Page 81 of Once upon a Summer Night

“How did you know where we went?”

He froze. “Um…we were sent here for a different quest, if you will, to save Claire.”

“Claire doesn’t need any saving,” Ellie noted dryly.

He laughed softly at Ellie’s expression. “She thinks shedoesn’t. But as wonderful as her family is, and this clan overall, there are many out here who aren’t. It’s a dark time, Ellie. I wouldn’t want any woman alone, without a guard. It’s…frightening, the things that are done to women here.”

She chewed the inside of her cheek, then began wringing her hands a little. “Say your story is true. Which is insane, but let’s pretend for a moment. Can I get back home?”

“Sir Colin!” a guardsman called out, then asked in Gaelic, “Do you train with us this evening?”

Colin shook his head at the man, then turned back to Ellie. “Night training is about to begin. Come on, let’s go somewhere else more private. While most of the clan knows me and the secrets of this family, we don’t discuss it in the open. Secrets like these can get a man killed.”

“Okay,” she whispered.

And when he held out his hand, she placed her cold one in his.

Ellie absently playedwith a loose string on her dress. The silver stitching on the deep blue cloth was nearly perfect, the beading was exquisite, and the bodice was elegantly fitted. Her sleeves hugged her upper arms, then opened in a graceful flow of fabric to her wrists.

She felt—and looked—like medieval royalty.

And, if she were to believe Colin’s little bombshell back there, she wasn’t so far off her mark.

If what he was saying was true, she and Gwen had somehow traveled back in time and ended up in the late 1400s.

Ridiculous.

As twilight turned to night, Ellie silently walked with Colin as they headed towards the battlements. Her glance slid from the embers burning low in the now-empty blacksmith’shut to the torch-lit stables, where soft whinnies were audible over the low voices of the stable master and his charges.

Colin led her across the inner courtyard, to the outer bailey, and to the battlement stairs. Hesitating, he turned to her with a questioning look, his face illuminated by the light of the torches in their sconces. Shadows and light danced across the hard planes of his face, shrouding him in even more mystery.

“I’m not afraid of heights,” she confirmed quietly, before he could ask.

“Okay. This is where we’ll have the most privacy. Watch your step, and if you feel at all off-balance, hold onto me.”

“That’s a nice way of saying, ‘If you trip, grab onto me so you don’t fly over the wall.’”

His teeth flashed in the torchlight. “If that’s how you care to interpret it.”

She fell silent again. They slowly ascended the steep stairs, Colin calling out a greeting in Gaelic as he emerged onto the battlements. The parapet was higher than Ellie expected; the low inner wall came up to her chest. The merlons stood even higher, their saw-tooth structure providing an extra layer of safety.

And, she reasoned,a rather clever way to stay behind cover while shooting arrows at the enemy.

How could she be more than five hundred years from when she stood a few days ago?

Colin spoke with one of the guards, who executed a swift bow before barking out an order. The men stationed around the tower, their shiny silver helmets barely visible in the dark, all but disappeared.

“Come,” Colin said, holding out his hand. He helped Ellie up the final two stairs.

A clear, inky black sky greeted her. Stars twinkled high above, unimpeded by smog or city lights. The crescent moon hung, suspended, providing no light to the land below. Elliecould make out the sounds of the sea—the distant crash of the waves and the intermittent cry of a gull carried on the wind—but it was too dark for her to see the water. She stepped up to the parapet and placed her hands on it, the cold stone grounding her.

“El?”

Ellie closed her eyes against the deep, hesitant voice. Her heartbeat sped up, though she tried to control it. She wrapped her arms around herself and took a deep breath before releasing it slowly.

“Is this…real?”

“It is.” Colin’s voice was closer now, though she hadn’t heard his steps on the stones.

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