Chapter Six
Beth watched them go from the top of the half built tower. She hated herself for even thinking about him. He’d ignored her perfectly reasonable request to get back to her own time and her mother who was no doubt waiting for her. Why couldn’t she stop thinking about his hand slipping into hers outside the infirmary?
She didn’t belong in the past. It was different when she’d thought it was maybe a re-enactment or a live action game. The reality meant being away from home, from finishing her course, from maybe one day becoming an architect like she’d always dreamed.
Far below her, he was riding out with six of his men. People moved out of the way so he could ride through the gate and then beyond the walls. Her eyes moved onto the surrounding countryside.
The riders headed slowly up a slope, pausing for a spell at the top to look back. They were no more than dots from this distance but she could have sworn he was looking right at her in that moment. Then they vanished over the crest and she felt more alone than she had in her entire life.
She hated herself for thinking about him after he’d gone. He didn’t deserve her thoughts. He was rough, ignorant, rude, and…and impossibly handsome.
She sighed, moving away from the jagged edge of the tower wall into the safer space near the door.
It looked as if work had been stopped for some time. The floor was made of rough boards with inch thick gaps between them, revealing the floor below. She tried to lift them but they were nailed solidly in place. The walls were unplastered.
On two sides the stonework was complete, presumably where they connected to the interior space of the keep. The remaining two sides faced out into the open.
There were the remains of stumps that held the scaffolding in place but the thought of using them to climb down was enough to make her feel queasy. It was too high up and what if she fell? Her mother would never know what happened to her. She would just be one of the countless people who went missing each year, never to be heard from again.
The roof had yet to be built. The gap allowed the chill evening wind to blow through without anything there to prevent it. Had he told them to lock her in this awful prison?
She wanted to stop thinking about him. She wanted to think about getting home. She wanted to be at home in her armchair, her mother there but without the diagnosis looming over her. The two of them would sit together in silence, both reading. Mom would read about genealogy or Scotland and she’d have her architecture books.
That was a safe place. No blood spurting from dying people, no blazing infernos, and definitely no brutish giants in baldrics and hose locking her away to freeze to death.
She curled up in the corner by the door, wrapping her arms around her, trying and failing to keep warm.
With her eyes shut, his face came unbidden into her mind. What was it about him? She realized that despite everything that had happened to her, she’d felt safe around him. Until she was trapped in an unfinished tower at the top of the keep.
She opened her eyes to shake away the image of him wrapping her in his arms, an image she wanted to ignore. Her keen eyes ran over the jagged unfinished walls in front of her. Unable to stop herself, she started seeing it from an architectural point of view and what she saw scared her. It wasn’t strong enough. The mortar had not set properly and was already crumbling. That meant the top layers of stones were weighing too heavily on the lower courses.
A closer look and she was proved right. The mortar had been pressed out by her feet, stone touching stone. That gave it no flexibility. If the winds were strong enough that section of wall would give way almost at once. If the rest of the keep had been built the same way then Andrew might not need a siege to bring down his castle. The winter weather might be enough to send it crashing down to the courtyard below.
She jumped up when a key rattled in the lock. The door opened a moment later and Derek walked in, a smirk on his face. “How are you enjoying your accommodation?”
“If that’s a joke, I don’t find it very funny. Have you come to let me out?”
“I’m to keep a close eye on you while you’re here. I wondered if perhaps you might prefer to join me in my own chamber?”
“You have a room of your own?”
Beth didn’t know a huge amount about medieval history but she knew that only the lord’s family had private rooms in castles in this era. Everyone else slept together, usually in the great hall. The thought of the hall was enough to make her nose wrinkle in disgust.
“I am the son of a laird. Do you not think I warrant a chamber of my own? Lovely warm fire in there. Do you want to join me or not?”
“I’d rather stay here.”
“Suit yourself,” he snapped, pulling the door closed once more.
Beth sank once more to the ground, curling up and shivering uncontrollably. She thought about the fire she’d been offered and could almost feel the warmth sinking into her frozen bones. Then she thought of Derek, the curl of his lips when he looked at her, the way he kept glancing at her chest, how his hands had tried to touch her before. She knew she’d made the right decision.
An hour or so after sunset, the steward she’d seen talking to Andrew appeared in the doorway holding a tray of food. “I was told you were up here,” he said, passing her the tray. “But I did not believe it. I am most sorry you are being treated this way, lass.”
She grabbed a hunk of bread from the tray, surprised by how hungry she suddenly felt. “Thank you,” she said, shoving a piece into her mouth. It tasted gritty. She found it hard to grip the rest in her frozen hands and her teeth chattered as she ate, making it hard to swallow.
“My name’s Rory by the way,” he said as she ate. “If you’re a MacLeish I shall eat my baldric.”
“How do you know I’m not a MacLeish?” she asked, looking at the warm face above her.
