Lady Mairead stepped out. Hammond climbed from the car on the other side.
“Colonel Quentin, I am verra glad tae see ye guardin’. Ye hae been often derelict in yer duties, but now ye are bein’ cautious as is right for ye tae be as Magnus canna be here tae watch over his family.”
It was classic how she could just start talking, making bitch-ass observational statements, without conversing at all.
She noticed us in the pool house and brushed by Quentin with Hammond following.
I said, “Uh oh.”
Zach opened the screen door for her. “Hello Lady Mairead.”
She entered the pool house and stood taking it in with a look of displeasure. She was dressed in a pantsuit of filmy silken material, trimmed with fur, luxurious looking, with ostentatious jewelry on every bit of skin. She looked like a queen if that queen was Lady MacBeth mixed with Cruella De Vil. “Chef Zachary, what is this?”
“It’s uh, our new pool, for the kids.”
“Ah,” she looked him up and down, dripping under a towel skirt, scrawny tattooed legs, bare feet, his favorite old threadbare Frank Turner T-shirt. “I see tis for ye as well.”
“I do like to swim.” He folded his arms and looked at me like — what the fuck?
“Madame Hayley, what is this man doing here?”
“Who, Fraoch?”
“Aye, ye ken who I am speakin’ on. He is in Magnus’s house, did Magnus invite him?”
Fraoch said, “Aye, he told me I was welcome.”
“Was it before he kent of your being an illegitimate son of Donnan? Conspiring tae murder him, wanting the throne?” Before he could answer, she said, “We should hae a seat, Colonel Quentin, I hae things tae discuss.”
She brushed past us, directly to the table and chairs, and waited for us all to sit before she took a chair, imperiously. She also seemed nervous, and I saw her slide a small knife from her purse.
Quentin said, “Should we all be armed?”
“Nae, tis tae help me think.” Now that I was watching her, she actually looked frightened. “I hae procured the device which will allow me tae go further back in time—”
“Where did you get it from?” Quentin urged. “Is there more tech? Who has it? They might be very very dangerous. Hammond, do you know about this?”
“I ken enough—”
Her voice wavered. “Tis nae for Hammond tae ken of. He kens what I allow him tae ken.” Her color raised on her cheeks. “Hammond directs the armed forces for the kingdom at my discretion, tis up tae me tae discuss with him what I wish tae.”
Quentin said, “I understand that, Lady Mairead, but it’s a matter of kingdom security, heck, it’s a matter of world security. If someone malevolent has other tech, or information about the vessels that we don’t know, we are at their mercy.”
“I am at nae one’s mercy.” She took a deep breath and raised a shaking hand to smooth back her hair.
Quentin’s eyes went wide, taking in her fear. “So what do you have?”
“A device that will allow the vessels tae go further intae the past. Procuring it came at a great cost though and I came as soon as I could tae tell ye, Quentin, tae double security around the bairn.”
“Oh.”
I said, “As soon as you could? It’s been months!”
She turned a bitchy glare on me, her knife going from loosely held to tightly held. “Ye ken why. Twas ye who urged me tae wait this long, would ye like tae continue our discussion?”
I clamped my mouth shut. “No, ma’am.”
She nodded, the flickering blue light reflecting from the pool surface on her face. She continued speaking to Quentin, “I need ye tae strengthen security, and monitor the storms for all of Florida and Georgia. But as ye ken, someone may already be here.”
She nodded at Hammond, and he pulled a device from his pocket. He tapped it and a video projected in front of it with a scrolling list of names.
Quentin asked, “What am I looking at?”
Colonel Hammond said, “The names of the original time travelers. We have been looking through the list, there are three missing people. We haven’t been able to locate them, through history, and now there are signs that trouble is at hand.”
“What kind of signs?”
“Storms for one, centered over the south end of the kingdom.”
Zach said, “Fucking storms.”
Lady Mairead said, “Aye, they are always a sign of trouble. I hae been watching Madame Hayley come and go from here, but these are different. They are occurring regularly, in short bursts, every day for weeks. I am sure tis a homing setting on at least one vessel, but I daena ken who would be setting it. I fear if we go tae investigate we will be trapped.”
Quentin said, “Probably, I mean, it’s an excellent way to get someone. That’s how Katie was taken by Donnan.”
Lady Mairead scowled.
I started to say something in defense of my friend but clamped my mouth shut again. Listen, Hayley, just listen... Speaking to this woman caused nothing but drama.
Quentin said, “What else is happening?”
Hammond said, “Lady Mairead has been noticing discrepancies, not big ones, but little moments that prove the passage of time is being altered by some other time traveler.”
She said, “I hae been led tae believe that all the vessels were in King Magnus’s possession, that they are accounted for in our safe, but as I hae gone forward and back I hae noticed some alterations that I dinna cause. That I could nae account for.”
We all looked confused.
Quentin said, “Like what?”
Her agitation rose. “Well, I didn’t know what to think at first, truly, twas little things. I explained it away tae be ripples caused by my own traveling, or King Magnus’s traveling.” The knife twisted in her fingers.
“But then there was this day — I was visitin’ Abby Rockefeller. She is a good friend of mine. Dost ye ken of her?”
We all shook our heads.
“It was 1925 and I had given her a painting by Pablo. Twas a lovely painting. She was new tae collecting modern artists and I was advising her. She planned tae renovate her estate tae showcase her collection and there was tae be a large party tae celebrate it. I arrived just afore the date, but the date had been changed. I couldna understand how I came tae make the mistake.”
Lady Mairead’s eyes drew down and she shook her head. “Abby said it had always been set tae the date and that I was mistaken. But what concerned me most was the painting — I had gifted it tae her but twas nae in her collection. When I returned tae Pablo he had nae recollection of painting it.”
“And there was no way to explain it?”
“Nae, hae ye ever come across Abby Rockefeller in your travels? Hae ye been tae New York in the 1920s?”
Quentin said, “No, and if Magnus had, I would know.”
“I canna explain it by Bella traveling or Roderick. I ken enough about them tae ken they were nae dealing in art in the twentieth century. I believe someone else has a vessel and that they are using it tae travel. Now I canna be sure what is true tae our own timeline.”
Zach said, “And how does this tie in to the first vessels, the list of names?”
Hammond said, “Because there may have been up to three vessels that are now being used. We are gravely worried that someone has found the original moment and has gone back there and stolen vessels.”