Lucy kissed the top of Jason’s head, his soft hair tickling her lips. “You will be a knight like your father one day.”
After she’d brushed his teeth, Lucy took them on a walk outside the castle walls, laughing as Jason tried to catch a bird that flew by.
Mabel carried Peter in her arms. He was fast asleep, warm in the woolen blanket.
While Lucy played with Jason, Mabel sat on a rock with Peter in her arms and a smile on her face. The girl came from a family of seven and Lucy had taken her in when they perished from fever last winter. The fever had taken a handful from the castle and fourteen in the village.
The sound of horses thundering across the ground had her grabbing Jason, making him yelp as she pulled him behind her. Why hadn’t she brought the guards with her?
When she saw it was a guard from the castle, her heart beat faster at the look on his face.
“What? Is there word from Lord Blackford?”
The man dismounted. “Nay, lady. A messenger arrived at the castle. We did not let him in, as he had spots on his face.” He held out the message for her.
“You did well.”
Lucy noted the wax seal was of a hog. When she opened the message, the ground split and she fell into the abyss.
I amthe sister you seek. Come to Beverley. I will wait for you at St. John’s Well. Tell no one, for I am in grave danger.
“My lady?”The man took a step closer.
“I am well.” Lucy shook her head, willing the blood to flow through her veins again.
How could it be? Had Melinda or Charlotte somehow traveled through time? And if so, how long had they been looking for her?
She refused his offer to ride back with him, needing the time it would take her and the boys to walk, to think about what she might do.
Why hadn’t her sister, whichever one it was, put something in the message only she would know?
Trying to appear normal, she asked Mabel about the well.
“Aye, I know the well. ’Tis a holy well and will cure what ails you.” She frowned at Lucy. “Are ye ill, my lady?”
Lucy waved a hand. “No, but I have been having trouble with my eyesight and heard in the village that a visit to the well would cure me.”
Mabel brightened. “The water will, mistress. It is most powerful.”
After they ate, Lucy talked to Thomas about the journey. He wasn’t thrilled that she didn’t want to wait for William to return, but when she agreed to take six armed guards along with her lady’s maid, he relented. She told him she wanted to leave tomorrow so they would be back before William returned. She simply told Thomas that she had to seek the healing powers of the well. Sometimes it was nice being the lady of the castle, so no one questioned her.
The next morning,Lucy kissed the children goodbye and told Mabel they would be back in a sennight.
Unable to hold the excitement in, Lucy kept rereading the note. It had to be Charlotte. She was so adventurous. Surely it was she who had come to find Lucy? What had happened that she was in danger and could not come to Blackford herself? They had to hurry. Medieval England was not a safe place for a woman on her own, no matter how adventurous.
She’d dressed warmly and made sure Margery would have the gray palfrey to ride on the journey, as the horse had an even temper and would happily follow Buttercup anywhere.
Wait until William found out. It would be so wonderful to have Charlotte here at Blackford. If anyone had harmed her, Lucy wouldn’t hesitate to bring the full brunt of the power Blackford wielded down on whomever had hurt her sister.
With a dagger in the pocket of her cloak, two more in her boots, and men armed to the teeth, Lucy was ready to find her sister and help her out of whatever trouble she found herself in.
CHAPTER 11
The highlands stretchedbefore him like a vast canvas painted with nature’s brush on the day Callan departed, his meager possessions bundled over one shoulder.
Perhaps one day he might return to Scotland, to the highlands where he had spent all his life, but for now there were too many memories, many of them painful.
It was out of the way, but Callan wanted to see the inn where his father met his mother.
