Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

M ary felt the exhaustion of the eventful night and morning roll through her. She had been through so much and had not had a moment of rest or sleep since she'd woken in the strange room. To her it felt as though days had passed since she was at the museum. The journey through time, followed by the swim in the lake, being captured and brought to the castle might as well have been a lifetime.

Now that her belly was filled with food and drink, she wanted nothing more than to sleep.

The door closed behind Ivy and Hamish and she distinctly heard the rustling of keys followed by the door locking. Of course, they locked her in, they had mentioned not wanting anyone to see her so it made sense to lock her door. It gave her a sense of safety though, so she didn't mind too much. The key in the lock was loud so she knew it would definitely wake her up if anyone were to come into the room.

She heard Hamish's voice in the hallway, so she stopped to listen.

"No one is to enter this room without Lady Ivy's, the Laird's, or my permission. If she calls out for one of us, please inform her that we will be with her immediately and then send someone for either of us. Do not disturb the Laird."

"Aye, I will see that no one disturbs the goblin witch. Don't want to be put under a spell do I?"

Something rattled the door, as though pushed against it. "You will respect our guest! She is not a goblin witch and you will not speak of or treat her as such, do I make myself clear?"

"Aye, Hamish. I'll be respectful!"

"Let him go, Hamish." Ivy's softer tone flowed through the door. "Mary will be fine. She's come this far, and we both know that the Fae always have a reason for sending us here. Perhaps there is something specific about Mary that made her the perfect candidate for whatever we are going to be dealing with."

"Aye, I know you are right. Still I feel ashamed for how I treated her when we first met." He paused and then Mary heard him say, "I'll send Leith to relieve you at dinner, Errol."

"Are you going to have your men be the only ones to stand guard over her?"

"I don't want to bother the Laird with assigning anyone else. I'd do it myself, but I'm sure I'll have to continue to do patrols. We can drop to a three man group for a time, we won't cover as much ground, but we'll make do."

"You're a good man, Hamish."

Mary heard their voices get fainter as they moved down the hall away from her door.

Mary moved to the bed and fumbled with the sheets pulling them back and climbing into bed. She was not comfortable in this body and did not know how the goblin could find any comfort in it at all. She tossed and turned trying to get a good position to sleep in. The mattress felt strange and was a little loud as she realized it was made of some sort of straw. The pillow though was made of feathers and was nice and soft.

Later that night, Mary woke to a dim room. It frightened her for a moment because she didn't know where she was. But as soon as her large hands and claws grabbed at the blanket, it all flashed back to her that she was in a strange body and in a castle. Of course there were no electric lights since she was in the sixteenth century. There was only the embers from a fire someone had started in the hearth while she slept. How she'd managed to sleep through their coming into the room and laying a fire, she didn't know.

She got out of bed and stumbled toward the shutters over the window, where slivers of moonlight were peeking through. She unlatched the shutters and opened them allowing the moonlight to flood in with a cool breeze.

Mary found a lantern with a candle and a flint on the night table. Ivy or Hamish must have brought it when they'd come in while she slept. She slid the flint against the stone wall creating a spark and lit the candle on it before replacing the candle in the lantern.

Now that the room was brighter, she also noticed that the mess she'd made earlier was gone. All of the glass from the mirror and shattered bowl had been cleaned up. She must have been in a very deep sleep to have missed all of that activity in her room. In a way she was sad that she had slept through it and missed a chance to talk to Hamish.

There was a knock at the door and a deep voice she didn't recognize asked, “Are you awake, lass? I have brought you some dinner, if you are up to eating it.”

Mary frowned. She distinctly remembered Hamish telling them not to open her door without permission. Had he given this person permission to bring her food? Or was this someone who wished to harm her?

“I'm awake,” Mary said, although she was fearful of this being some kind of trick. "Did Hamish or Ivy send you?" she asked as she grabbed the door handle. “Ouch.” She stepped backwards as the iron handle seared her skin.

The jingling of keys and the lock unlocking was loud. The door opened and Mary felt foolish that she had tried to open the door at all remembering that it was locked.

The guard held a tray with a lot of food, along with a lit candelabra on the tray. Mary looked down at her hand.

“Oh aye, lass, Hamish gave me the key because he had to go out on patrol. I'm Leith. Did no one tell you that the doorknob is made of iron?”

“Thank you, no I was not aware the handle was iron. Please, if you would be so kind as to put the tray on the table. I do not know if I can hold it with these stupid hands,” she said, holding her hands up.

The guard set the tray on the table. “I feel for you, lass. Hamish has explained what happened to you, and I'm sorry you have to go through this. You shouldn't worry too much though. Hamish is one of our best trackers. I'm sure he will find this goblin witch who stole your body."

"Thank you. That is thoughtful of you to care. I do hope you are right." Mary sighed. "The food smells delicious. What is it?"

"Lamb stew, meat pies, some bread, a canter of whisky, and some of Blair's shortbread. It is one the best treats we have here."

"I'm looking forward to trying it."

"Well, I'll leave you to eat. Knock if you need anything,” he said as he moved to the door and closed it behind him locking it.

The smells of the delicious foods hit her like a jolt. It was unlike smelling food in her own human form this was sharper and she could almost smell every ingredient of the dishes before her..

Glad to be alone and to eat in peace without feeling embarrassed, she sat down and dug-in. She ate with a voracious appetite that was unlike anything she was used to. It seemed like she had a bottomless stomach as she shoved the meat pies into her mouth. She poured a glass of the whisky and swallowed it down, enjoying the burn as it hit her throat. Then she dug into the lamb stew. It was the most heavenly stew she'd ever eaten. Once it was finished and she'd had another glass of the whisky, she broke off a piece of the shortbread. It practically melted in her mouth. She devoured it as if she were a starving person and then wished there was more of it.

Before she knew it everything was gone and she found herself starring at the empty pewter plate.

There was another knock at the door only this time Mary knew not to grab the handle.

“Mary? It's Ivy. Are you awake?”

Mary was very excited to hear Ivy's voice through the door.

“I'm awake. Please come in,” Mary said hopping down from her chair to stand next to the table.

The door unlocked and remained open as Ivy stepped in and the guard from earlier remained behind her. It did not make Mary feel good to be thought of so suspiciously but she knew it was part of how they did things around here.

“You ate. I'm glad. I was worried when you didn't eat much of the breakfast. I know that goblins have hearty appetites, so I assumed you would as well. I don't want you to get sick because we aren't giving you enough to eat."

“Is that why I'm so ravenous? I thought it was strange that I could eat more than I ever have before. It's not normal for me to eat like that.” Mary laughed, but it sounded more like a croaking cackle.

“I understand. I came in earlier and you were out cold. I'm glad Hamish remembered to have Leith get you some food. He's been respectful, hasn't he?"

Mary nodded. "Yes, and thank you. You didn't have to clean up my mess. If you'd brought me a broom, I would have."

"It was no trouble." She smiled and her eyes went to the window. "Oh, I should warn you. You weren't out in the sunlight for too long this morning, but from what I've been told, goblins tend to burn more easily in the sunlight, and are typically lethargic during the daylight hours. So you might want to close those shutters before you go back to sleep."

“No sunlight? I didn't think this could get any more depressing,” Mary said.

“It is not all bad news that I bring. Tomorrow night, after the sun goes down, Hamish and I will be taking you to see Maggie. She is one of the Seelie Fae who live on this side of the burgh. She has magic and can hopefully help us fix you. We had our scholars look into things, but so far they aren't having any luck. So Hamish asked the Laird if we could take you to see Maggie and he agreed."

“That's great news. I'm so glad that this Laird of yours is allowing you guys to help me. Who all do you mean by we? You and Hamish?” Mary asked hopefully.

“Yes, me and Hamish and some of the guards.”

"Great." Mary smiled and then something occurred to her and she asked, “Is Hamish your husband?”

Ivy laughed. “No, no, I'm married to Edward. He and Hamish are distant cousins. Hell everyone here is pretty much related in some way. The Grants are a prolific clan, there are so damn many of them. Anyway, Hamish isn't married, if you were wondering. He's part of the Grant Watchmen and he leads a patrol of men. He's also one of the best trackers we've got. On top of that, he's a really good guy."

“Well good. I'm glad to know he doesn't put every damsel in dress he meets in an iron cage,” Mary said sarcastically.

“A sarcastic remark." Ivy laughed. "That's good sign.”

“Yes, I suppose so. But I can feel my temper getting worse on the inside. It's like I have PMS times a thousand, my fuse is so short. The anger in me is hard to subside but I'm restraining it as best as I can.”

“That might be the goblin in you and not yourself. Most of them are mean, vile creatures with serious temper problems. There are a few that are okay, you'll probably meet one tomorrow at Maggie's. Anyway, I think you're doing very well under the circumstances.”

“Thanks.”

"No problem. Okay, so is there anything else you need?"

Mary looked around and nodded. "Can I get a few more candles? Ones I can burn through the night? I'm a bit terrified that real witch is going to show up and maybe kill me."

“Of course, I'll get some more for you. Um, I know this room is a bit small and it must feel like you're being held prisoner, but you really aren't. It's just well, we don't want to scare the staff. Most of them who work here are aware of the Fae and all the crazy things that go on, but they are still… how to put this… unenlightened and with this being the sixteenth century, we still have to deal with witch hunters and the like. It's just better if they don't see you like this."

"No, it's fine. I like the room. I honestly don't want anyone seeing my like this anyway. I'll probably just sleep anyway. And you're going to take me out tomorrow night to see this Maggie person, so I'll be fine."

“I'm glad. Well, I'm going to go. Edward is waiting for me in our rooms. I'll try and come visit tomorrow and I'll make sure you get food sent to you. Okay?”

"Thanks."

Then Ivy stepped in front of her and looked into Mary’s eyes. “We will figure this out, Mary. We won’t stop until we do.”

“Thanks, Ivy, that really does make me feel better.”

“Hold onto that hope. Don’t let the goblin inside of you win,” Ivy said as she left closing the door and locking it behind her.

Mary felt comfort knowing there were people to help her and not give up on her. She wondered what Ivy meant about not letting the goblin in her win. Did she mean that it could take over her permanently? That she would eventually lose herself all together? The idea of that was more terrifying than any other thought she'd had since coming here.