“Like say I throw that bottle over the side. It might be washed up onshore years from now and someone might stand on it. They might get an infected wound from the glass and die. Their children would then not be born and bingo, back in my time their descendant who was going to find a cure for cancer no longer exists.”
“What’s cancer?”
“Never mind. I just mean, I’ve been thinking-”
“Me too,” he interrupted, realizing he was still holding her chin. He let go, sitting on the bench behind him and looking at her closely. “I’ve got something I must talk to you about.”
“I think I know what you’re going to say,” she said with a sad smile.
“Do you now?”
“Don’t let’s talk about it yet, okay?”
“Why not? The butterfly effect?”
“Exactly. Who knows what it might lead to in my time. Who knows what I might already have changed. For all I know I’ve wiped out my whole country just by being here.”
“Or you’ve saved it,” he replied, leaning toward her.
“I think you should have this,” she said, passing him the key. “It’ll be safer with you.”
“You keep it,” he replied, wrapping his hand around hers.
The light was shining through the porthole, illuminating her face perfectly. She looked like an angel. He leaned further and realized he was about to kiss her when the captain’s voice called from outside. “Land ho! I could do with some help out here.”
“Come on,” Natalie said, turning and pulling open the cabin door.
Was she glad to escape him? What if he’d kissed her in that moment? Would her butterfly effect theory come into action, cause something bad to happen in her time as a consequence of his action?
He found his head hurt if he thought about it too much. Better to let what was going to happen happen. He would focus on what he could do in the now.
Stepping out into the open and seeing how close the pursuing ships were, he knew what that was. He would fight to save her. “Have you a sword?” he asked the captain who was busy steering the ship toward the approaching shore.
“Down in the hold.”
Wallace retrieved it, testing it with some practice strokes. “Mind if I borrow it?”
“Be my guest. Get ready. As soon as we reach land, you better run.”
“Have you heard of the door in the rock?”
“Aye.”
“Where is it?”
“South of where we’re landing. Top of a peak that looks like a running wolf.”
“How far?”
“No more than an hour or two. Why?”
“I need to get there. We need to get there.”
“I thought we were going back to the castle,” Natalie said, glancing back at the ships behind them, fear showing on her face. “How else am I getting home?”
“We have to do something first,” he replied.
“But you promised.”
