60. Chapter 60 - Blakely

CHAPTER 60 - BLAKELY

LIAM AND BLAKELY CAMPBELL BESIDE THE RIVER TAY - PRESENT DAY

I was sitting on a boulder on the bank of the river, sipping from a mug of coffee, and reading over the letter that Lady Mairead had dictated to me. She had commanded Liam to carry it in his pocket.

It made no sense.

I said, “It says here that we are bringing him a vessel?—”

“I ken, I was there when ye wrote it.”

“Who is him? And what does she mean by bringing it to him?”

“She told me tae dig, tis all I ken, dig the hole.”

Liam was all hotness in front of me digging with a shovel around the base of a tree. “Your ass is very fine when you’re shoveling, my love, this is a lovely view.” He chuckled. “Ye are just randy because of the Scottish air, tis fresh and invigoratin’. Ye are thinkin’ ye want tae hae yer way with me.”

“That must be it, not at all the pull of your pants across your...” I stood up, walked over, and stuffed the letter in his pocket. I kissed him on the cheek. “I don’t want to cross her.”

“Plus twas a chance tae touch m’arse, I ken how ye are, Woodshee.” He grinned. Then he stepped on the shovel and dug up a shovelful of dirt. “Ye canna proposition me out here, I am a man who has been turned upside down — we slept all day, and almost missed the sunlight, I hae been asked tae dig a hole by a time traveling Lady from the future who matches the description of a Lady from the past. I hae been given a mission, I must dig...” Another shovelful was dumped to the side. “But whatever we are looking for, it must not be here.”

He stood looking up at the trees and then around at the base of them. “Maybe I picked the wrong one. This might be…” He walked six paces to another tree. “Aye, this is this one.” He dug the shovel intae the dirt at the base.

I said, “So we’re just believing her, she’s a time traveler, but time travel doesn’t exist…”

“Occam’s razor, Woodshee, the simplest explanation must be true.”

“How do you know anything about Occam’s razor?”

He chuckled. “I spent a lot of time in locker rooms.”

I rolled my eyes. “That is not an explanation. But whatever, how, pray tell, is time travel the simplest explanation? It’s very very complicated for time travel to exist.”

“Tis not. Ye are thinking tis because ye are still in the mindset that it daena exist. Twenty-four hours ago ye dinna believe time travel occurred. Ye were livin’ in a simple time and yet, remember, Woodshee — we couldna come up with a single good reason why we found those letters stuffed in a Harry Potter book in an old library in an ancient castle. It dinna make sense. But then...” He dug the shovel into the dirt again. “ Then we heard there was time travel. We dinna ken it before, but now we ken it exists, and now all the events make sense. That is why we hae been given this castle. That is why we hae a full bank account. That is why there is a Harry Potter book on our shelf that looks three hundred years old — because tis. Tis three hundred years old, Woodshee. And time travel explains why the men we met, James and Quentin, put a letter there for someone tae find. They put the letter from centuries ago, inside a book that is twenty-five years old, in a library that is hundreds of years old, inside a castle that was locked up and unused for at least fifty years. Did ye remember that part?”

I sipped coffee, “Yeah, I heard that, and you’re right it doesn’t make any sense. How could a twenty-five year old book be dusty on a shelf that has been locked up for fifty years? It’s nonsensical.”

“Aye, and it’s been fifty years since the building was used, and that was just the main floor. It’s likely that the library hasn’t been used for a hundred years, easy.” He leaned on the shovel and mopped his brow.

I fanned myself. “Unless one of the workers who was fixing it up this past year, getting it ready for us, maybe if... maybe one of them put it there...”

“How would the letter get there?”

“A prank, I don’t know.”

His brow went up. “A prank, Woodshee? I hae a bank account that daena look like a prank.”

“I know, I know.”

He went back to digging.

I said, “There’s nothing there, right? I mean, if she was wrong about there being a box, maybe she was wrong about?—”

His shovel hit something hard and metal.

I said, “Uh oh, what’s that?”

“Somethin’ proving the simplest explanation is real.”

He used his hands to pull dirt away from the edges of a chest. And then went back to digging with more confidence. He uncovered the top and then shimmied the shovel edge between the chest and dirt and pried it up. He changed sides and worked from all directions until the box finally dislodged.

“Tis the chest! She told me right where twas!”

I laughed because he had dug three holes before he found it.

“You got the way to open it?” I pulled out my notes from the conversation.

He crouched down. “I remember the code she told me.”

“Good, because my mind was spinning, and my notes are a mess.”

“Aye, I hae lots of practice because I daena trust the devices. I keep it all up here.” He tapped the side of his head, leaving a little dirt smear there, still sexy though.

He worked on the lock for a moment and the top lifted, pneumatically.

He grinned with his eyebrows up and down. “I live in a king’s castle and I just opened a king’s chest...” He rubbed his hands together. “I hope there is a king’s treasure.” He gingerly lifted a piece of velvet off the top and peered inside. “Hmmm..”

“What is it?”

“I daena ken, tis...” He picked something up. It was metal and about the size and shape of a Red Bull can. He held it on his palm. “Tis odd, it hums, it feels alive.”

“She said not to touch it or twist it.”

“Tis in m’palm, I am no’doin’ anything tae it.”

I stood beside him looking down on it.

“So what is this supposed to be?”

“She called it the vessel. I suppose tis tae time travel with? We need tae go call her and tell her we found it.”

“So we’re just going to accept all of this as fact?”

“What else are we goin’ tae do, Woodshee? No’ believe the lady who is callin’ us from the year 2391?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Did we get proof?”

He shrugged. “I thought I would take her on her word, seems a farcical tale tae tell.”

“Would you also believe a Nigerian Prince needs you to drain your bank account?”

“Tis not what this is, this is the Lady Mairead fillin’ our bank account.”

“Good point — and so far none of it is illegal.” I poked the vessel. “I don’t think?—”

There was the sound of tires on gravel coming from the front of the castle.

He listened.

We both turned toward the building.

We were on the river bank behind a thin strip of trees, with a view across golf-course-style grass to the side of the castle. We had an oblique view of the driveway. Four SUVs drove up and parked in a line.

He asked, “Who could that be?”

I said, “Our first visitors?—”

The SUV doors opened and soldiers stepped out, they were armed. A few headed up the steps while others walked around the side of the building, as if they were surrounding it. It looked as if they were there to make arrests.

Liam said, “Who the hell is that?—?”

But then he looked down in surprise as the vessel in his hand began to vibrate. I grabbed his arm. “What is it doing?—?”

Wind whipped through the trees above us. I looked up at billowing black clouds. There was a searing pain that rose up my hand to my elbow and spread across my shoulder. I put up my other arm to block the wind, and felt such intense pain inside my body that I felt like I was going to be ripped apart. I began to scream.