As soon as I could, I would return home. I would get back to normal.
I would marry Cooper and we would start our life together…
I took a deep breath, quietly pulled the closest bag toward me, opened the top, and began looking through our loot.
4
LEXI
1558 - BY THE RIVER DEE
The first bag was a soft leather sack with a cinched top. I loosened the cord and dug inside. Silver coins spilled through my fingers, cold and heavy, and beneath them a bundle wrapped in dingy cloth. I opened it to find a hunk of flatbread and a wedge of hard cheese oozing oil. Both looked aged past their welcome. My stomach growled, but the sight turned it queasy. Another smaller bundle held a strip of stiff, gray, dried meat. I gagged. It looked really gross and I was pretty certain we would have to eat it. I looked around at the landscape. Unless Torin could hunt — could he hunt? Or fish for me?Is that how it worked?
At least there was a flask. I shook it and heard the faint slosh — half full. I laid everything out in a neat row and pulled the second bag closer. This one was newer, sturdier, with a folded flap.
I flipped it open and froze.
A tag stuck out of the seam:Made in Texas.
Whoa.
For a heartbeat my mind scrambled.Whenwere we?
I looked all around. Both Torin and I had assumed we were in a long-ago past, but what if I’d been wrong? What if we were just somewhere in the United States? What if while I had been unconscious I had been human-trafficked into the middle of nowhere?
But nothing around me looked familiar. The mountains, the trees, the air — it wasn’t anywhere I knew. And I hadn’t been many places, but still…
I dug deeper into the satchel. Shears with wiry hair caught in them — I dropped those fast, gagging. A ball of soap. A small knife. A horn spoon. And at the bottom, a hand-carved wooden cross. I set that beside the other items, feeling uneasy.
The third bag was the largest, stuffed round. I pulled open the flap and found a wool tartan blanket on top, musty with damp. I hauled it free, and as it unrolled something heavy clattered out from its folds.
A vessel.
My pulse leapt.We had a vessel!
I grabbed Torin’s leg and shook hard.
He scrambled up in an instant, blade in hand, eyes flashing right and left for danger. “What is it?”
“Nothing! I’m so sorry, Torin. I didn’t mean to alarm you. So sorry, but look!” I pointed at the vessel. “We have one!!”
“Och aye, tis good news.” He clutched his chest. “Och, ye gave me a fright.”
“I am so sorry, I got so excited.”
He put down his knife and picked up the vessel.
I asked, “Is it going to grab you?”
“I daena think twill.”
“Can I hold onto you, anyway?”
He nodded and put out his arm for me to wrap my hands around. I put my head on his shoulder so I could see.
He shook the vessel slightly and listened, then began studying it.
“What do you see?”
