Summer is Summoned
At
The House of Four Seasons
by Atonia
PART 2
“Please let’s go inside and I will try and explain, I’m afraid I can’t do anything about your being here Robin. We’re kinda stuck with each other.” Jemma reached for the door.
Robin backed up wary now of her, “You mean to hold me prisoner, is that it? I am to be ransomed?”
Jemma opened the door, “I am not holding you prisoner, however you have been summoned here by the house and as far as I know you cannot leave.” She left him on the porch and went inside, she needed a cup of tea.
Robin paced back and forth on the porch, he was not her prisoner and yet he could not leave…was that not the same thing? He stopped and looked around, he could see no one but of course that did not mean guards were not around…quiet guards for there was no sound but the birds singing undisturbed in the trees and the bees busy in the flowers by the porch. It was a most unusual place and he thought again he might be dead, she could be lying.
Jemma prepared a pot of tea and opened the tin placing some biscuits on a plate. A small round table had appeared near the glass doors and she set the tray on the table and looked down the hallway. She could see him through the open door pacing about. Finally he stopped and looked through the house his eyes resting on her as she stood by the table.
He came into the house slowly glancing at the unfamiliar surroundings and walked down the hallway to the kitchen. She was pouring something into a small cup. “How many men do you have?”
Jemma missed the cup and reached for a napkin, “Men? I don’t have any men, what do you mean?”
“You are not alone here, how many guards?”
“I most certainly am alone here…well except for you…and Macbeth.”
“A Scots?” he said loudly.
“Macbeth is my dog, would you like some tea?”
He looked at the liquid she poured out…she may poison him or give him some elixir to make him sleep and thus become unarmed and chained. “What is this?”
“Tea and biscuits, please sit down you make me nervous.”
She poured him a cup of tea from the same pot as hers he noticed and he sat down and accepted the drink. “I apologize to you my lady if I seem a little hesitant, I do not trust easily.”
“Nor do I, if I did not know better I would be afraid of you but I have been assured no harm will come to me here. So here we are would you like to know how that is possible?”
“Aye I would,” he picked up a biscuit and smelled of it taking a small bite.
Jemma explained as best she could. “It’s all magic Robin and whatever battles you need to fight will be there when you leave. Just look at this as a vacation, a time off, away from whatever your life is.” She watched him digest this information, he really was a handsome creature with those intense eyes and brown hair. His beard showing a bit of gray his hands held many scars he was a warrior.
“What exactly is a companion required to do…assist you in your daily duties?” He warily sipped the drink.
“I ah am not sure, that was left up to me, I have no daily duties…I paint that’s why I came here…solitude and work. Solitude has gone by the wayside so I am hoping to paint, I’m an artist and an illustrator.”
He understood she did not wish him to be there and he did not want to be there it was a strange situation. His eyes moved around the room at the strange furnishings he was out of place, out of time and he felt it. He was at her mercy and he wasn’t sure he liked that, he held no control over this place or this woman opposite him but he needed her in this place. Three months was a long time what was he to do during this period when he should be elsewhere.
“You said there was provision for my horse where might this be I saw no stables.”
“I’ll take you there, I have a horse too so I suppose we will ride at some time.” She finished her tea. “Would you like to go there now?”
“Aye, I need to see to him.”
He followed her out of the house and up the road toward the stables. “What’s his name…your horse?”
“Rusty,” he turned to see him following behind.
“He’s well trained did you do it?”
“Yes, he’s carried me through many battles I depend on him for my life.”
She watched him as he cared for his animal, his sure quick strokes over the horses back with the brush. She hadn’t prompted him about the brush he looked at it and knew what it was for. He was medieval and yet timeless. Jemma shook herself from her thoughts and went to put feed out for Misty. It wouldn’t do, no it would not…to look at him for too long.
They walked along the cliff coming back toward the house. Robin a little more relaxed now and not expecting to be ambushed at every turn.
“I don’t recognize this coast, be it from the eastern side of England?”
Jemma stopped and brushed the windblown hair from her face, “No, it’s North America. A place not known in your time. I will show you on a map where we are.”
“Amer-i-ca,” he looked out to the sea and back at her, “I have much to learn.”
“Yes Robin, I’m afraid you do. Do you read?” they resumed their walk.
“Aye, Latin and French.”
“English?”
He looked at her.
“Your native tongue, the language you speak.”
“English…yes I believe so.” He sighed, three months of this. He’d been snatched out of the forest in Nottingham and deposited here in an unknown land. He glanced sideways at her, her hair was the color of wheat and she wore it long and loose. What kind of woman was she to live here alone without servants or men to protect her? Perhaps it was his duty as her companion to protect her, he would not be her servant. He lifted his chin as they approached the house.
A meal had been prepared for them and they sat down at the table in the kitchen. Jemma picked up her fork and began attacking the shepherd’s pie. Robin looked at the strange implement in her hand and picked up his, a knife he recognized and used that also to feed himself. He was more accustomed to using bread and pulled off a hunk of the freshly baked loaf and began dipping it into the pie.
“Do you like the food, I know it must be different from what you’re used to.”
“It is good, I have not eaten this before. Where is your cook?”
“I have no cook, the house provides.” She gave him a crooked smile, “magic again.”
“This magic…I am not unfamiliar with magic…” he gave her a piercing look, “be you a witch?”
“Witch, ha, ha, no I’m not a witch.” She laughed.
Robin wasn’t so sure, she may be bewitching him, he liked her laugh and smiled across the table at her.
Her laugh caught in her throat at his smile and she looked down at her food and began to eat. It would not do for him to smile at her…not do at all.
After their meal she took him into the library and found an atlas. “This is the world as we know it today. This is England…and France.”
“No…it cannot be.” He bent over the book the countries were too small.
“It is…and this is North America…we are here in a country called the United States, this state is Massachusetts and we are right outside of Gloucester.” She caught his scent as he leaned in close over the book, the same scent that was in the room upstairs. She moved away from him it was intoxicating, wild, and evoked things in her she did not recognize.
He was saying something and she blinked bringing herself back to the present, he met her eyes for a moment and looked back down at the book. “This map…who drew it and how do you know it is accurate?”
“I don’t know who drew it up, but it was accurate when the book was published. So many wars and countries renaming themselves so I couldn’t say for sure that it is completely accurate. I do know that England, France and the United States have not changed their borders or their names in many years.”
“I would like to study this book of maps.” He looked up at the shelves lined with books, some very old and some with bright new dust jackets. He felt lost, lost in this place and longed to be away.
“You may study it as long as you wish or any of the books in here.” She wondered if he would be able to read modern English. Moving along the shelves she came across Chaucer and pulled it down. “You might like to read this one.”
His eye was drawn to an object near the bay window, and he walked over gently touching it.
“That’s a globe, the earth and these are the constellations, the stars formations.”
“It is round, I have heard of this theory and believed it myself, one has only to look at the sea, at the horizon as it curves.”
“Yes, the atlas will show you that and explain a lot.” He moved and his sword banged into the iron globe. “Wouldn’t you like to take off your weapons, there is no danger here, you might be more comfortable. I’ll show you your room upstairs.”
He followed her up the stairs and she walked into his room with him, the scent even stronger now that he was within.
“This is not for me, it is a King’s quarters.”
“It is for you, the house provided it for you. Through here is your bathroom. He gingerly stepped into the room and she showed him how the sink and shower and toilet worked.”
“What did you say it was called,” he walked over to the toilet.
“A toilet, you do well you…can sit when…or stand.” She felt her face go red. “It’s for…”
“I shall test it out,” he bit his bottom lip and looked at her, his eyes sparkling in mirth as he reached under his tunic.
“Oh…oh,” she backed out of the bathroom and fled to her own room.