Chapter 14 #2
Stephen rapidly considered his options. He could throw his blade through his enemy’s heart and flee. He could say nothing and do his best with a knife that was, at close range, completely inadequate to battling what he could see was a well-loved and very well-used sword. Or he could bluster.
He scratched his cheek with the hilt of his knife—the only part of the blade that wasn’t honed to perilous sharpness. “I lost my sword this morning. One makes do when one must, don’t you agree?”
The other man laughed, a sound that would have been reassuring at another time, but this was a time that was far from Stephen’s own and he wasn’t reassured by anything at the moment. And then his foe pushed his hood back off his face.
Stephen felt his mouth fall open. Peaches gasped audibly.
The other man only lifted an eyebrow and looked at them both steadily. “Out for a stroll, are we?”
Stephen revised his idea to take Kendrick to supper and substituted instead a weekend away for Kendrick and his bride whilst he tended their children. That he could understand anything at all was certainly due to his uncle’s help.
“Well,” Stephen managed, “it seemed like a decent afternoon for it.”
His opponent, a blond, rather older version of he himself, resheathed his sword. “I’m not sure your lady shares your enthusiasm. Perhaps I should help you get home before she freezes to death.”
Stephen slipped the knife back down the side of his boot but didn’t take his eyes off the man in front of him. “That is an interesting offer, my lord.”
“Wyckham,” the other man said casually. “Nicholas of Wyckham.”
Stephen wasn’t surprised. His uncle, several generations removed, of course.
“Who are you?” Nicholas of Wyckham asked politely.
“Stephen,” Stephen said. “The Viscount Haulton, if you like.”
“And Baron Etham,” Peaches supplied, her teeth chattering. “If you want to be completely accurate.”
Nicholas of Wyckham smiled at her. “Accuracy, Mistress Alexander, is always my most pressing concern.” He tilted his head and studied her.
“I am assuming you are who I think you are, unless you are my brother John’s daughter and not his sister-in-law.
I should think not, but it has been at least a score of years since I last saw the lady Tess at my hall.
” He shrugged. “Whoever you are, you gave me a bit of a start.”
“I’m Peaches,” she managed. “Tess’s sister.”
Nicholas nodded. “So you are.”
Stephen had his arm around Peaches’s shoulders, so he felt clearly the shiver that went through her. He looked at Nicholas in surprise. “But she and John were just at your hall last month.”
“Were they?” Nicholas asked in surprise. He frowned at Stephen. “Something very strange is going on with the strands of time. How did you get here?”
“Through a gate at Kenneworth,” Stephen admitted.
“Well, that explains it,” Nicholas said with a snort. “They’re far enough away that they don’t vex me overmuch, but I can say with certainty that I’ve no love for any of their ilk. And their hall is no better than a kennel. I’m not surprised things went awry for you.”
Stephen wasn’t, either, but he saw no point in saying as much.
“I am here to meet two of my sons,” Nicholas continued, “but they are notoriously late. I think we have a few moments for speech, but I’m not sure where would be the safest place.
Let’s try the stables, shall we?” He offered Peaches his arm.
“How has your sister found the trial of being wed to my brother so far?”
“She’s very happy,” Peaches said with a smile.
“Remind him I vowed to come see to him if that ceases to be the case.” He looked over his shoulder at Stephen. “Coming, Haulton?”
Stephen nodded and followed him.
Within minutes, he and Peaches were sitting on a pile of hay in a relatively warm part of the stable.
Peaches hadn’t argued with the blanket put over her legs and tucked under her feet, nor did she seem disinclined to put on the boots Nicholas purchased for her from an enterprising stable lad to take the place of Stephen’s sodden bedroom slippers.
Stephen put the boots on her feet, then sat down next to her and looked at his …
He took a deep breath. His uncle, as it happened.
“Haulton is a lovely place,” Nicholas remarked casually, rubbing his hands together and blowing on them.
“One of my father’s favorite estates, as it happens.
Before he passed, my father insisted that Haulton always remain with the heir.
Perhaps on the off chance that the heir tired of the family seat. ”
“Ah,” Stephen managed.
“You might be surprised,” Nicholas continued, “just how much you look like my father and brother, Robin.” He shot Peaches a look. “Or he might not, eh, Mistress Peaches?”
Peaches smiled. “I don’t think he would be.”
“The current eldest son, is he?”
“The very same.”
“How is the old pile of stones these days?” Nicholas asked.
Stephen realized Nicholas was asking him. “Glorious,” he wheezed.
Nicholas winked at Peaches. “Aye, he is the eldest, isn’t he? Though I daresay anyone who was born within those walls would love it as well. My brother John is the exception, I suppose.”
“He loves it,” Peaches said simply. “He simply loves my sister more.”
Nicholas smiled. “I daresay that is the case. And as long as he is happy, I can’t begrudge him his choices. I understand them, in a way. What do you think of Artane, Mistress Peaches?”
Stephen hardly dared look at her, but he couldn’t resist at least a glance in her direction.
“It belongs in a dream,” she said with a sigh Stephen couldn’t quite decipher. “And Stephen is right about its condition. It is absolutely glorious.”
“Then we should get you both back to it before you freeze out here in the wilderness.” He looked at Stephen. “What have you tried to return home?”
“That useless gate at Kenneworth,” Stephen said with a sigh, “then another very dodgy place near there. Zachary Smith gave me ideas for another place or two.” He felt the map he’d been given burning a hole in his pocket, but he didn’t suppose he should mention it.
He had the feeling that if Nicholas’s sons—if that’s who they had been—had been in possession of such a thing, they had used it themselves.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to think about what that might mean for any of them.
Nicholas pursed his lips. “I don’t think you would ever make the gate at Kenneworth work for you.
It is, as they say, a one-way ticket to the past. As for the others, Zachary would know from firsthand experience which ones were the most useful.
Tell me what he told you and we’ll discuss the quickest way home for you.
I don’t think your lady will manage too much more walking even if I find a cart to transport you as close as you dare come to your destination. ”
Stephen looked at Nicholas seriously. “Thank you, my lord.”
Nicholas smiled. “What is family for, if not to aid you when you come to their time?”
Stephen wondered how much experience Nicholas had with just that sort of thing, but he didn’t dare ask. He simply took one of Peaches’s hands in his own, rubbed it gently to try to warm it, then turned to a discussion of things that belonged in a book of fiction.
It was several hours past sunset when Stephen stood on the side of the road with Peaches and listened to a cart rumble away, its very unsettled but well-paid driver apparently quite happy to leave them behind.
“Did you want to stay longer?”
Stephen started in surprise. “Stay longer?” he asked. He looked at her. “Whatever for?”
“For research purposes, I suppose.” She paused, then took a deep breath. “I wouldn’t mind.”
He looked at her bedraggled self and shook his head.
“I think even if we were suitably dressed and outfitted, we’ve made a long enough visit for now.
” He rubbed his hands together in a futile attempt to warm them.
“I’m not sure I would want to stay longer than that. Certainly not in our current straits.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said with a bit of a smile. “I’m sure you would dredge up a few useful somethings from all that research.”
He shook his head. “I look too much like my ancestors to attain any sort of respectable position with a noble house, and I have no means of joining a guild even if they would let me in. And while I was looking for work, what would you do?”
“I’m not sure I want to think about that.”
“Neither do I,” he said seriously, “which is why we will trot home as quickly as we’re able.”
“Will we make it this time, do you think?”
“Nicholas seemed to think so.”
She shivered. “That was weird.”
“Very,” he agreed.
She held out a bag. “He told me to give this to you. I guess you can add it to what the boys gave you.”
Stephen felt it, then smiled to himself. “I imagine it’s just the change from his pocket.”
“He said something to that effect.”
He had a final look around, then took her hand. “We’ll examine it all after we’ve gotten home.” He looked at the gate he could see shimmering ten feet in front of them. “Shall we?”
She nodded and followed him into the future.