Page 2 of Time of the King (Stones of Scotland #2)

T hey drove right up to the old cottage and Bethany parked the car as neatly as she could. The mist had started to lift a little, giving Bethany a better look at the house, even though the evening was dark.

She hadn’t been here in years, and she had not quite anticipated the relief that bubbled up inside her. This place had always been her sanctuary, her safety in the storm of life with her parents. That, at least, had not changed.

“Come on, Matthew,” she said, opening the car door for him. “Let’s have a look around. We can fetch our bags in a minute.”

Her son had never been here before; Lucan wasn’t keen on Bethany taking him on holiday, and expressed no interest in visits to Scotland. He had enough of it with his time machine to ancient Scotland, he said. Why on earth would he find it relaxing to visit the place in the modern day? And, with her grandmother long since dead, Bethany had never pushed the issue. Just one of the many things she regretted. At least it meant that Lucan didn’t know exactly where the cottage was. That could buy her a little more time.

The rusty old key stuck a little in the lock, but she managed to push the door open at last. Inside, she flicked the hallway light switch. Nothing happened. Trying not to curse loudly enough for Matthew to hear, she fumbled her way through to the living room. The switch there also did nothing. The electricity must be down.

Bethany only just bit back the particularly nasty swear word she almost used. She had been paying the electricity bills faithfully every month, and this was what she got for it? Something vital must be broken. And it was a Saturday night – in a place as rural as this, they wouldn’t get someone out to look at it until Monday at least.

Ah, well. At least she had an electric torch. She set it down on the living room table so that she and Matthew could walk about safely.

“Be careful,” she warned him. “It’s an old house, and some of the flagstones on the floor are a bit uneven.”

He nodded seriously, his face ghostly in the dim light.

Bethany made her way into the kitchen and poked about in the darkness. She tried the tap – no running water either. Of course. No surprise there. At least she’d brought plenty of bottled water, and there was an old well out the back that would do for washing and flushing the toilet, even if it was hard work pulling up pails full of water.

Bethany sighed. So much for a nice, relaxing sanctuary. Still, there was something strangely comforting about this. The house felt like Bethany was a little girl again, back before her grandmother had got in electricity and running water. They would cope. Besides, if everything went to plan, they wouldn’t be here for long .

She pulled the dust sheets off the furniture in the living room, wincing at all the dust that filled the air. At least all the dried herbs hanging on the wall had kept the air smelling sweet. There would be some serious cleaning to do, though, once the electricity allowed her to use a vacuum cleaner. What a mess this place had become. Strange. She’d somehow assumed that it would always remain unchanged, even without her care and attention. That it would always be frozen, as if her grandmother had just stepped out to buy a pint of milk at the village shop. Of course, that shop was long since closed down. Nothing stayed the same for long, even here.

With Matthew settled in on the saggy old sofa, Bethany set about the work of lighting a fire in the living room fireplace. Thank goodness her grandmother had taught her well – and all the necessary supplies were still laid out in the hearth. It took a while, but eventually flames danced merrily in the fireplace. After a little more digging about in the kitchen, Bethany managed to find her grandmother’s old kettle – the one that was so old, it fitted onto a stove over the kitchen fire. She filled it up with bottled water and relaxed in delight as the whistling began. In hardly any time, she and Matthew both clutched cracked old mugs of hot tea.

With two fires lit, the little cottage warmed up quickly. It could have been worse – this place was icy in winter.

“I like it here, Mummy,” Matthew said. To Bethany’s surprise, his small face was bright with excitement. He hadn’t looked this energetic in a long time. “Will you teach me to make a fire like you can?” he asked.

Bethany laughed.

“I’m not sure you’re old enough yet,” she said. “But I’ll think about it. ”

She kept her expression bright and smiling as she sipped her tea. No reason to dampen down Matthew’s unexpected good mood.

But had this really been such a good idea? She could already imagine how Lucan would spin it – no clean water, dangerous fires, run-down and dilapidated. What if this little adventure gave him all the ammunition he needed to take Matthew away from her? She shivered a little, and shifted closer to the fire. If things didn’t go to plan, and he found her again, this might be the final straw that granted him full custody of Matthew.

Lucan had told her time and time again that she always made terrible decisions. She just had innately bad judgement, he said. Maybe this was one more piece of evidence to prove him right.

Matthew had already snuggled into the warmest blanket. Bethany slipped up onto the sofa to sit beside him. She lifted the mug out of his hands as his eyelids began to droop.

There was one definite benefit to visiting the cottage, though. It was full of memories of her grandmother, the only relative Bethany had ever felt close to. She missed her, painfully and overwhelmingly, but there was some relief in being here, where she had been so happy. Summers up in Scotland were still the brightest, sunniest memories in Bethany’s entire life. More than anything, she wanted Matthew to experience that same sunshine. And she would not let anything stop her.

Once Matthew was firmly, definitely asleep, Bethany tucked the blanket more tightly around him and returned to the car. Hidden in the storage space in the foot well, she found everything she would need. It didn’t look like much, this small box of wires and cables. Even one of Lucan’s scientist colleagues might not have recognised the potential of this messy bundle. But Bethany had spent years listening and learning, and she knew this box held everything she needed for her escape. She was going to take Matthew back in time.