Chapter 16 #3
‘Yes, of course I meant at the school. The rumours of “what happened to Miss” will be flying around. Half of them will assume I fell off the edge of the cliff, which is what we thought happened to you, and the rest will probably have concocted some convoluted story about me being captured by slavers and being forced to work in the sex industry. I worry about the Year Ten boys sometimes.’
‘Toxic masculinity?’
‘Overactive imaginations mostly. Is that someone riding this way?’ I shielded my eyes as something caught my attention.
Along the clifftops a horse was galloping, its head stretched out low in the attitude of an animal that has been going too fast for too long.
‘It is. There’s a rider heading towards the castle. ’
The guards had seen the figure too. One of them turned and ran up the path, past where we sat without a flicker and back up through the ruins of the old gatehouse. The other straightened as though he was prepared single-handedly to fight all comers and defend the castle to his last breath.
‘This looks important,’ Lachlan said.
‘It looks as though they’ve been waiting for him,’ I replied.
Now I got an appraising look. ‘You think about things more than you look as if you do, don’t you?’ Lachlan said.
‘Yes, I am not at all the bimbo that you assume me to be,’ I replied tartly. ‘They won’t let bimbos teach GCSE chemistry, for a start.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Lachlan stood up. ‘I never meant to give the impression that I thought you were a wee bit daft.’ He held out a hand to me.
‘Thank you.’
‘I don’t think whatever brought us here would be so inept as to strand me here with people who weren’t going to be any help.’ He pulled me upright but didn’t let go of my hand. We stood nose to nose for a moment, his linen shirt tugged by the breeze, like an Outlander out-take.
‘But I’ve not been any help, have I?’ I replied softly. ‘I’m supposed to know about the family history and what we might be supposed to do, and I don’t. Because I never listened, I was too busy sulking and being angry and resentful about everything.’
The rider had reached the wide path that stretched down the cliffside and taken it at an unwise speed. I watched his horse skitter down the slope and worried about its legs.
‘Well, none of us were to know that this was going to happen, were we?’ Lachlan gave my arm a stroke. ‘I’d have made sure to extend my research a wee bit later if I’d had any inkling that I was going to find myself trying to prevent an earl from riding into battle.’
‘If that’s what we’re supposed to do, of course. We don’t really know.’
‘It’s the only pivotal point here though, isn’t it?’ Lachlan kept holding my hand and stroking my arm. Cellar Dog, clearly feeling that something was up, had stood and was staring into the distance obviously trying for Noble and Loyal Hound. ‘So it must be.’
A thought struck me. ‘Oh God, you don’t think it’s going to be like that old programme, is it? I’ve seen it on YouTube where this bloke keeps being sent around his timeline to change things – so we’d just keep jumping around from person to person trying to stop all the battles?’
Lachlan frowned. ‘Quantum Leap?’
‘That was it!’ I warmed to my theme. ‘So, like, we’re stuck here forever, bouncing around from place to place, trying to stop every army?’
‘I think you might be overreacting a touch here.’ Lachlan put an arm over my shoulders.
‘When I said you think a lot I didn’t intend to set you overthinking.
There’s got to be a reason why we’re here, and it would seem to be your family connection.
We’re here to stop yon earl, your however-many-greats-grandfather, from fighting for the wrong side so your family keeps the castle. Let’s keep it simple.’
‘So you think that Time is in league with some future bank managers who don’t want us to take out enormous loans to buy the place back?’ I stared at him, although the arm over my shoulders was warm and its weight was reassuring.
‘Stranger things have happened,’ he said calmly.
‘No. They. Haven’t,’ I said definitely. The rider had started up the track towards the postern gate, for which I was glad.
He’d never have got that exhausted horse up the near-vertical approach being guarded by the solitary soldier.
‘There is nothing to be gained by my family hanging onto this desolate outcrop,’ I carried on.
‘Truly. I mean, what would we do with it?’
‘Live in it?’ Lachlan turned me around and we started to walk back to the castle, passing through the impressively thick walls that still stood, towering over the vertiginous approach.
‘On what? A castle is a full-time job, it’s not like a holiday cottage you just pop over to check on a couple of times a year, is it?
It’s going to fall into ruins when, supposing the earl does get to keep it for the McKells, his grandson or great-grandson has to move to the city to work.
’ I shook my head. ‘No. I can’t see that keeping the castle is enough reason to scoop us all here. ’
‘I see your point.’ Lachlan stopped walking. ‘But if stopping the earl going into battle is all we can think of to do, then that’s what we go with.’ Now his voice had the same tightness as it had earlier.
And I knew that all I could do was try.