Chapter 10

Lachlan dropped them off at Maeve's cottage just as the village of Fennel was beginning to come to life. These people, the ones the Druids had sworn to protect, were unaware their fate hung in the balance. Like most Britons, they believed they could cohabitate with the Romans who were appearing in alarming numbers, but the Druids knew better.

Their only real hope was knowing that an animal that eats its own kind was bound to fall prey to the same. Julius Caesar killed his own men, and, in turn, his own Senate stabbed him to death on the Senate's steps. These were the men who were threatening to destroy the Druids in an effort to gain power over the Celts. These were the people who believed themselves superior to other peoples in every known part of the world. These were the people against whom Lachlan, Maeve, and Cate had vowed to protect Fennel.

Handing Cate half a loaf of bread, Maeve sat across from her at the table, her plate empty, and poured a bowl of stew from a tureen. Pushing it toward Cate, she said softly, "There'll be no talking you out of this, will there?"

Cate shook her head. "You need to trust that you taught me well. Jessie is becoming aware, and she'll be coming back for answers to her questions."

Maeve watched Cate eat her stew. "Tell me about her."

Cate bit into more bread. It was hard and dry. "She has a little brother, for whom she cares deeply, but other than that, she has no clan or any ties to one."

"No family?"

Cate shook her head. "She has family, but they seem to wound her daily. They remind me of Sean's family. I am unsure if they even like her very much."

Maeve pondered this a moment. "Do you?"

Cate had never even considered the notion. While in this time and place, she thought of Jessie as another person in a faraway place, and when she was there, she was Jessie, and saw the world through the eyes of a lost young girl. "Like her? I have never thought of it."

Maeve dipped a piece of bread in Cate's stew and tasted it, but said nothing.

"I suppose, if I think of her from here," Cate pointed to her head, "then, yes, I do like her. She is very different, I think, and she perceives herself as not quite-how would she say it? She does not know herself or what she is capable of. She does not feel wanted, I think. She is out of sorts with herself, her surroundings, and her family, and she does not know how to remedy any of them."

"How sad."

"Oh, but I do not think she is sad. I think she is brave. She carries on in spite of it."

Maeve cocked her head and studied Cate. "Then you do like her."

Cate blushed. "I do. Hers is not an easy life, nor is it one I would ever want to exchange with my own, but she truly wants to help. She's just so-young."

"And you are so very old?"

Cate giggled. "Not old. Wise. Well, not wise, really, but surely wiser than she."

Maeve smiled. "Of course. Now, what about this sage? Where did she come from?"

"That, I do not know. It feels, at times, as if she knows exactly what is happening to Jessie, but she does not say. Hers is a very old soul with a great deal of wisdom. She has much knowledge to teach Jessie. I think that is why I do like Jessie: she has allied herself with one who can assist."

Maeve reached across the table and touched Cate's hand. "Are you ever scared?"

Cate swallowed her stew and frowned. "Of what?"

"Of not being able to return?"

Cate stirred the remnants of her stew and sighed. "I am not sure I would even know if that were to happen. To Jessie, my life and I are just fragmented and dim memories, just as she and hers are to me now. She could be in my soul right now, but I do not know, nor do I feel it. She is listening to me, though, and that is a good sign. She knows that I have reached out to touch her from far away, and she knows there is a history of her soul that she can learn to listen to. I believe that once I can actually tell her what we need from her, she will help us." Yawning and stretching, Cate patted her belly. "That was delicious. Thank you."

"Why don't you get some rest for now? Lachlan and I are reconvening the others in order to discuss our options when Suetonius Paulinus begins gathering his forces." Taking Cate's hand, Maeve led her to the lumpy straw mattress on the floor and bade her to lay down. Then, taking her own robe, she draped it across Cate's body. "This time, you dream sweet dreams, all right?"

Nodding drowsily, Cate sighed and closed her eyes. She was so tired that already her head felt floaty. "I won't let anything happen to you, Maeve. I promise."