“Did someone cast you out?”
“No.”
“Then tell me where you came from.”
“I can’t.”
His jaw tightened.
“Can’t, or will not?”
“Both.”
The wind pushed damp hair across my face. I tucked it behind one ear, buying myself a second I didn’t need.
He waited, and that was the worst thing about Wulfric. He could wait longer than any man I’d ever met.
Except perhaps Watch Manager Ellis, who could sit through a silence until you confessed to crimes you hadn’t committed.
“If I told you the truth,” I said, “you wouldn’t believe me.”
“You have not given me the chance.”
For one wild second, I almost did. I imagined saying it all. The antique fair. The old woman. The brooch. The beach. The year 2026. Cars and phones and planes. Electric lights. Fire engines. Sirens.
Wulfric would look at me the way people looked at someone standing too near the edge of a roof.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
His face closed and the loss of that almost-smile bothered me more than it should have.
“You stand with my people,” he said after a moment. “You work until you cannot stand. You ask nothing for yourself. I have seen you frightened, angry, cold and weary. I have not seen you act cruel.”
“That may be the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about me.”
“It was not meant kindly.”
“Still taking it.”
His mouth twitched despite himself. Then he looked toward the village.
“If anyone asks, you are my widowed kinswoman from a household beyond the western sea.”
“You do realize I know absolutely nothing about being a widow.”
“That has not stopped many women.”
I laughed before I could help it.
His gaze came back to me, and the laughter faded slowly. He was standing very close. Close enough that I could see the pale line of the scar across his cheek and the darker gold in his beard. Close enough that I noticed the rain caught in his lashes.
This was not my life. I had been in 1066 for three days. Three days. I’d lost Brian months ago, lost my own time, and was currently preparing to survive an invasion with a Saxon lord who brought me breakfast.
“Your story needs work,” I said.
His gaze stayed on mine. “Does it?”
“Yes. I need details for consistency. People ruin lies by making them too vague.”
