Rodric’s words came back to her.Do ye believe what I told ye now?Nope. No way. There was a rational explanation for why Deryn lived like this.
He straightened. The fire was roaring in the hearth now and it leant a cheery warmth to the room.
“There is a chamber through there where ye can take the boy and rest,” he said, nodding to a curtained doorway at the back of the room. “And a chest where ye will find some clean clothes.”
Rest? Heck, how she wanted that. She wanted to curl up, close her eyes, and fall into oblivion. And, if she was really lucky, she would wake up and discover this whole episode had been nothing more than a horrible dream.
She led Rory to the doorway and ducked through the curtain. Beyond, she found a sparsely furnished bedroom. It had a window in the back wall but it was tightly shuttered, so the room was gloomy, lit only by the flickering firelight coming from the main room. The only furniture was a washstand in the corner with a jug on top of it, a narrow bed, and a wooden chest at the bottom of it.
Rory was looking sleepy again, so Maddy picked him up, carried him to the bed and laid him down. She pulled the thick woolen blanket over him and stroked his hair until his eyes drifted closed. Maddy stared down at him, unsure what to make of the emotions running through her.
Relief, mostly. She felt safe here, in this rustic little house in the middle of nowhere, far safer than she’d felt in Torryn Keep surrounded by high walls and Rodric’s armed guards.
Rory is safe, she told herself.Now all we need to do is find a way home.
She took out her cell phone again and tried to dial the emergency services. But again, it wouldn’t connect.
Damn, damn, damn!
She watched Rory, envious of the ease in which he’d fallen into slumber. She knew she would have no such luck. Although she was exhausted almost to the point of delirium, a nervous energy thrummed through her that would not let her sleep.
Do ye believe what I told ye now?
Leaving Rory sleeping, she climbed to her feet and inspected the chest at the end of the bed. It looked handmade and the initials E and D had been carved into the top. Maddy lifted the lid. Inside, she found exactly what Deryn had said she would: piles of neatly folded clothes.
She reached into the chest and pulled out the first item of clothing she found. Instead of the jeans, T-shirts, jumpers and so on that she had expected what she pulled out of the chest was a deep green woolen dress with long sleeves and a hem that reached the floor. It was pretty with golden flowers embroidered on the sleeves and around the bodice. Like the house, like Torryn Keep, like Deryn’s clothing, it looked medieval.
Panic began bubbling again and Maddy fought it down with an effort. No. She wouldnotthink about that. Whatever else the dress was, it was clean and dry. Stripping gingerly out of her wet clothes, she dried herself off with a large towel-like cloth she found in the chest, then stepped into the dress and did up the laces. To her surprise, it fitted her perfectly and she smoothed it over her hips, luxuriating in the sensation of being warm and dry at last. She turned and stopped dead as she caught sight of herself in the mirror.
It wasn’t a mirror at all really, just a flat piece of metal attached to the wall, but it had been polished to so bright a sheen that she could make out her reflection in its surface. She didn’t recognize the woman looking back. It was not Maddy Green, architect and chocoholic extraordinaire. It was a medievalwoman with pale skin and dark circles under her eyes, who looked like she was badly in need of some sleep.
But knowing that wasn’t an option, she pushed aside the curtain and returned to the living room. Deryn was sitting in one of the rockers by the fire with his back to her. His long legs were stretched out towards the flames.
“Rory’s asleep. Mind if I join you?”
Deryn glanced over his shoulder and his eyes widened. He jumped to his feet in shock, all the color draining from his face.
He looked like he’d seen a ghost.
