"All right," she said at last. "If it’s real, I’ve no idea how to get home without a key anyway. It better be a dream. And if it’s a dream, what does it matter? Let’s go north, see what adventures wait for us up there. How far is it to your castle?"
"From here? One night in the open and we should reach it tomorrow. Will you be able to ride that long?"
"I get the feeling I’ll have woken up way before then."
He said nothing. If she was so deluded as to think she was in a dream, let her. It did him no harm. She would realize soon enough this was the real world, and a dangerous one at that.
Helping her back onto the horse, his breath caught, the feel of her hips under his hands warmed him somewhere deep inside.
He ignored the feeling, climbing up behind her, spurring the horse out of the clearing and back onto the track to the north.
They stopped for the evening in a hidden valley beside a shallow stream. As the horse drank, Lennox looked for shelter. "This will do," he said, beckoning her over to a cave entrance. "It’s small," he added as they crawled inside, "but it will keep us hidden from English patrols."
The floor of the cave was coated in moss, soft enough to cushion them against the hard rocks that formed the floor. Lennox lay near the entrance, Rose curled up behind him.
He saw her shivering as she tried to sleep. "Here," he said quietly, untying his plaid and unfolding it, draping it over her like a blanket.
"You’ll freeze," she replied, her eyes opening again. "Take it back."
"You need it more than me."
"Then here," she said, lifting the corner. "You use it too."
He lay behind her, watching the plaid rise and fall as her breathing began to slow. She soon stopped shivering, their breath continuing to warm the interior of the cave.
Soon his eyes closed. He dreamed of her. She was unlocking a door somewhere far away. Then there was darkness. She was scared. Someone was talking to her. He didn’t recognize the voice. The dream faded.
The next morning he was up first. The horse was already chewing on grass when he emerged into the open. The air was cool but not cold, a low mist drifting away across the valley floor.
After a check of the area for any sign of patrols he returned to the stream, plunging his arms into the icy water, cleaning the filth of the previous day from his body.
By the time he was done Rose had emerged from the cave, yawning loudly. "I’m still here then," she said, rubbing her eyes and the slapping herself across the face. "If I’m still here, that means…"
The color faded from her and she staggered as if she was about to fall. He ran over but she was all right, leaning on the rocks beside the cave, taking several deep breaths. "It’s real," she said again and again. "It’s really real."
"What’s real?" he asked.
"All this," she replied, waving her arms around. "You’re going to tell me this is the Middle Ages, aren’t you?"
"I dinnae ken what they are."
"What year is this?"
"The year of Our Lord 1330."
"And you’re a MacGregor, right?"
"Aye."
She groaned. "Then Mom was telling the truth. The keys are real." She sighed heavily, her shoulders slumping. "I’m stuck in the past. Fantastic."
"What are you talking about?"
"You won’t believe me but I’ll try anyway. I’m not from this time. I’m from the future. I unlocked a door to the past. Oh, goodness. It sounds utterly ridiculous when I say it out loud but here I am. I’m actually here. Oh, I see how you’re looking at me. Never mind, forget I said anything. What happens now?"
"Come on," he said, taking her hands in his, having no idea what she was talking about. "We should get moving."
She said nothing, not even when he almost dropped her while helping her onto the horse. The day’s journey was conducted in silence. He tried to speak to her a couple of times but she said nothing so in the end he gave up.
