Page 194 of Feathers in the Wind
‘What would you do if you had to make a choice, Nat?’ I asked at last.
‘A choice between my time and this one?’ He sighed and looked away at the canal boats below us. ‘There is so much here.’ I could hear the hunger in his voice. ‘The war is killing my spirit, Jessie. I take no pleasure in fighting my own countrymen and, even worse, having to watch my own people die.’
‘Then why are you fighting?’
‘Did I have a choice? I have served the king at court. I owe him my complete loyalty.’
‘He is going to lose, Nat. The next battle, Naseby, will be his last. After that his cause is lost.’
‘So Alan tells me.’ Nat’s lips compressed in a grim line. ‘I won’t see it. I will already be dead.’
I looked away, tears springing to my eyes. He reached out and stroked my cheek.
‘I can’t change history,’ he said gently. ‘I don’t want to change history. Imagine if I go back and tell the king not to take the field at Naseby...what difference will that one conversation make to what is to come?’
This was the same conversation I’d had with Alan.
I shook my head. ‘Maybe none.’ I sighed. ‘What it might do is prolong the war. I know the king’s forces are spent and are no match for parliament’s New Model Army. They will have to meet someday.’
He smiled. ‘For someone who professes to know nothing of history, you are well informed.’
‘You don’t have a brother like Alan and not pick something up, but don’t tell him.’ I smiled in return
He traced a pattern on the back of my hand with his finger. ‘To return to your question, Jessie. I am not sure it will be something about which I have to make a decision. My grandmother...’ He broke off and picked up his beer, swilling the contents.
‘What about your grandmother? You mentioned her before. What has she to do with this?’
He set down the empty glass and sighed. ‘My grandmother is the one who has sent me out of time.’
‘That’s ridiculous. What is she? Some sort of witch?’
‘Yes.’ The word hung on the air between us.
I gave a nervous laugh. ‘Now you’re being seventeenth century. Whatever else you may believe, there are no such things as witches.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘No? Then why am I here? Dame Alice knew what she was doing when she sent me to you.’
‘But how could she possibly know me? Know about me?’ A foolish thought crossed my mind. ‘Maybe it is not about me, but the cottage? When I bought the cottage a year ago, it had been empty for decades and before that there had been little done to it. Until I moved in and renovated, it would have looked almost the same to you as it did to the last owner.’
‘Now it is you who are being fanciful,’ Nat said.
I shook my head. ‘No, I think the key to this is the cottage. It is the one link between your time and mine.’
He shrugged. ‘It’s only a link. I could just have easily walked into the Church of St. Matthew at Chesham. That is little changed.’
‘Then tell me about your grandmother?’
‘No. We have talked enough about my family. What of your family?’
‘Just Alan and I. Our parents were killed in a car accident five years ago.’
I felt the gaping hole in my chest that their deaths had left, as it always did at mention of them. Nat’s fingers tightened on mine.
‘I am sorry to bring back such painful memories.’
I shook my head. ‘It’s silly. After all this time I shouldn’t get emotional but I do. I miss them every day…’ My voice quavered and it was my turn to look away.
Nat stroked my cheek again, curling a lock of my hair around his finger.
