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With no time to ponder that anomaly, he reached the back door and found it locked as well.

Through the glass he saw someone in the inn.

But it wasn’t Kate. He peered through the window and froze.

Just for an instant, his eyes met the wild gaze of Sunny Briscoe, framed in flickering lantern light.

He realized he was cloaked in shadow. She couldn’t see him .

Sunny swung back around and vanished into the basement.

She’d been gone but a moment when he heard a scream.

That sounded like Kate.

Without second-guessing his instincts, Rory stepped back, took aim, and with one solid-booted kick, busted the lock on the back door. He shoved it wide, striding down the corridor and leaping down the basement stairs into pitch black.

“Kate!”

Where was she? What had Sunny done?

Certainly, the scream had come from here.

He sought to control his rising panic. He’d been here before as a teen, in the thick, suffocating dark of the inn’s belly.

Stuffy air churned as if alive, obscurity smothering, keen on drawing him in, pressing him down.

But this time he wasn’t trapped. Voices hovered on the edge of his senses, shouts, metal on metal, sounds of combat ringing loud in his head.

“Not now ,” he moaned. “ Please. ” He couldn’t let the past overtake the present.

Compelling forces pulled him through the darkness, the hold overpowering. He recognized that strength. More than that, he knew Kate was in danger.

With every cell of his being, he ached to find her and get her away from his crazy stalker. This was all his fault. He had involved Kate in his drama. He had endangered her.

Breathing hard, Rory stopped to listen. Over his own gasps, he heard voices, real voices in real time, back near the wine cellar, close to the secret room.

But the historic cries swirled about him, rising in intensity.

He didn’t have time for that. This wasn’t some parlor game.

This was not the time for the past to converge on the present.

But did the basement know or care? Could it even tell the difference?

He needed to get to Kate and get her away from Sunny. Rory took a breath. He paused, his eyes adapting to the faint light.

Would Kate use the tunnels to escape? Would she risk leading Sunny to them? He knew how intent she was on keeping them a secret. He eased his way forward through the gloom.

Suddenly, all went still.

Then he heard Sunny’s strident tones. “You can’t have him. He’s mine. I was told I could keep him.”

“Well, you can’t.” Kate’s voice was muffled but calm. “That isn’t how it works. Rory doesn’t want you .”

Ah, Kate had never spoken a truer word.

“He doesn’t want anyone. He wants to be free to travel and perform his music. He won’t be hampered by you .”

“I don’t hamper.” Sunny stomped her foot and let out a wail. “Shut up. Just shut up.”

Ever the voice of reason, Kate continued. “Why are you even here? What do you plan to accomplish?”

“I did the interview like Nolan said. I shared my adoration with the world. Why can’t you just leave him alone?”

“Fine. I’ll do that. I’ll leave him alone to do whatever he wants to do. See, done. Now get out. Rory isn’t going to stay in Hazard anyway. You can go now.”

Silence rang loud for just an instant.

“Except, he’ll come back to you.” Sunny’s tones were ominous. “We can’t have that.”

“We? You mean you . Do you have any idea what you plan to do?”

“I…well, I’ll figure it out. Nolan will help. He’ll know what I should do.”

Rory crept closer. He needed to keep Sunny away from Kate, keep Sunny from forming a plan of action, because the woman was a wild card. If she had a plan, she might just carry it out without considering any consequences.

When Rory was just close enough, he reached out through the darkness to grasp hold of Sunny’s shoulder. She let out a little shriek. He felt her tense and turn, so he tightened his grip on her.

And let the voices in.

Past flooded into present through him and into Sunny. It was a battle in the basement. The clash of swords rang out, grunts of men sweating with the exertion of battle, stabbing, shoving, falling, blood spilling. Redcoats fought rebels in the small, tight space.

Prudence was screaming, “ Cyrus! ”

“Get her out of here,” shouted Franklin Worthy. “Captain, through there. Get her away. Quickly, quickly!”

Prudence screamed again, “ No! ” But not only Prudence. Sunny was screaming, too, and struggling against his clasp on her shoulder. Rory held on, hoping it was enough time for Kate to make a break, either for the stairs or the tunnels.

Finally, he let go.

Sunny swung away and dashed toward the tunnels. He leapt after her to stop her from learning Hazard’s secret. She would blab it to the world.

But before he could reach her, she tripped over a darting, black shadow, flew through the air, and smacked hard onto stone. She crumpled in a heap at Kate’s feet.

Sunny sobbed, wailing about fighting and reenactors and black cats.

Kate turned up the lantern and said in a calm voice to Rory, “I called 911.”

“Of course you did. When?”

“When I first fell down the stairs, before you got here. My phone was in the pocket of this gown.”

“Of course it was.” Even through the dimness, they smiled at each other.

Sirens wailed in the distance, coming closer.

“I suppose you took her on a tour of the past,” said Kate.

Rory nodded and Kate’s smile beamed brighter. “She didn’t like it?”

Rory shrugged, “Well, she’s not you. Clearly, she lacked stamina.” He offered his arm to Kate. After a moment, she placed her hand on his arm, and he tucked her in close to his side. They began the jaunt up the stairs, Kate limping and leaning heavily on his strength.

From above, pounding commenced on the front door. A policeman rushed from the courtyard and halted at the top of the stairs. He lent them a hand up.

“The intruder is down there.” Kate pointed. “She shoved me downstairs and tried to keep me there, but Rory showed up.”

Suddenly light flooded the inn. The chief of police strolled in. “I restored the power. Do you have the assailant in custody?”

The uniformed officer nodded, leading a babbling Sunny up the stairs. “The reenactors overwhelmed me. Then that crazy cat tripped me!”

“Reenactors?” asked the chief.

Kate shrugged. “Maybe she’s confused by our colonial garb from the Harvest Festival performance.”

“Do you have a cat?”

Kate shook her head. “I don’t have any pets.”

“She’s nuts,” Rory added. “She’s been stalking me for months, showing up at my concerts and trespassing on the band’s tour bus.”

“Well, that stops now,” said the chief. He nodded to his officer who led a still prattling Sunny out. “Come on, ma’am.”

“It was a real skirmish. They were battling it out in the basement. A dozen soldiers at least, with swords and guns, the old-fashioned kind. They appeared out of nowhere. They must still be down there!”

The officer led Sunny away, even as she continued to rave about reenactors and stupid, freaky cats. “This was all Nolan’s idea,” she wailed.

And that answered it all.