I said, “Ha! Well, I lived in LA, I have crypto. It was all the rage. I’ll send it. Do you want to write it? You’re the guy who runs the place.”
“Aye.” He spun my laptop around and began typing.
I poured us two more glasses of wine and then used my phone to take photos of the two letters and shared them with the laptop so I could send them all with the message.
He continued striking the keys until he tapped three with a flourish. “Done!”
“What did you say?”
“I wrote, ‘Dear Lady Mairead, Ye daena ken me, I am Liam Campbell, a direct descendant of Sean Campbell, born in 1675. I believe ye and I are somehow cousins. I am the caretaker of Taymouth Castle. I found a book in the library here with two letters. There were instructions tae send them tae ye, so I am includin’ them. I hope this helps and my apologies for the interruption...’ How dost ye think I ought tae end it?”
“Yours sincerely.”
He typed. Then read, “Yers sincerely, Liam Campbell.”
He narrowed his eyes and read it again. “Does it sound good?”
I read over his shoulder. “Yeah, that sounds good. Whatever, right, anyway? She’s nobody to us.”
“She’s a ‘Lady.’”
“Oh right.” I read it again. “No, I think it’s great, plus, you’re the lord of the castle now, right? Don’t worry, we’ll just send it.”
I took the laptop, added the two images to it then said, “Maybe we should add a phone number too?—”
“Add yers. Ye ken I never carry mine.”
I typed my phone number with a note that said in parenthesis:
(My wife, Blakely Campbell’s, phone number…)
I drank some wine, arranged the message, typed in the chain address, and hit send. I closed the laptop. “There. We’ve done it. I don’t know what it is, but we got a message and we followed through. I mean, if you think about it, she doesn’t even need to respond. She could just ignore it, if it’s dumb, or send us a reply if it’s useless. We probably won’t hear from her at all?—”
My phone rang.
CHAPTER 53 - LADY MAIREAD
THE KINGDOM OF RIAGHALBANE - 24TH CENTURY
Iwent tae my room and collapsed on my settee. The voice in the room greeted me and asked if I needed anything. I requested a nightcap and then asked the room tae show me a soothing video of aerial footage of the Scottish Highlands. I watched the familiar and calming video and tried tae relax in front of the fire, but I was unsettled — it seemed as if time were changing again and I needed tae discover the reason.
But I was at a loss.
Nae one had informed me of trouble brewing. Was I simply imagining it?
I had an entire system set tae warn me of historical discrepancies, it was a system that usually worked. Yet somehow this time I hadna been given a warning.
It had been a surprise tae find my vessel not working, tae find the Darner missing. I dinna like surprises on principle.
I was loathe tae ask the system tae investigate though, because I dinna want tae become unsettled.
I sighed. I dinna want tae investigate — what might I find?
And why was it up taemetae look for historical discrepancies, the system should find them. The system should warn me. The system should be better than this.
And ultimately I had learned, nothing good came from looking for historical discrepancies right before I went tae bed.
I needed my sleep.
