40. Chapter 40 - Ash

CHAPTER 40 - ASH

CRIEFF, SCOTLAND - OCTOBER, 1683

W e rode to the top of a hill and looked out over the valley. I said, “It’s not modern.”

“Aye, but tis not as old as we hoped.” He shifted in the saddle, looking around. “We are north of Stirling, Balloch ought tae be over there.”

He pointed behind us.

“So what should we do?”

“I see a village there. See it?” He pointed. “I believe tis Crieff, there is a market. We will go there, get some information, some food. We can spend the night if we need tae, there is... ought tae be, an inn.” He turned our horse and we rode down the path through the woods, headed in that direction.

I actually loved the ride, the gentle sway of Finny as he picked his path, rocking beneath me as Lochie’s arms were around me, holding the reins. I looked down on Lochie’s hands, bound muscles and powerful strength held in his tendons and the veins traversing them. I felt an almost electric charge when his forearm rested on my thigh, and my back rocked against this chest.

The woods were close but then opened up onto a road, and there were low stone walls marking fields. Peppered throughout were cows and sheep grazing and farmers working near low, long, pale houses with bushy thatched roofs.

Cattle meandered along the road, sometimes blocking our way. A cart rolled past us. Lochie stopped the driver and briefly conversed. I tried to tell by the surroundings what the time period was, but everything just looked old.

I was no help at all.

Then the man drove the cart away and Lochie urged Finny into a walk. He shifted and looked around in all directions and said, “He dinna ken the exact date, but he believed the year tae be 1683.” His eyes drew away and he looked thoughtful.

I said, “Does that date mean anything?”

“I canna think of any reason why we would be here. Tis... not a usual time. If Magnus has been born he is likely verra young, tis likely there inna time travel here.”

He counted on his fingers. “I daena even ken if Lady Mairead is around. Hae Sean and Lizbeth been born?”

He added, “I dinna ken… But he did tell me we are close tae the time of the big market gathering, drovers from all across Scotland come tae sell their cattle, twill be likely crowded and rowdy in town.”

“Should we try to jump again?”

He looked over his shoulder. “We are verra close tae the village. I need a meal and tae think this through. I think we ought tae continue on.”

I nodded and we grew quiet again as Finny headed toward the village.

I finally asked, “So as far as you know this doesn’t happen… like, usually when you want to time jump it takes you where you mean to go?”

“Aye, it always has before.”

“Damn it. That’s not good.”

We left Finny in the stables behind the village inn and went around to the front entrance.

Moving from the bright outdoors to the dark interior, it took a moment for my eyes to adjust. The downstairs of the inn smelled like smoke and that sweet sickly breath of a hangover day. The wood floor was sticky with old ale. The carved chairs looked rickety. There was a surly man behind the bar, and a woman carrying a plate of food from a darker room in the back. It looked like every dive bar I’d ever been in, but with an ancient vibe. Men were packed around some long tables through the middle of the room, being boisterous and loud. But near the hearth was a small open table.

Lochie nodded toward it. “Grab us two stools, I will get some ale and a meal.”

He went to the bar while I found two stools and dragged them to the table. Using my peripheral vision to watch the men in the room, while not making any eye-contact. The two men at the next table sized me up, narrowing their eyes, and elbowin’ each other, speaking in whispers.

I ignored them, directing my gaze at the fire, heat drawing up my face. I wasn’t dressed right, I hadn’t covered my head, I didn’t know much but I knew my hair was too short.

Lochie returned with two ales. He snarled at the men and they turned away. Lochie sat down, ran his hands through his hair, then took my hand in his. “I am sorry Ash, I will get us from this place, but I needed sustenance tae be able tae think through our predicament.”

“Me too, Lochie. But this is okay, I’ve been in a dive bar, and I worked at the Palace Saloon, I know my way around drunks.”

“Good, so here is the issue, we dinna make it tae the eighteenth century. I believe we are in the seventeenth — what did the man say?”

“I think you said it was 1683.”

“Aye, that sounds right, though tis the wrong date. We are not in Stirling or Balloch, but halfway between. And we felt the pull — ye said ye felt the pull, dinna ye?”

I nodded. “It’s like someone dragged us to another place. But why here?”

He said, “This is a small town in the middle of nowhere, a couple of weeks afore the big market convenes. It daena make sense. But we must be on guard, whoever brought us here might be layin’ in wait.”

“But wouldn’t they have picked us up when we first landed? Or when we were alone on the path? We’ve been alone most of the day, if someone wanted us they could have just taken us. Now that we’re in an inn it seems like we are safer, you know? At least there are witnesses.”

“Tis true.”

“Maybe someone just moved us out of the way?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Out of the way from what...?”

“I don’t know… like who do you think? Who would know how to do this?”

“Perhaps Magnus, though he’s never mentioned it, definitely Lady Mairead.”

“And where is Lady Mairead?”

“She’s in Magnus’s kingdom.”

“The one in the future?”

“Aye, his other kingdom, though with two we might need tae call it an empire.”

He was holding my hand, stroking the back of it with his thumb. Then he let go to lift the ale to his lips.

I asked, “So are we going to stay here tonight?”

“Aye, I procured a room.”

“It’s a honeymoon.”

He chuckled. “Aye, I hae been makin’ excellent decisions, I am verra glad we got married. Ye would feel so sorry for me if I had tae sleep out in the hall in this terrible inn.”

I nodded. “And I’m so hot after riding with you, I don’t know if I could bear it.”

He chuckled. “Och, m’wife is enjoyin’ horse ridin’, I knew she would.”

A loud banging sounded behind us. Men raised their voices. Lochie laughed, shaking his head, slowly. “Yet when the tavern is full of drunks I daena think I will be able tae sleep with ye, even if I wanted tae—” He looked around the room, a cacophony of shouting and laughing, two guys drunkenly singing. “I will hae tae take watch in the hall. This is a rough inn, and the drovers are fillin’ the town with their stench and cattle.”

I pouted. “Darn it, I was looking forward to a hotel room and a nice bed.”

He joked, “And I paid extra for the private room so we winna hae tae share the bed with Old Sleaze-bag there, fartin’ and snorin’ all night.”

I gulped. “Ugh, sharing rooms is a thing? I’m relieved you’re rich.”

He looked around at the rafters and the walls. “This is rich? Och nae, I would hate tae see poor.”

Another loud bang. “When ye met me I was well-rested and comfortable, not a care in the world, and now look at me, I must sleep upright in passages with one eye open.” He turned his head, with one eye open, and glared at the men beside us, they abruptly looked away.

I laughed.

Food was brought to our table, wooden bowls with a gravy spooned over a type of fowl. A hunk of bread on the side. We were given spoons. Lochie pulled a switch blade from his sporran to cut the bread into smaller bits and we shared it to spear the meat and lift it to our mouths. “Like pirates.”

He said, “Aargh.”

I asked, “Do you know any pirates?”

He said, “Aye, Jack Sparrow, Barbossa, Turner?—”

I laughed, “I meant real life pirates, those are from Pirates of the Caribbean !”

He shrugged. “I hae spent many hours watchin’ the movies with the nephews, I feel as if I ken them.”

When we were finished eating, he pushed away his plate and rubbed his ear. “The crowd is growin’ louder and even more rowdy, we ought tae go up tae the room afore the brawlin’ starts.”

Carrying a candle he walked me up the creaky stairs to our room under the eaves of the thatched roof. There was a bed in the middle of the floor, covered in a ratty blanket, a small table beside it, a chamber pot. I pulled a small flashlight from my bag and used it to light my way to the dark corner where I pissed in a loud stream while Lochinvar put our bag down and searched through it. My pee was so loud I started giggling, hysterically. Downstairs the drunk men began to really belt out a song.

He began to laugh with me. “Tis a verra fine establishment, aye?”

“Four stars. No notes.” I hiccuped and shook my hips, trying to dry myself. I let my skirts down, smoothed them, and placed the flashlight on the bedside stand with the beam illuminating a small bit of the space. I sat on the bed while he peed in the pot. His stream of piss being quite loud made me giggle again. I said, “Now, this is the height of luxury.”

I wiped my tears of laughter. “Has anyone noticed we’re lost do you think?”

He shook himself to dry and dropped his kilt. “Ye can return the day after ye left, nae one would even notice we are gone unless we canna fix it… I daena ken, but they will notice eventually.”

I kicked off my shoes and lay down on the bed. I shifted to make a soft place under my shoulder, but the mattress was thin in spots, bunched in others. I struggled to fluff it. “Because I think I should start my...” My voice trailed off.

I had left my menstrual cup back in Stirling in my suitcase, because I was only going to be on this errand for a day, two days tops.

What if I was here for longer? I couldn’t even imagine how to deal with getting my period back here. What would I even do…? There wasn’t underwear, apparently. I had never been offered anything to wear underneath my skirts and hadn’t asked the women of the family how it would work.

It was fine, most days, there was all this fabric. I had grown used to no underwear, frankly it was better than wearing an uncomfortable pair that stuck in my craw or were too tight, but without underwear or my menstrual cup I had no way to deal with my period.

Lochie sat down on the bed as another chorus started downstairs, louder than the first. He asked, “What dost ye mean, ye should start yer what...?”

“My period?”

He looked at me blankly.

I whispered for some reason, “Menstruation, the... you know my monthly flow?”

His eyes went wide. “Och, yer curse?”

“Yes, my curse, I don’t know what... or how...”

He grimaced comically. “We will need tae get ye tae Stirling so ye can ask Kaitlyn tae advise ye. Ye canna ask anyone here, they are medieval, twill be terrible advice.”

A loud ruckus came through the floorboards to our ears. He listened. “The brawlin’ has begun. We need tae remain dressed.” He pulled the blanket up over my legs.

“We might hae gotten more rest sleeping in the woods.”

He nodded. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, his elbows on his knees, in thought.

I said, “My main point is how many days have I been gone? I’m trying to calculate how long it’s been since I got my... um last curse.”

He shook his head.

I counted on my fingers. “I think it’s been three days in the compound, maybe four, but then two days before I left, three days in Balloch... half day in Florida, our wedding, it all feels like two months — with time travel, does the menstrual cycle last the same amount of time? Do the days still count the same?”

“I canna say.”

I grinned up at him. “I am borrowing way too much trouble. We will be back in Stirling long before I start. I’ll have my supplies, for sure. Kaitlyn will be able to advise me, she’s a Queen, she is not going to go caveman-style.”

I pulled the covers up to my chin and looked up at him sitting there on the side of the bed. “You sure you don’t want to come to bed?” The singing from downstairs grew even louder.

His brow went up. “Aye, I verra much want tae, my randy wife, but I?—”

Loud stomping footsteps passed by our room. “…I winna be able tae enjoy m’self. I must guard yer door.” His hand stroked down the blanket on my hip. “I canna imagine what m’brothers would say if they heard I was accosted with my pants down in an inn full of drunken drovers.”

“You, m’laird, don’t wear pants.”

He smiled.

Another man stomped down the hall. There was a bang on a door near ours.

He clapped his hand down on my hip. “I will sleep on the morrow. I will guard ye, m’lady, and we will leave at first light.”

He leaned down and kissed me, pausing there for a moment, his mouth against mine. Then he climbed onto the bed, on his knees, and kissed me long and deep and lingeringly…

Until there was more banging. His head dropped to my shoulder.

“Och nae.”

I said, “I’m so sorry you have to protect me, promise you won’t get tired of it? It’s our honeymoon and it seems like, I don’t know, such a bother to have to take care of me.”

“Ye are my heart, Ash of the Tree of Life. I am won. Daena worry, I am goin’ tae go guard yer door.”

“I feel terrible that you’ll be awake while I’m sleeping.”

“What will ye dream of?”

“You, m’laird.”

He smiled. “See, tis all worth it.”

He drew away and slipped from our room. I heard him, leaning against the door out in the tight passage. Footsteps went by, he grunted, menacingly.