She nodded eagerly. “Yes. It’s the study of matter, substances, and how they interact. Like how metals react with acids, or how certain compounds can change states from solid to liquid to gas.”
Despite himself, Baldwin felt a flicker of interest. He had always been drawn to knowledge, a trait his father had considered unbecoming in a warrior. His private collection of manuscripts was among the finest outside of Oxford.
“And these markings explain how you came to be here?”
“I was attempting to retrace the conditions of the interdimensional event—” She paused, catching Baldwin’s baffled expression. “Sorry. Uh, trying to recreate the … circumstances that brought me here.”
“They’re my attempt to understand it.”
She gestured to the wall. “I was working with vinegar, acetic acid, and sodium bicarbonate, with copper sulfate as a catalyst. There was lightning, and a few drops of my blood got into the mixture.”
She touched her finger to where a small cut was visible.
“Then... blue light, electric discharge, a sense of falling... of dissolving down to my very molecules, and somehow I ended up here.”
Baldwin’s hand moved instinctively to the silver cross hanging at his throat. What she described sounded perilously like sorcery, yet there was something in her manner, earnest, frustrated, practical, that made him hesitate to name it so.
“You speak of things beyond my understanding,” he admitted reluctantly.
“Join the club,” she muttered.
“What is your name?” he asked abruptly.
She blinked, as if surprised by the question. “Beth. Elizabeth Anderson. Doctor Elizabeth Anderson, technically, but nobody calls me that except at academic conferences.”
“Doctor?” His brow arched. “You claim to be a physician as well?”
“No, not that kind of doctor. I have a PhD, a doctorate. It’s an advanced degree in my field.” She paused. “What’s your name? Everyone just calls you ‘my lord,’ which isn’t exactly helpful.”
He straightened, unaccustomed to such direct questioning from anyone, let alone a woman under his power. “I am Sir Baldwin Devereux, Lord of Glenhaven.”
“Well, Sir Baldwin,” she said, his name sounding strange with her accent, “I’m not a witch or a spy. I’m just... lost. Very, very lost.”
Something in her voice, a note of genuine despair beneath the bravado, stirred an unwelcome pang of sympathy in his chest even as he pushed it aside. Sympathy was a luxury he could ill afford, particularly with Cedric’s men watching Glenhaven’s every move and the king’s favor so precarious.
“You will remain here while I consider what is to be done with you,” he said, his tone brooking no argument.
“Seriously? You’re just going to keep me locked up?” Her hands clenched at her sides. “I need to figure out how to get home. I have classes to teach, a father who’s probably worried sick?—”
“Cease,” Baldwin commanded, raising a hand. The word echoed in the small chamber. “Your tale is impossible to believe, yet you tell it with such conviction that I cannot dismiss it entirely. Until I determine whether you pose a threat to my household, you will remain under guard.”
She opened her mouth to protest, then closed it again, seeming to think better of it.
“However,” he continued, “as you have shown yourself capable of escape, perhaps closer observation is warranted.” He turned toward the door. “Guard! Fetch Lady Eleanor.”
Beth’s eyes widened. “Eleanor? Your sister?”
Baldwin’s gaze sharpened. “How do you know she is my sister?”
“She told me. Yesterday, when she found me in the forest.”
Before he could respond, the door opened and Eleanor swept in, her blue eyes bright with curiosity. She had clearly been waiting nearby, her eagerness to see the strange woman again evident in her flushed cheeks. She wore a simple gown of forest green, her golden hair partially concealed beneath a linen veil.
“Brother,” she greeted him with a curtsy that managed to be both proper and impertinent. “You summoned me?”
“Lady Elizabeth claims to be a teacher of... science,” Baldwin said carefully. “She is to be released from this chamber, but must remain under observation. I entrust her to your care.”
Eleanor’s face lit up. “Truly? She is to stay with me?”
