Chapter 24 #2
“A great whacking castle on the north coast,” Oliver muttered from behind them. “Derrick, the girl needs a proper tour after this is done.”
Derrick nodded in agreement, then continued. “I suppose the players aren’t particularly important to name, but apparently an elderly relative of one of the owners seems to spend an inordinate amount of time taking little trips.”
Her expression wasn’t visible in the darkness. “To where?”
“Oh,” Derrick said with a shrug, “here.”
She caught her breath. “Elizabethan London? You can’t be serious.”
“I think she’s a big fan of the Bard.”
“Well,” she said, sounding stunned. “It’s an old woman?”
“Oh, I don’t think I would use old as a description of her,” Derrick said with a smile. “She is, from all reports, quite young at heart. I’ve never met her, though I’ve heard quite a bit about her adventures.”
“Maybe she could clear up that Shakespeare/Marlowe debate once and for all,” Samantha said faintly.
“It would certainly do the world a great service,” he agreed.
“So, as it happens, Jamie’s brother-in-law Zachary’s wife is related in an extremely roundabout way to this seasoned woman.
Zachary introduced her to Jamie and thanks to her efforts, Jamie has spent several years collecting details about our current location. ”
“I can’t believe we’re having this conversation.”
“I can’t believe I wore good shoes,” Peter said from behind them.
Derrick had to agree with both statements. Again, if he hadn’t lived through several trips with Jamie to times and locales not his own himself, he would have thought the very idea absolute bollocks.
He promised Samantha more details later because he was starting to get a little uncomfortable.
The moon had already set—which boded well for their assault—but it made the current walk dodgier than it might have been otherwise.
It took longer than he was happy with to find a boat with a captain who was both awake and sober, but he finally selected a likely-looking lad, promised him a handsome fee after they reached the far side, then made sure that his rapier and the daggers Oliver and Peter were carrying were plainly visible.
He laced his English with a thick French accent and made conversation about the mother-in-law he and Samantha were escaping as they rowed across the river.
The French weren’t any more popular in London than anyone else, but there was no possible way to pass for a native, so he had considered it the least objectionable of the available choices.
They disembarked without landing in the drink, he paid the man and watched him take a practiced nibble at the coin, then counted himself fortunate that that part of the journey had been accomplished with such little fuss. One thing down, a dozen more to go.
He took a moment or two to get his bearings, then nodded up away from the river. “This shouldn’t take long.”
And that was the last thing he said for quite some time. They spent at least half an hour tromping through a rapidly awakening London and attracting all kinds of stares he’d hoped to avoid.
“Not exactly technologically savvy here, are they?” Oliver murmured from behind him, finally.
“Not exactly,” Derrick said grimly.
Streetlamps would have made things easier, but then they would have been more exposed.
Then again, by the time the sky was lightening and the city was fully awake, he was completely lost. He wondered if perhaps he’d been rash in thinking he could memorize an Elizabethan street map and have it possibly resemble what he was looking at from the ground.
“Bobbies at twelve o’clock,” Oliver said, just loudly enough to be heard.
Derrick swore silently. He continued on, but was forced to face the fact that he had quite likely plunged them all into something they wouldn’t be able to escape from.
And then, a miracle.
A woman stepped from the back gate of some grand place as if she’d simply come out for a breath of fresh air.
She looked at them, paused, then turned toward the guards.
She shooed them on their way with a cheerful story about how fortunate it was to find guests coming right to one’s back gate instead of having to go search for them through all of London.
The guards frowned, then continued on their way.
Derrick could hardly believe their good fortune, but he wasn’t about to argue. He found himself herded with his little group inside a high wall and the iron gate shut behind them. The courtyard was reassuringly free of anything but a garden, a fountain, and stables. Not a guard in sight.
The old woman looked at them, then lifted her hood back from her face.
Samantha gasped. “Granny Mary?”
“Who else?” The woman stepped forward and hugged Samantha tightly. “You know, Sam, it’s one thing to run into a favorite great-niece in the local Starbucks, it’s something entirely different to find her traipsing about London at an unearthly hour of the morning. I’ll need details.”
“It’s, um, complicated.”
“If it means you’re out from under your mother’s thumb, then you should do complicated more often.” She pulled Samantha over to stand next to her and linked arms with her. “Who are these handsome young men you’ve brought along as an escort?”
Derrick tried to pick his jaw up off his chest, but it was difficult. He could only stand there and gape.
Samantha gestured toward them. “Derrick Cameron, Oliver Phillips, Peter Wright. We’re here on an, ah, adventure.”
“I’ll just bet you are, cupcake.” Mary shook hands all around, then looked at Derrick. “You’re Robert Cameron’s cousin, aren’t you? In charge of the treasure-hunting business presently?”
“Ah—”
“I’ve heard about you,” Mary said, nodding knowingly. “And about your lads there, as well. I’m Samantha’s great-aunt, by the way.”
Derrick watched Samantha turn to look at her great-aunt. “But how do you know Derrick?”
“Well, first because I know his cousin, Robert. He’s in business with Gideon who’s funding the other half of a preservation group. Very high-end, fancy properties in need of some TLC.”
“Who’s Gideon?” Samantha asked blankly.
Mary looked at her in surprise, then laughed. “Good heavens, girl, you need to get out more. Gideon is Megan’s husband, Lord Blythewood. Have you never wondered about your cousins?”
Samantha shrugged helplessly. “I knew Megan had married an Englishman and so had Jennifer, but it’s not like I got an invitation to the wedding or anything. I’d thought about trying to get in contact with them, of course, but you know how Mother is about handing out phone numbers.”
“Yes, I do,” Mary said crisply. “I imagine she was afraid they would corrupt you by filling your head with unwholesome things like thoughts of independence and insurrection.”
Samantha smiled faintly. “Probably so. Well, that and you know the girls and I aren’t exactly close.”
“Well, you’re a damn sight farther away from Jennifer than you might think, but we’ll discuss that later, when we have some privacy.
” She nodded toward Derrick. “That lad there might be able to give you a few details about your cousins and their doings, perhaps. I don’t suppose he’s told you what he’s been doing with his free time lately. ”
Derrick found himself being regarded closely by two women with inquiring minds. He held up his hands slowly.
“It wasn’t my fault.”
“Ha,” Mary said. “I know exactly what you’ve been up to over the past year, my boy, you and that rogue laird from down the way. I suppose that’s fortunate or you would be hopelessly lost here.”
“We were hopelessly lost,” Samantha said.
“I wasn’t,” Oliver said mildly.
Derrick shot him a look, then turned back to Mary. “We were looking for a safe place to, ah, roost whilst we’re about some business. James MacLeod gave me a suggestion.”
“And does Laird James’s place have a name?”
“I was hoping for the house of Thomas Mauntell,” Derrick ventured.
Mary smiled in a particularly self-satisfied way. “Of course you were, because I’m the one who suggested it to him.”
“You know James MacLeod?” Samantha said.
“We’re Facebook friends,” Mary said with a shrug, “and I read his wife Elizabeth’s books.
I’ve been to their castle several times.
And Derrick, you were less lost than you thought.
You’re at Mauntell’s back gate. Let’s get you inside, get you fed and settled, then you’ll tell me what you need.
Thomas is having a masquerade ball this evening.
I imagine many interesting people will be here. ”
“Granny Mary, how in the world do you know this man?” Samantha asked, sounding slightly faint.
“Oh, he was one of William’s patrons early on.
We met at a party several years ago and hit it off.
” She leaned in a little. “Actually, I cleaned his clock in cards and that tickled him for some reason. He thinks I’m a rich, eccentric noblewoman from France.
He puts me up when I’m in town and I dote on his children.
Well, that and I make him biscuits and gravy like my grandmother used to make.
Dulls the pain of all the money he continues to lose to me. ”
Derrick felt a little faint, but perhaps that was just the smell. “Thank you, Miss—”
“You can call me Granny in private, lad, but in public I’d stick to Lady Mary.”
Samantha smiled. “Lady Mary?”
“My girl, when you’re sojourning in a time not your own, it’s best to go in style.”
“But, Granny, shouldn’t you be home?” Samantha asked, sounding pained. “Knitting? Conducting meetings of the Ladies’ Aid Society? Pruning your roses?”
“Some people go to Florida,” Mary said with a shrug. “Some don’t. Besides, if I’d had to listen to that blasted Fiona McDonald wax rhapsodic about the virtues of acrylic yarn by the pound any longer, I would have throttled her. Let’s get in out of the damp, shall we?”