"Thank me? What for?"
"The men in the dungeon. It is because of you they are free."
"Me? You went down and unlocked their chains."
"You taught me something new. Sometimes words can work better than a sword."
"I'm glad you were able to free them. No one deserves to be locked in a dungeon like that."
He frowned, pointing ahead. "Look at that."
Rose looked. The fog was lifting. On the horizon, to her left, she could see a black smudge. "What is that?"
"It was a village. The rat must have burned it on his way north."
"How can you tell?"
"I can see his banner flying in the square. Curse him."
"Leave me here. Ride to Walter now and end this. I can make my own way to the stone circle."
"I swore I would get you home first and that I will do. Now come, the bridge ahead is old. We must dismount and walk across."
Rose looked at the bridge in front of them, trying not to think about the burnt village.
Things in the Middle Ages seemed so arbitrarily brutal. Death was around every corner. Marauding armies, wolves, disease, men like Robert de Ros burning your home to the ground. How generations of her ancestors ever lived long enough to produce offspring was a mystery.
That made her think about her ancestors.
Somewhere out there was the man and woman who were connected to her by a single unbreaking thread from nearly a thousand years before her birth. Who were they? Were they Scottish? English? Rich? Poor? Happy? Sad? She had no idea.
What about her mother? She could kick herself. She’d been so lost in this world, she hadn’t thought about her for some time until just then. That was another reason to return to the present, continue the search for her.
She heard a creak as she stepped onto the bridge and that brought her thoughts jolting back to the matter at hand. The wooden slats were old and rotting, the ropes that bound them green with mold.
The river was fast flowing below and as she looked down a wave of dizziness washed over her. She stood still for a moment, waiting for it to pass.
Ahead of her, Lennox was leading the horse, its hooves sliding from one plank to the next. He turned, waving his free hand at her and shouting something she couldn't hear over the sound of roaring water beneath the bridge. She waved back, putting her hand to her ear.
He called again but she still couldn't hear it. Picking up speed, she tried to catch up to him. His waving became more frantic, and the rope next to her began to groan.
"Get back," he shouted.
It was too late. The weight of two people and the horse combined was too much. The rope snapped as she turned and began to run back to safety. The bridge lurched sideways, shaking wildly as the one remaining rope struggled with the increased strain.
The horse slid off as the planks twisted and buckled, creaking wildly and then starting to fire off into the air. Splinters shot upward as the planks fell into the water below, vanishing under the foam.
Lennox held onto the horse's rope for too long, falling through the bridge and disappearing. One moment he was there, the next he was gone. Rose had time to call his name before the remaining rope snapped and she too was hurled into the water.
She had no time to take a breath and as she plunged in, her mouth opened in shock. She took in a lungful of water, rising to the surface in time to cough it out.
She went down again, twisting over and over in the foam as she was swept downstream. She felt herself sinking deeper as she frantically spun her arms, trying to push for the surface which seemed to get ever further away.
Her lungs burned as she held her mouth closed for as long as she could, stars appearing before her eyes. She knew she was going to drown. There was no way she could make it to safety.
She bounced off a rock underwater, feeling no pain, only the impact that forced the last of the air out of her body.
Her vision began to fade. She felt something take hold of her wrist. It was painfully tight and before she had time to work out what was happening she was yanked upwards.
