Michael’s head was reeling. This guy was actually disappearing and appearing right in front of him. Was he a wizard? He said he was cursed.
It could have been anyone’s hat. How was Michael to know? But the guy was disappearing! It was difficult not to believe him.
“Did you just take it from him?”
“Yes,” Mr. Simeon replied. “I went in, picked it up from where it was resting on a wooden chair, and left. He probably doesn’t even know it’s gone yet.”
Michael shook his head as if to clear it. He couldn’t be thinking of Napoleon now!
“Are you here to bring me back?” Michael asked him. Now that it might be a possibility, he wasn’t sure he wanted to go back. Here, he didn’t feel like ending everything. He didn’t feel plagued with thoughts of Clements and his brother and the rest. His thoughts were more filled with Lady Charlotte Whimsey.
“I cannot bring you back,” Simeon told him. “I had never met any who traveled through time until I met Kestrel. When I—”
“Kestrel Lancaster?” Michael gave it a shot. He didn’t really think it would be the same person but…
“Why, yes,” the alleged time traveler said with a smile. “It’s Kestrel de Marre now. Married a knight. They are my friends, but I can only visit for a few hours at a time.”
“So she was sent back here, too?”
“To fourteen eighty-five.”
Michael drew out a long whistle that stirred the horses. Whatever was going on here was some serious stuff. His thoughts trailed off to Charles Lancaster, Kestrel’s father. He was a decent guy, was always very cordial to Michael. He’d looked to be in his late forties, dark hair, silver streaks, expensive reading glasses perched at the end of his straight nose. “Her father was worried sick over her.”
“Oh?” Simeon appeared curious. “You met him then?”
“A few times,” Michael told him. “I’m a cop. I was put on the Lancaster case. I wanted to help him. He’s a good guy.”
Simeon nodded. “Yes, yes, he is. I like him, too. He knows where she is. Fear not.”
Michael felt better knowing that but how did her father find out? Had she been returned?
“So,” said the man who could disappear, “you know nothing about the brooch or how you got here?”
Michael leaned his shoulder against the wooden stable wall and shook his head. “Nothing.”
“There’s much to be told,” said Simeon pulling up a stool and having a seat.
“I have much to ask.”
“You have heard of King Arthur?” Simeon asked, narrowing his coal…or were they dark blue eyes on him.
“Pendragon. Yes, I know Pendridge is a variant of it. I’m a Pendragon. The duke already figured that out. What about the brooch? Where is it? Why was I sent here? Wait—did you say I met Sir Gawaine?”
“That is correct. You know him as Mr. Green, I believe.”
“Yeah,” Michael drawled out, recalling the tall, broad-shouldered man. He was Sir Gawaine of the Round Table? Wait a minute! Why was he acting like this was all real? But it had to be real. There was no other explanation. He thought it wouldn’t hurt to hear this Roldan Simeon—time traveler—out.
“Okay,” Michael pressed, “King Arthur—you were saying?”
“Yes, yes. He is real, same as all this, but from another realm.”
“Another realm.” Michael stared at him. “Yeah, you mentioned that before.” Was he really supposed to believe all this? It was getting crazier by the second.
“Yes. You come from the future, I come from the past.Theyare not fromhere.” He motioned back and forth with his fingers.
“They?”
“The king and all his knights, his wife, their wives, his wizard, the sisters. Avalon.”
