Silent Vows (14 page)
“Where are we going, Uncle Todd?” Simon asked from the back seat.
The minute Myra came into money, the kid 116
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started sucking up to his newfound ‘Aunt Myra’. “I’m not your Uncle and stop asking. It’s a surprise.”
Simon rolled his eyes, “Todd and Myra sitting in a tree...”
“Knock it off.” Lizzy and Todd scolded at the same time. Only Myra was in the dark at what else he was going to say.
****
She stopped probing into Todd’s thoughts when he asked her to. Not looking was hard at times, like now when he seemed so distant. Christmas was only a few days away and the solstice had passed. She knew he thought of her leaving. Like him, the thought of her going brought a heaviness to her heart. Their relationship was so new, so exciting, she couldn’t bear the thought of not seeing him again.
Todd pulled into the parking lot of Renaissance Times. Myra, slightly baffled, had no idea where they were headed.
“I knew it,” Simon said from the back.
“What is it?”
“It’s a restaurant set up to look like a medieval castle. Inside they have a tournament with horses and everything.”
“That is supposed to resemble a castle?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh.” It fell short. The cars were parked right up next to it for one thing, and every stone that made up the walls were too perfect.
Simon slammed his door and ran up ahead, not bothering to keep his voice low when he asked Myra his questions. “So this is like your home?”
Myra clenched her teeth, looked between Lizzy and Todd. “Not quite.”
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“What’s different?”
“MacCoinnich Keep is much bigger to start.”
Lizzy gave her a disbelieving look, “Bigger than this?”
“By three.” She looked over Simon’s head.
“Maybe four.”
The hostess was elaborately dressed in peasant garb, but the colors were too vivid and the adornments of ribbons were out of place. Her smile was pleasant enough, and when she addressed them as Lords and Ladies, Myra nodded her head in acknowledgment by habit. The woman gave her a puzzled look.
People filled the outside lobby, most holding large colorful glasses filled with different types of alcoholic beverages. Men dressed as knights were flanked by their squires. They walked with authority in the crowd, causing many heads to turn in their direction. Not very different from her home, Myra thought, although their costumes were more English than Scottish. Myra couldn’t help but want to see a kilt or two in the mix. She was disappointed to see none.
She watched, tucked under Todd’s arm, and asked her own set of questions when Lizzy and Simon headed off to where the horses were displayed. “What are we doing here?”
He looked between her and the two that walked ahead. “I thought if Simon was going to take a quick trip back in time,” he whispered, so no one else could hear, “he might want to see what it’s like. Or at least have the right questions to ask before he goes.”
“That was very thoughtful of you.”
“That’s me. Mr. Thoughtful.”
A woman, dressed from head to toe in a gown of gold and black, nodded and smiled when she walked by them. “I need to remind Lizzy to prepare to wear dresses like those.”
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“I have a hard time picturing Lizzy in anything other than jeans.” Todd watched as the woman passed.
“What of me? Do you have a hard time picturing me dressed as her?”
Todd stopped, caught the glint in her smile and placed a slight kiss on her lips. “I see you dressed in rich green velvet. The sleeves would flow to your fingertips, but off your shoulders, exposing your lovely skin. I see small flowers in your hair, brushed free and blowing in the wind.”
She closed her eyes picturing what he described.
In her vision, Todd stood beside her, attired as the knight she knew him to be, her family crest etched into the shield he carried. As lovely as the image was, it panged her heart in an ache she knew too well, an ache that would grow at the impossibility of their tomorrows. Their lack of a future.
“Hey, why the long face?”
She shook off her thoughts, her pain. He was still there, and Myra was determined to cherish every moment. “I will have my maid make a dress just as you describe. It will always remind me of you.”
Her ache was contagious. Todd put a protective arm around her and moved closer to where Lizzy and Simon stood. “How exactly has Liz explained this all to him?”
“Delicately, I think. He seems to understand.
Then again, maybe he thinks us all crazy and is just going along to save our feelings.” Myra looked at a display of knight’s armor and couldn’t help but miss her home. Her family.
“Do you think he has a gift? Like you?”
“Most certainly. He told me of his love for animals, and how he befriends all he comes in contact with. Maybe that is his gift. My younger sister Amber has a way with everything in fur and 119
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feathers. There have been stories of my ancestors being able to read an animal’s mind and even talk to them.”
Todd watched one of the horses that stood behind a protective glass looking at Simon. “Why is it so easy to see him communicating with it? If I believe in time travel, a woman starting a fire with a flick of a wrist, and moving heavy objects with her mind, believing in Dr. Doolittle isn’t so far fetched.”
“Who is Dr. Doolittle?” Myra asked.
Todd laughed and explained while they walked into the arena.
A huge field of dirt for the tournament and games was set in the center of the room surrounded by an arena of stadium seating. Each section was clearly marked with colors so the crowd knew which knight to cheer to victory when they arrived on the field.
Todd and Lizzy flanked both sides of Myra. Both of them watched her more than what was happening around them.
A man dressed and acting as King made a great fuss over announcing dinner before the serving people came out. Their arms were laden with pitchers of ale and flasks of wine. A chicken dinner was served with no utensils, soup was given in a bowl fit to hold in your hand and the bread went unbuttered.
Myra whispered to Lizzy. “Tara has commissioned utensils made so this practice is quickly changing at home.”
“Tara always had a germ phobia.”
Several knights in many different coats of arms came forward to entertain the guests. The music accompanying them was loud and dramatic.
Games, showing the knights skills with a lance or bow took up much of the time on the field. Often Myra would lean over and whisper to either Lizzy or 120
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Todd how these games were played differently in her time.
The dancing horses took Myra by surprise. It wasn’t common for such a display to take place at her home. The skill and showmanship was so much like a dance she hardly let her eyes stray from the beauty on the field.
Simon was in awe over the horses as any eleven year old would be. He put out a very quiet. “Cool.”
The piped in fog and flashing of lights along with the booming music enthralled Myra. Todd held her hand, stroked the inside of her wrist, and watched the show along with her.
****
He thought Myra was the strongest, but felt a pull from the boy indicating a strength he wasn’t expecting. Even now, several yards behind him, the boy watched.
It was time to see how powerful his prey was.
What better setting than a room full of people and animals?
****
“What’s the big deal? It’s just a bird.”
“Nay, Simon, a falcon is a weapon in these times.” She spread her arms to the arena. “They are used to hunt and scout for their master. Its talons are razor sharp as is his beak, and used because of 121
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his ability to kill prey many times its size.”
“Wow.” Simon glanced over his shoulders. Once the man on the back of the horse moved to the center of the room with the falcon on his arm, he sat back and watched.
Myra shivered, feeling a cool draft in the air.
When her hands came up to rub warmth back into her arms, Todd took the liberty to put his jacket over her shoulders, then kept his arm there.
The falconer eyed the crowd and looked toward the eves of the building. “I ask you lords and ladies for your complete silence. The falcon will not discriminate if he thinks you are a threat. Do not call attention to yourself or call out to Ely as he soars above your heads.” The rustling of movement in the arena quieted and a hush went over the crowd. With a short command, the falcon took to the air and soared above the crowd. He circled the room twice then returned to rest on his master’s arm.
The falconer gave another command and the bird took flight again, this time to a perch high above the people, where he knew his food waited for him. But on his return flight, something caught the bird’s eye, and he detoured off his predicted path.
Myra noticed the falconer’s distress when the bird didn’t go where he was supposed to. Twice he put out a signal for the bird to return, which the animal ignored.
A woman, sitting several rows behind Myra and her party, was wearing a flashing light in her hair.
The falcon screeched, filling the room with his ominous sound when he dived toward the defenseless woman. Her arms instinctively went up to protect her face. The terror in her scream when the bird scraped her arms had those around her jumping out of the way.
Her screams alarmed the falcon more, causing it to dive at her again.
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Myra jumped to her feet, and in a quick motion wrapped Todd’s coat around her arm. She called to the bird, as she had heard her father do to his own.
Her command was ignored. “Call him, Simon,” she yelled over the noise of the growing chaos in the building.
Simon’s eyes moved back and forth between Myra and the flailing woman.
“Call him,” Myra yelled again.
He stood and said the bird’s name softly. The bird’s head jerked up and cocked to one side. Simon repeated his call again. “Ely, come.”
The falcon abandoned his prey, circling both Myra and Simon. Much to everyone’s surprise, Ely landed on Myra’s outstretched arm.
Lizzy pulled her son close, baffled.
The falconer attempted to gain Ely’s attention and failed. Myra spoke in her native Gaelic encouraging the bird to settle. The beast darted his eyes, confused by the mixed signals, then settled on the perch of her arm.
Myra walked to the center aisle, and anxious patrons parted giving her a wide berth. None of them uttered the smallest sound.
She made her way to the edge of the fence where the falconer waited. Graciously, she gave the bird to his owner. The trainer hastily covered the animal’s head and with a short bow, quickly left the stage.
The attention she received after everyone settled down worried her. The management resumed the show as rapidly as they could, while those people sitting around them watched her actions for the rest of the evening.
The four of them said very little the rest of the night, knowing they were being watched.
Myra felt a chill fall over her again when she realized what she had done. It was tricky keeping her gift at bay in such situations. Coupled with her 123
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nature to help those in need, it proved almost impossible. But it appeared no one questioned how she got the falcon to come to her. Even Simon asked how she did it. “It wasn’t me, Simon, ’twas you.”
Simon kept the conversation up most of the way home. Todd said very little.
After they dropped Lizzy and Simon off, Myra turned to Todd and asked, “Why are you so upset?”
“That thing could have ripped you up.”
“But it didn’t.”
“But it could have.”
“Aye.” She held on tight when he took the corner a little to fast.
“It was a stupid thing to do,” he scolded her.
“I am not stupid.”
“I didn’t say you were stupid, I said it was a stupid thing to do.”
“I heard what you said. Tell me, Todd, would you rather have had that woman lose her skin?”
“Better her than you.”
She paused, knew his anger came out of concern for her safety. “I’m sorry I upset you.”
“You didn’t upset me, it’s just...” He shook his head and gripped the steering wheel harder. “Every time you use your...”
“Gifts.”
“Yeah, gifts. I’m forced to believe everything you’ve told me. It would almost be easier if you were just a little crazy.” He looked over at her. “At least there’s medication for crazy.”
“So you would rather I be mad than who I am,”
she said.
“I don’t know what I want. You confuse me.”
They drove the rest of the way in silence, both caught up in their own minds
Once home, Myra went straight to the room that had been labeled hers, the one she hadn’t slept in since they became intimate.
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Todd stopped in her doorway, watched her gather her nightgown and turn her bed down. “So this is where you want to sleep?”
“I don’t want to confuse you,” she tossed at him.
“Too late.”
“There is no reason to pretend we have a future.
If you can’t accept me for what I am, then it is best we don’t let anything more happen between us.”
“How can we have a future, Myra? You’re going back. I plan on staying here.”
It broke her heart, hearing him map out their groundless relationship.
Ask me to stay.
“Aye, I’m going back. I have imposed on you long enough.”