“I’ll wake the cook,” the guard said, and made to walk off.
“No! No, there’s really no need to do that. I can just wait until breakfast,” Nancy gasped, horrified by the idea of someone being dragged out of bed to make her dinner.
The guard smiled. “It’s nay bother, Miss Kane. And Her Ladyship willnae be pleased if she finds out ye were hungry and ye werenae fed. Ye stay in yer room, Miss Kane. I’ll nae be long.”
He walked off before she could protest again.
With some reluctance, she withdrew back into her room, feeling awful.
The poor cook…
No more than half an hour later, a light knock sounded at the door, startling her out of her renewed sleepiness.
About to call out, the door opened anyway, and in walked a woman whom she had only seen in photographs. As beautiful as her sister, but so very different. Her features were stronger, more like the classical beauties in art galleries and museums, with a thick mane of golden hair and kind green eyes, and cheekbones to die for.
“I was up, so I thought I’d bring you dinner myself,” Jane Clark said, closing the door behind her, a silver tray elegantly balanced on one hand. A sure sign that in a past life—or, more precisely, a future one—she’d been a waitress.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Nancy gushed. “I tried to stop the guard from waking up the cook, but he said you’d be angry with him if he didn’t.”
Jane chuckled. “I like to take care of my guests.”
She walked over and set the tray down on the low table by the fireplace. With impeccable grace, she sank down into the opposite armchair.
“I thought we could get to know each other while you ate,” she explained. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to greet you at the gates. Sylvia had decided it was the perfect time to play with paints. Couldn’t have covered herself more if she’d tried. So, I needed to give her a bath.”
“You don’t have to explain,” Nancy assured her as the scent of rustic, hearty stew wafted up from the bowl on the tray.
Jane looked intently at her for a moment. “Adeline had a lot to say about you when she got back. You made a heck of an impression.”
“The good kind?” Nancy picked up the spoon.
“The good kind.” Jane smiled. “She mentioned we might have something in common.”
Nancy paused.
“A tapestry?” Jane prompted, raising a pointed eyebrow.
With an eager nod, Nancy quickly told her the tale of the note at Adeline’s apartment and the fateful trip to the Scottish Heritage Museum, and the earthquake that had brought her here.
“It was a tapestry that led me here, too,” Jane said. “Although it didn’tbringme here. I was searching the ruins of this castle in 2024, and I went down a staircase. There was a door… and the sound of the sea, and I had my phone flashlight shining at it. Ihad the phone in my mouth so I could pull back the bolt on this ancient door, but the phone slipped, and when I picked it back up, everything had changed. I’d been transported back in time.”
“No earthquake?” Nancy asked, wishing she had a pen and paper.
Jane shook her head. “No earthquake for me. It was a kind of storm for Adeline, after the snow globe broke.”
“So… it’s different every time?” Nancy frowned as she tried to find some connection between the three instances.
By the sounds of it, Jane had had the smoothest journey.
Jane tilted her head to the side. “Yes and no. Thereisa commonality. It’s… a wish, as I think Adeline told you, but it’s not always something you speak aloud.” She furrowed her brow, clearly struggling to find a way to explain. “Adeline didmake awish out loud. My wish was more of a feeling: to see these ruins as they used to be and to learn more about ‘the Beast.’ And my sister said you called out, ‘Help someone,’ before you were transported with that note in your pocket.”
“I said, ‘Help, someone,’” Nancy corrected, leaving a pause where the comma would have been. “I told Adeline that. She thinks whatever force is responsible for this misunderstood and sent me back to help Freya. I assume you know about the bee sting?”
Jane nodded. “I do, but I’ve been thinking since Adeline spoke to me about it. It sounds a little too… small for the energy that’s at play here. I’ve learned a lot about the—let’s call it—magic of all of this since my arrival, and it doesn’t deal in small things. Unless Freya has some profound alternate destiny, the magic wouldn’t send you back to jab her with an Epi-Pen.”
“Then why am I here?” Nancy asked, her head beginning to ache, as it had when she’d spoken to Adeline at Castle Lochlann.
A bright grin spread across Jane’s face. “Now,thatis the big question, and it’s only you who can figure it out. But I can help.” She leaned forward. “First, I need you to tell me what was on that tapestry.”
