’s statements. The king sent his son and heir to campaign in France. Do you honestly think he'd keep a healthy, capable soldier like Alex, or I should say Guy, back here to twiddle his thumbs?"

"Well--"

"I'm not done. Did you ask Alex if there's some truth to the tale? No. You wonder why I suspect your actions."

“I—”

“You concoct some half-baked, crazy scheme that had no chance of succeeding. Even
if
you truly intended on going to the abbey, you had to know Alex would figure where you went.” Ian sat back, skepticism evident on his face.

Shakira hated the distrust and suspicion she saw in him. Hated the fact everything he pointed out appeared true when seen from eyes other than hers. He was wrong about her intent and motivations, but it didn’t look that way.

"I admit, in hindsight, it was stupid, horribly, horribly stupid. I told you, I panicked. I should’ve talked to Alex. But at the time, I thought he’d lie to protect me."

Ian looked unconvinced.

“There was no ‘if’ in my intention at the time.”

“Lucky coincidence, your detour and the portal’s opening.”

“I swear on my life, I did not plan on the portal opening.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, but it’s not your life at stake,” Ian said, flatly.

"Do you think he'll have the same doubts about me as you?"

"I've always known Alex to be a fair man,” Ian paused, "In the past, at least."

Chapter Forty-Nine

     
Shakira drummed her fingers on the arm of the chair. "Thank you for coming with me," Shakira said to Miranda and Ian with a weak smile. By mid-afternoon London time, only hours after her return, the Americans called with Dr. Oliver Gordon’s name.

Ian contacted him and Gordon agreed to meet with them the next day. Gordon’s college-age son was mad about medieval reenactment events. In return for meeting with them on such short notice, Ian agreed to give his son a small speaking role in his program about the Crusades.

Shakira focused on the closed door and mentally rehearsed what she'd say to him for the hundredth time. She needed answers without revealing too much.

     
"I’m afraid he’ll laugh in our faces," she said.

     
"I wouldn't think so,” Ian reassured her. I
Googled
him. He's done a lot of research on time travel. He's written articles and said it's possible, we just haven't figured out the means yet."

     
The secretary's phone buzzed. After a few muffled words, she hung up. "Dr. Gordon will see you now."

The three entered. Ian introduced himself and shook hands with Gordon.

Gordon’s office overlooked the Cam River and Baitsbite Lock. The sun’s reflection off the water backlit the scientist in blinding, white light, kind of like the God figure in an old BBC comedy Shakira watched as a child.

“Thank you for meeting with us,” Shakira said, shaking his hand.

A few feet away, Miranda stood mesmerized by the computers next to a mounted display of the universe. On one monitor, an astronaut in a spaceship flew horizontally across the screen counterclockwise. On the second pass, he was a little further from the top as he galloped on horseback. The third time across,
 
he was driving a chariot. By his fourth trip, he reached the bottom of the monitor and lumbered along on a woolly mammoth. Then, the sequence repeated itself, all the while the old Cher tune,
If I Could Turn Back Time
played.