Chapter Two

Matilda's head was reeling. She wished she could go back to that evening in the bookstore and reverse the order of events. She would not have performed the spell. She would not have thought that magic was silly and was not in existence. She could do anything to take it back. Anything at all. Now she was stuck here, back in time and she did not know any way of going back to the familiarity of her life in Oxford city.

Matilda looked at the man who called himself Alexander. He was a fine specimen of a man but she sensed that he was a proud man. He seemed to think she was his wife, Beatrice who had hit her head on a stone table and lost her memory. How wrong he was! Well, she would set him straight on that.

"Look, I know what you think but I can assure you that I am not Beatrice and I do not know her. It was a spell that I unknowingly casted that transported me here. My name is Matilda as I told you earlier and I work in a bookstore in Oxford. You said that this is the year 1431 which means that we are presently in the fifteenth century but I live in twenty first century Oxford."

Alexander took a long look at Beatrice after her speech and all he saw was a woman who had lost her memory and was slowly going mental as well. How could she say that she lived in the twenty first century. How many thousand of years away was that? She had lost her memory and her mind as well.

"Well, you are Beatrice and not Matilda as you call your self. I have told you that you lost your memory. I have also told you some things so that they may prod your memory. With all these things you have said, I can only conclude that you are beginning to lose your mind as well."

He guided her to the bed and tried to lay her down on it.

"You have to lay down for a while so that you may relax your head. I will go and send for the healer to come so that you he may look you up and also give you some medication that will reduce the chances of your going mental."

Matilda shrugged his hands off her shoulders and looked him squarely in the face.

"I will not accept this! What I have told you is nothing but the truth and you have to believe me. I am not your wife, Beatrice. The spell I casted unknowingly just made us to cross paths and molded the body of your wife and mine together. You have to find a way to get me home, please."

Alexander was livid. How could she think that she was telling the truth? Couldn't she remember even a little bit of her life before she hit her head on the stone table and lost her memory? He was frustrated by her utterances.

"Beatrice, I will not repeat myself again! Lay down on this bed at once or I will order the healer to give you medicine that will make you to be out of it for days. Do as I tell you or I will have my threat carried out."

Matilda thought it wise to obey him. She did not know the rules of this place and she didn't know what this man could do to her. After all, he was the Marquess and his word was the law in this place. Besides, she did not want to stay asleep for days under the effect of medicine while she could be brainstorming on ideas about how to go back to her life in Oxford. She walked to the bed and laid down on it.

Alexander was satisfied at Beatrice's actions. She seemed to understand the graveness of his order.

"Rest for a while, milady. I shall go and send for the healer to come."

He left the room and closed the door. On second thoughts, he locked it. He didn't trust Beatrice not to find her way out of the room and wander around the halls.

Inside the room, Matilda wondered how she could get herself out of this situation but she came up blank. Finally, she just decided to try to convince Alexander of the truth in her words and persuade him to help her find her way back to the twenty first century.

Alexander walked down the stairs and went outside. He made straight for the guard post. There, he found one of the sentries posted presently, and sent him to go and call the healer. He walked back inside, went up the stairs and to the door of the room where Beatrice was housed in.

He stood in the doorway after unlocking the door and watched his wife. She looked much the same except that she had somehow become thinner in these past two weeks. Even her hair had lost its usual shine. Her cheeks seemed rosier and she looked shorter. How come he was seeing all these changes in his wife? Alexander thought. He reasoned that it must have been as a result of the fall.

Matilda looked on as Alexander gazed at her from the doorway. She wondered what was going through his mind. He must still think that I am his wife who lost her memory, she reasoned. Matilda had tried to convince him but he did not seem ready to believe her. He is a proud man. That I know, she mused.

Alexander paced around the chamber as he waited for the healer to arrive. He needed to have a strong basis on which to put Beatrice's strange behavior on. He himself thought that she was going mad but he needed confirmation and a healer's opinion was always valid.

"When the healer arrives, comply with him and allow him to examine you or I will have my threat carried out," Alexander said.

Matilda wondered what the so called healer would say when he came. She couldn't survive in this place because she wasn't of the old times. She had been born and raised in the new world so she had to find a way to get out of this god forsaken place.

They both sat in silence for a long time until there came a knock on the door.

"You may come in," Alexander called out.

The man who stepped into the room was very old. His hair had gone totally gray and his posture was stooped. He looked to be about seventy and five years of age and he was carrying a black bag in his left hand. When he spoke, the strength of his voice belied his old age.

"Good day, my Lord," he said while bowing.

" Richard, take a look at her and let me know of your findings. She has been saying some rather unmeaningful things since she awoke. Some talk about how she is not of this time and needs to go back to the twenty first century. How absurd!"

The healer, Richard walked toward the bed. He looked at Matilda and took in her flushed face.

"Good day, my Lady," he said.

Matilda did not reply to the healer's greeting. She simply stared at him until he came to the realization that she didn't reply because she could not identify him. Richard placed his bag on the table beside the bed and opened it.

"My Lady, if you would please lay down, I need to examine you."

Matilda did as he asked. He took out some strange instruments from his bag and proceeded to use them on her. He also took her temperature and when he was done with his examinations, put his instruments inside his bag and produced a small vial of red coloured liquid from it. He placed the vial on the table and spoke to Alexander.

"My Lord, I have examined Lady Beatrice and found nothing wrong with her except that I fear her temperature is quite high. My Lady should use this medicine with her food when she has her evening meal and her temperature should be down by the morrow. If you please, I will take my leave now, my Lord."

"You can be on your way, Richard. Make sure to stop by the keep in the morn to further check on Beatrice."

Richard left the room and Alexander also went outside immediately. He called to a kitchen maid to bring food for Beatrice. He went inside and after a while, the maid brought the food in.

"Place the food on the table and leave," Alexander ordered.

The maid complied with the order and closed the door silently behind her. Alexander went to the table, opened the vial of liquid and sprinkled a little amount of it in the food.

"I have something to say," Matilda said firmly.

"You must have your meal before I listen to anything you have to say," Alexander replied. " I have a pressing matter that I need to attend to. I shall be back by the time you are done with your meal."

With that, Alexander turned away and left the room.