Page 59 of No Place in Time

“Where am I?” Finn asked.

“My cottage. On the Veyron estate.” She glanced at him. “Ye’re a tenant, then? Or just passin’ through?”

“Passing through,” Finn said.

“From the wars?”

He nodded.

“Ye have the look of it. My husband died in Scotland.” She looked away a moment. “Two years now.”

The door burst open and the children tumbled inside, their voices loud and overlapping. They stopped when they saw Finn, falling silent mid-argument.

“This is Finn,” Alys told them. “He’ll be stayin’ with us a bit while he heals. Finn, these are mine. Wat, Emma, and Hugh.”

The oldest boy, Wat, stepped forward cautiously. “Are ye a soldier?”

“I was,” Finn said.

“Did ye know my papa? His name were Edgar.”

“Course he didn’t,” said Alys. “There’d be too many soldiers for him to know yer pa.”

“Did ye kill anyone?” This question came from Emma, her eyes bright with curiosity.

“Emma,” Alys said sharply.

“It’s alright,” Finn said. He looked at the girl. “I tried not to.”

Hugh, the youngest, was still staring. “Are ye goin’ to die?”

“Hugh!” Alys set down her spoon.

“It’s what Wat said,” Hugh protested. “He said the man in the field was goin’ to die and we shouldn’t touch him ’cause he might be cursed.”

“I’m not cursed,” Finn said gently. “And I’m not going to die.”

“How do ye know?” Hugh asked.

“Because your mother is here.” Finn met Alys’s gaze. “And she is stubborn.”

Alys’s mouth twitched into something close to a smile. “Out, all of ye. Let the man rest.”

The children retreated slowly, still watching Finn over their shoulders. The door closed behind them, and their voices picked up again outside, arguing about something new.

Alys returned to the fire.

Finn set the empty bowl aside and lay back down, but his mind would not settle.

Four days lost. He closed his eyes, the children’s voices fading behind the roar of his own fear. All he could see was Cecily: the way she tilted her chin to hide her tears, the stubborn set of her jaw at Master Nicholas’s house as she refused to let go of his hand. The way she had always, always gotten back up.

She would not be broken by time. He had to believe that. As long as she was alive, he would not fail her. He would reach her in time.

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CECILY

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