Page 91
“David. David!” she called.
He moaned and winced. Reaching to his head with his hand, he opened his eyes and blinked blindly into the light.
“Thank God, you’re alive!” Rogene said.
Then she slapped him on the chest. “What the hell were you thinking? Why did you come after me?”
“What?” he croaked. “Rory, is that you?”
“Of course it’s me, you idiot.” She shone the light at her face. “I said, what were you thinking coming after me?”
“Coming where? What happened?”
She sighed. “What happened is that you traveled back into 1310 with me when you were not supposed to.” She stood and held out her hand to him. “Stand up. You have to go back to the 2021. Quick.”
He slowly rose. “My head is killing me. How are you so full of energy?”
“I don’t know. Go on. There’s the rock. Put your hand into the print.”
“This is ridiculous.”
“Okay, smart-ass. What do you think happened?”
“I don’t know.” He looked around. “That crazy woman drugged us and kidnapped us?”
“Is that your explanation for everything?” She sighed and grabbed his hand. “Come on. Time to go back. I need to find Angus and stop the wedding.”
He followed her slowly, still looking around and peering into the darkness. When Rogene focused the flashlight beam on the rock, it didn’t glow. With her pulse pounding, she pulled David to the rock and put his hand in the print.
Nothing happened.
“Oh no,” she muttered and pressed his hand harder into the print. “No, no, no! Sìneag! Sìneag!”
She looked around.
“He needs to go back to 2021!” she called.
Her voice echoed against the walls, then silence.
“Rory—”
“Damn it!” she cried, tears springing from her eyes. “She said this would be the last time. Didn’t she? She said that, right?”
“Yeah, she did, but that doesn’t mean anything.”
“Oh, no, no, no!” She hid her face in her palms.
What should she do? How could she call Sìneag to take him home? And what about the wedding? She had no idea how to make Sìneag appear or how to make the rock work without her.
Looking up at David, she sighed. “It looks like you’re stuck here, buddy,” she said. “At least for now.”
“Yeah. No shit.”
“Which means you have to come with me. We don’t have time to look for period clothes for you, but at least you’re not showing cleavage or a lot of skin like I did.” She looked skeptically at his simple gray hoodie and black jeans with ripped knees. “Your military boots will come in handy.” She nodded. “Hold on to them. Medieval footwear is pretty horrible.”
He looked at her as if she were crazy. But what else was new?
“Hold on to this, I need to change.” She gave him the flashlight and retrieved the medieval costume she’d bought online. David turned around, and she quickly changed, shivering of cold. She’d tried to find something as historically accurate as she could, but the costume was made of cotton and had a zipper, about which she may have some explaining to do.