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He winced. “What?”

“Yes, okay.”

“Strange word. Mayhap, people began speaking new words while I was away.”

She smiled and leaned back in her pillows.

Soon, Ian was back with a man in his forties with a big beer belly. The man was bald and looked like he was in a hurry to be somewhere and Ian was wasting his precious time.

“Who are ye?” said the man, leaning over her as though she were a strange animal at the zoo.

Kate sat up, feeling vulnerable, and wanting to protect herself. “My name is Kate. I’m not sure how I got here. Do you know me?”

“Nae. Never seen ye in my life. Where did ye find her?” he asked Ian.

“In the eastern tower. In the underground chamber.”

The man’s face straightened. “Underground? Where the food and drink provisions are?”

“Well, not in that chamber, in the one beyond the door.”

The man narrowed his eyes at Kate. “I have never seen ye. Why were ye there?”

“I don’t know!” Kate said.

“Where are yer things?”

“She had a bag, a small bag.”

Ian picked up a small, over-the-shoulder purse.

“Give it to me,” the man, who must be the steward, said.

Ian didn’t move, his eyes locked with Kate’s. “Nae,” he said. “I’ll check it myself.”

Ian opened the purse on the bed, then rummaged through it. There wasn’t much space in it, but he produced a plastic bag with a sandwich. A bottle of water. Napkins.

The men stared at them as though they were the devil’s things.

“What is that material?” the steward asked.

Ian unwrapped the plastic bag and removed the sandwich. “Dinna ken. But this is bread, some salt pork, and some grass, I think. Or mayhap cabbage. And something else—something red… A berry?”

“Ye’re a thief!” cried the steward. “Ye were stealing, weren’t ye?”

Kate sat straight up despite the headache that was killing her.

“No! I never— I don’t know what I was doing there, but it was definitely not stealing!”

“If she says she isna a thief, she isna a thief,” Ian said.

He sniffed the sandwich. “This smells delicious, lass. Did ye make this?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Then what proof do ye have for not being a thief?” the steward insisted.

“I don’t!” Kate cried. “I don’t have any proof at all. I don’t even know who I am.”