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54. Chapter 54 - Liam

CHAPTER 54 - LIAM

LIAM AND BLAKELY CAMPBELL, CARETAKERS OF TAYMOUTH (BALLOCH) CASTLE - PRESENT DAY

B lakely’s laptop began tae ring, she answered the video call. “Hello?”

An older woman, who looked very wealthy, her hair up, jewels at her neck, a sophisticated air, appeared and said, “My name is Lady Mairead, I am the Queen Mother tae Magnus the First, the King of Riaghalbane. I am tae be addressed as ‘Your Highness’ — I wish tae speak tae Liam Campbell, caretaker of Taymouth Castle.”

Blakely said, “Yes, um... Your Highness, here’s Liam.” She pushed a button tae turn off the microphone, put her hand over the camera, and whispered, “It’s Lady Mairead, she wants to speak to you.”

I joked, “Och nae, what do I say tae a Lady, ‘hullo, I am Liam, I live in a castle’?”

“It’s a place to start.” She turned the laptop toward me.

I said, “Aye, Liam here.”

“Liam Campbell, please explain tae me exactly what ye found.”

“Aye, ma’am, I mean Yer Highness.” He held up the book. “Blakely found this book as we were wanderin’ through the?—”

“What do ye mean, ye ‘were wandering’?”

“We arrived here yesterday?—”

“This is yer first night at Balloch?”

“Taymouth castle, aye.”

“And ye were looking through the library, go on.”

“Blakely found the Harry Potter book, she thought it looked too old for its age.”

“Can ye look upon the inside cover and tell me if there is a book plate that says ‘Tae my daughter, Love, Lady Mairead’?”

Blakely flipped tae the front of the book, and turned it around tae shew Lady Mairead.

She bit her lip and took a deep breath and nodded. “It once belonged tae Lizbeth.”

Blakely said, “Lizbeth is also the name of the sister of Sean Campbell — we’ve been looking up Liam’s ancestors on Ancestry Dot Com.”

Lady Mairead was quiet, then said, “Aye, that is a book from her library.”

Blakely said, “Wait... that doesn’t make sense, how did Lizbeth get a Harry Potter book?”

Lady Mairead was quiet and dinna answer.

I asked, “Lady Mairead, Yer Highness, are ye still there?”

“Aye.”

Blakely said, “Oh, I thought...” Her voice trailed off.

I opened up the first letter and held it in front of the camera.

She said, “Does it say anything else?”

“Nae, just that?—”

“What year does it say?”

I read out the year and watched her head bow over a book as she took notes with a verra fine pen.

“…and what was the month?”

I read the part about the drovers. She wrote a bit, then said out loud, not speaking tae us, “Shew me the month of the drovers in Crieff in the year 1683.”

Her attention was away from the screen.

Blakely and I glanced at each other.

Lady Mairead said, “October 9, 1683.” She wrote some more.

Then she said, “Shew me the other.”

I unfolded it and held it up for her.

She peered at the screen and began writing again. She wrote for longer. Then she put down the pen. “Thank ye verra much.”

I folded the papers up and placed them back in the book.

She said, “I would like tae pay ye for the trouble.”

Blakely said, “Oh, that’s not necessary, we already?—”

“Hae ye been given a title?”

I said, “Nae, I daena — this is no’ expected.”

“I think ye ought tae be the new Earl of Breadalbane… the title is dormant. I will begin on it in the morning, in the meantime I will set up a new account for ye tae run yer lands and the castle.”

Blakely said, “Oh, I didn’t realize... we get money for our living expenses, but?—”

“As if ye are glorified caretakers? Nae, that is not acceptable. Ye are the laird and lady of the castle, a direct descendant of Sean. The castle is yers. Ye will need a title as well. Write this down.”

Blakely rushed tae grab a pen and a scrap paper. She looked frantic and when she sat down she brushed hair from her face.

Lady Mairead continued, “Ye will hae an account at C. Hoare & Co. Contact the Honorable Theodore Russell, esquire, he will help ye access the funds.” She paused as if she were choosing her words carefully, “All I ask in return is that ye contact me just as ye did today, tae tell me what ye find in the books, or in the back of paintings, or perhaps carved intae the walls or under the furniture.”

I said, “Ye want us t’look over all the furniture?”

“Under all the furniture, aye, just tae be certain. And look within all the books. Let me ken what ye find.”

I nodded. “Alright, I will.”

Lady Mairead narrowed her eyes. “Also, ye will be looking for vessels…”

“What is a vessel? Like a boat?”

She shook her head. “Nae, never mind, but if ye find anything else that seems odd or unnerving, just send me a message. This is verra helpful.”

Blakely said, “I’m glad sending the message helped you, I just don’t really understand how it helped.”

Lady Mairead said, “Tis because ye daena need tae ken anything else about it. This is private historical business, life and death historical business. Ye must let me ken as soon as ye learn anything.”

She hung up, without sayin’ goodby.

Blakely turned tae me with her eyes wide. “What in the world is going on?”

I ran my hand through my hair. “How does Lizbeth from... when was she livin’?”

“Few hundred years ago, at least , unless… is there a more recent Lizbeth and Sean? Do you remember?”

“I daena think so, but I wasna looking.”

“This is the weirdest job. Now you’re going to have a title?”

“I canna believe it. She wants me tae be an earl? I daena think she understands who I am.”

Blakely said, “You’ll make a great earl, I think… but then again I’m American, I don’t really know what that is.”

“An earl is third rank from a king, I was a groundskeeper just last year.”

“And she’s giving us a whole new bank account? She barely even knows us.”

She typed on her laptop.

I asked, “What ye lookin’ up?”

“The bank where she said there was a... Damn, look at this bank. It’s the oldest bank in the UK.”

“It daena look like the kind of bank where ye log in and check yer balance. The chairs are too expensive.”

Her laptop dinged.

There was another incoming video call from Lady Mairead.

Blakely answered.

Lady Mairead said, “I wanted tae clarify something with ye. Are we alone, nae one will overhear?”

I said, “Aye, we are alone.”

“Good, I will be absolutely truthful with ye. We are time travelers.”

She paused and we were quiet.

Then I broke the silence. “What dost ye mean, time travelers? Like ye go around in costumes, pretending tae live in the past?”

“Nae, we hae vessels that take us forward and back through time.”

Blakely said, “That’s not true.”

“I assure ye tis as true as I am speaking tae ye from m’desk in the year 2391, yet I was born in 1660.”

Blakely said, “I need some kind of proof.”

“Ye are holding proof in yer hand, the book is from me, tae my daughter Lizabeth, who lived in Balloch — I mean, Taymouth Castle, three hundred years prior tae ye. Her brother was Sean. If ye go intae the library ye will see on the shelf Marcus Aurelius’s, Meditations . Twas written in the second century, but the copy on the shelf was published in the twentieth century and specially bound and engraved for Sean at a publishing house in Paris. I gave him the book on his twenty-seventh birthday. The year was 1702. Should I go on?”

“No, I get it, sort of…”

She said, “The letters ye found are from my family who are stuck in time. We are at war with a man named Asgall. Hae ye met a man named Asgall?”

Blakely’s eyes went wide. “I did! I met a man named Asgall at the airport lounge in Heathrow, yesterday. I told him we were moving here to be caretakers of the castle.”

Lady Mairead put her fingers on her temple and rubbed briefly. “Och nae.” She exhaled. “Ye canna trust him, be guarded and watchful. He is verra dangerous.”

Blakely nodded.

I said, “This is a great deal tae take in, how are we... so ye mean that the men who came tae the pub, Quentin and James, this is their letter?” I unfolded it and looked at it again. “They were with Magnus and Fraoch, they’re all involved?”

“Magnus is my son. He is the King of Riaghalbane. He is also King of Scotland in the thirteenth century. Ye can look him up in the historical record. Fraoch is his brother, he is with him at Stirling Castle in the year 1291. And aye, the Colonel Quentin and James Cook who are stuck in time are the same men ye met. I must help them. But my vessel inna working...” Her voice trailed off. “I need for ye tae do me a favor.”

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