Outcasts in time, p.1
Outcasts in Time, page 1
Outcasts in Time
The After Cilmeri Series, Volume 16
Sarah Woodbury
Published by The Morgan-Stanwood Publishing Group, 2021.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
OUTCASTS IN TIME
First edition. March 20, 2021.
Copyright © 2021 Sarah Woodbury.
ISBN: 978-1393136606
Written by Sarah Woodbury.
Table of Contents
Dear Reader
Cast of Characters
Map of France
Map of Rouen
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Chapter Thirty-seven
Chapter Thirty-eight
Chapter Thirty-nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-one
Chapter Forty-two
Chapter Forty-three
A novel from the After Cilmeri series
Outcasts in Time
by
Sarah Woodbury
Copyright © 2021 by Sarah Woodbury
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Join David and his friends and family for the next installment in the After Cilmeri series!
Last we heard from David, he'd allowed George to abduct him at the behest of the CIA, for the stated purpose of forcing him to time travel between Earth Two and Avalon. Meanwhile, Lili and the refugees from Paris were floating down the River Seine, making for the English Channel. And King Philippe was blithely reconstituting his government, unaware that the battle of wills between him and David hadn't really ended the way he thought. And that, in fact, it hadn't even ended.
David and his companions have pulled off the heist of the millennium. But as David encounters the unexpected in Avalon, and Lili and the refugees face danger at every bend in the river, they must face the hard truth that the best laid plans go awry at the moment of contact with the enemy. And no one ends up exactly where they intended, either in space ... or in time.
Outcasts in Time follows immediately after the previous book in the series, Unbroken in Time.
Complete Series reading order: Daughter of Time, Footsteps in Time, Winds of Time, Prince of Time, Crossroads in Time, Children of Time, Exiles in Time, Castaways in Time, Ashes of Time, Warden of Time, Guardians of Time, Masters of Time, Outpost in Time, Shades of Time, Champions of Time, Refuge in Time, Unbroken in Time, Outcasts in Time. Also, This Small Corner of Time: The After Cilmeri Series Companion.
www.sarahwoodbury.com
To Dan
for walking this path with me
for thirty years
Dear Reader:
Thank you for waiting so patiently for this book.
The After Cilmeri series is a labor of love, and sometimes, as in labor, the birth process doesn’t go as smoothly as one would like. I needed a year between books to make this story the best it could be. I know the wait has been painful. For me too!
I also realize that, as with most of my books where time travel (world shifting) is involved, it is written in two threads woven together: Avalon and Earth Two. I am aware that you may be tempted to skip chapters in one world or the other because you are anxious to know what happens in one world or the other.
I’m here to tell you that’s okay.
A book, once written, is in a sense no longer the property of its author.
You, as much as I, have made this series come to life, and what happens between the pages of these books can shape your life as well as mine.
But once you’ve read the book all the way through the first time, in whatever order you see fit (I’m looking at everyone who skips to the end after the first chapter because they can’t stand not knowing!), I would hope you would enjoy it again from the beginning.
Happy reading!
—Sarah
Cast of Characters
On the Plane
David—pretty sure you know who this is! King of England; time traveler.
George—revealed to be a CIA agent tasked with abducting David’s son, Arthur; former employee of Chad Treadman; came on the plane (in Shades of Time) with Anna; worked with Andre, the pilot, and Sophie, who time traveled back to Avalon in Refuge in Time.
On the River Seine
Lili—David’s wife; Ieuan’s sister. Mother of Arthur and Alexander.
Bronwen—first appeared in Prince of Time, archaeology graduate student; married to Ieuan.
Ieuan—started out as the captain of David’s guard; he and Bronwen are parents to Catrin and Bran.
Jacob—the liaison from the Jewish community of Paris to the English court.
Rachel—arrived initially with Anna and Meg on the Cardiff Bus in Ashes of Time; physician; was imprisoned in Paris with Samuel and Aaron.
Darren—also arrived on the Cardiff bus; married to Rachel; former MI-5 agent.
Mark Jones—came to Earth Two on the Cardiff bus, stayed behind in Guardians of Time, and returned with Anna in Chad Treadman’s plane; technical officer at MI-5.
Livia—Former MI-5 officer, married to Michael, David’s bodyguard. We first meet her in Shades of Time when she is an assistant to Mark Jones; arrived in Earth Two in Refuge in Time.
Aaron—Jewish physician whom David’s mother met when she returned to Earth Two (detailed in Footsteps in Time and Winds of Time). He has been an adviser to the Welsh court ever since.
James Stewart—Scottish nobleman and mentor to Christopher and his friends; has had significant roles in Exiles in Time, Outpost in Time, and Champions of Time.
Christopher and his friends (also currently on the Seine)
Christopher—David’s cousin; traveled to Earth Two in his car in Masters of Time; the Hero of Westminster; his family came to Earth Two with Anna in Shades of Time: Uncle Ted, Aunt Elisa, and Elen.
Isabelle—Christopher’s new special friend who happens also to be the daughter of Matthew Norris, the Master of the Paris Temple.
Huw—Welsh companion we first meet in Footsteps in Time when David is abducted.
William de Bohun—heir to the Earldom of Hereford; he has been part of David’s court since Crossroads in Time; famous for you’ve got to be kidding me!
Robbie—Grows up to be Robert the Bruce. We first meet him in Exiles in Time as one of the Bruce men all named Robert. At the time, he is dubbed Baby Bruce by Bronwen, along with Daddy Bruce and Grampa Bruce.
In Paris
King Philippe—King of France; we first meet him in Masters of Time when he and David fall from the battlement at Chateau Niort. It is this meeting that also brings David into significant contact with the Templars.
Guillaume de Nogaret—King Philippe’s henchman and mastermind behind all sorts of schemes.
Matthew Norris—Master of the Paris Temple.
Henri—Templar first met in Masters of Time, who rode across France with David.
Thomas Hartley—Templar first met in Prince of Time when David and Ieuan were imprisoned at Carlisle Castle. As nephew to the castellan, he freed them; David met him again in Masters of Time.
At the monastery guesthouse near Vincennes
Venny—The captain of David’s guard.
Mathew—A member of David’s guard.
Cador—a Welsh archer.
Constance—Lili’s bodyguard; Cador’s wife and an archer in her own right.
Matha—son of Gilla, an Irish chieftain, first appearing in Outpost in Time.
Samuel—son of Aaron the Physician, first appearing in Footsteps in Time.
Rhys—a Welsh member of David’s guard; Venny, Mathew, Cador, and Rhys were all imprisoned in Beeston Castle during the conflict with Roger Mortimer and John Balliol starting in Shades of Time.
Michael—David’s bodyguard from Champions of Time; married to Livia (a former MI-5 agent who is also floating down the Seine with David’s wife, Lili); arrived in Earth Two in Refuge in Time.
Map of France
Map of Rouen
Chapter One
August 1295
Day Three (continuing from Unbroken in Time)
George
George checked Andre’s pulse one more time. He’d tried to get the dosage exactly right, but he’d had to estimate Andre’s weight. The o
If he wasn’t, George would regret it. From the start, Andre had been an ally in Earth Two. Sophie had gone home because she couldn’t hack the absence of hot showers, not to mention the lack of respect for women, in this forsaken place. Always playing his role, George had been dismissive of her complaints, but he shared them fully—less in terms of respect for women than for the amenity part. It was shallow, he knew, which was why he had never mentioned his irritation to anyone but Andre.
Unlike Sophie, George had discovered that he was not only very good at his job (she had been too), but that he really enjoyed it—up until very recently. He’d deceived an entire planetful of people without too much effort. He’d infiltrated the highest levels of power, both in England and in France. It was shameful how easy it had been to manipulate everyone. Nogaret was a piece-of-work, there was no doubt, but George’s knowledge of seven hundred more years of spycraft had given him the upper hand at every turn. Still, at this point, the only reason he was finishing his mission was because he’d burned so many bridges in the pursuit of it that there was no turning back. He reminded himself yet again that everything he’d done would pay off in the end.
Which it had better do, considering what it was costing him.
The question before him now was who would be the first to come out to the plane, and how many of them he’d have to subdue to get to David. If enough of his men disappeared, eventually David would come. George didn’t have an infinite supply of darts, but he had enough to render a dozen men unconscious, if David even had that many companions with him. While George had full permission to kill, á la James Bond, he never took pleasure in it. Unlike some of his colleagues, he saw it as a last resort.
Andre had parked the plane in a shed two fields away from the abbey guesthouse. The plane’s nose faced the road, ready for immediate departure. George crouched at the entrance to the shed, which was open to the elements, his eyes on the guesthouse door. At long last the circumstances were exactly right. And then, as the guesthouse door opened, he allowed himself a low chuckle to see David himself exiting the building and making a beeline for the shed. He didn’t slow down once he was away from the guesthouse either, but marched right up to the shed’s entrance.
As he waited for David to come all the way inside, George retreated into the shadows behind a stack of crates, putting aside his dart gun and unholstering his pistol instead. The weapon would be more likely to impress upon David the importance of cooperating.
“Andre?” David called into the interior and took a few steps inside. “You in here?”
“I was wondering when someone would come.” George stepped out, almost grinning in relief to see David alone and that capturing him, in the end, had been easy. “Honestly, I didn’t think you’d be stupid enough to come out here by yourself.” He finally allowed himself to laugh out loud—more in relief that this all was finally over rather than with mirth—and gestured with the gun in his hand.
For David to have come alone was exactly like him. Likely he hadn’t wanted to bother his men, or he wanted a moment alone with Andre. David’s problem was always that he was used to being the cleverest person in the room. Granted, he usually was, but even a clever man can occasionally be out-thought.
“Are you really CIA?” David didn’t move other than to put up his hands. “Or am I dealing with some other organization?”
George had training, so he knew not to get close enough to David to give him a chance at taking away his gun. He’d seen that little move in action during a practice session with Callum. David was a physical specimen, more so even than George—and that was saying something. “I’m CIA.”
George didn’t see any harm in admitting it. They were returning to Avalon, so David would find out the truth soon enough anyway.
Back in the spring, David had sent George to Europe to negotiate with Marco Polo, a task which George had entirely ignored. David cared about trade routes, which, as a king, was smart of him, but George had bigger fish to fry. The specific details of his plan up until now had all failed—but it sure didn’t look like failure now. While David’s goal had been to outwit Philippe, at which he appeared to have been successful, given that he was out of captivity and at the abbey, George’s intent all along had been to get David alone, right here, right now.
To everyone else, the plane had been left near the abbey in case David and his family needed a quick pathway out of the country. That’s why they’d befriended the abbot of the Vincennes monastery, and ultimately why David had decided to come here after he’d escaped Philippe’s clutches.
Somehow, George couldn’t be surprised that David had eluded Nogaret. Now, there was someone who really was too big for his britches and thought he was smarter than everyone else. Yesterday, George had warned him that things weren’t going to go the way he’d planned. Nogaret hadn’t listened. He’d believed he had everything well in hand. George briefly wondered if David had killed Nogaret and then thought not. David had killed before, George knew. But, like George, he knew that killing had repercussions that rippled out from the initial event like a stone thrown into a still pond.
“Let’s go.” George motioned again with the gun, this time indicating David should move towards the plane.
David walked stiff-legged up the stairway to the door, which was open. Once inside, he glanced into the cockpit to his left and let out a sigh to see Andre’s body slumped in the co-pilot’s seat.
George tsked. “He isn’t dead, just drugged. Drag him into the back.”
David obeyed that order too, compressing himself a bit to maneuver Andre, who was shorter than he but stockier, out of his seat. Then he dragged him down the aisle. Andre was too heavy to lift onto the couch, so David left him face up on the floor. He looked peaceful, and he was breathing.
George tossed a set of handcuffs to David. “Cuff yourself to the handle.”
David sighed again but did as George asked, sitting in a chair on the left side of the aisle and cuffing his left hand to the handle above his head. It put him behind the pilot’s seat and kept his right hand free. George decided to let him have that little victory rather than order him to change seats. There was something he’d learned from David: with leadership, less is more.
Now that David was contained, which was the main thing, George moved to the pilot’s seat and set about preparing the plane for departure. He needed to get on his way before David’s men started wondering what had become of him.
“You were going to kidnap my son.” David sounded genuinely angry.
George respected the emotion. Most of the time, David showed none, which was one of the more irritating things about him and made George want to needle him, just to see if he could get a response.
He’d never done it. He’d had a persona to protect. It was a relief to finally throw it off.
The cockpit had a little mirror that allowed George to see a portion of the cabin behind him, though only the right half of David’s body, since the headrest of George’s own seat blocked the rest of the view.
George looked into the mirror and said, affecting a British accent, “Sorry, old chap. Needs must and all that.”
“Are you sure you can fly this plane? You served breakfast on the flight that took Anna home.”
George scoffed, even as he was also pleased that his low profile had so effectively lulled even David into a false sense of security. “It was worth my while to pretend to be other than I was. The CIA can fabricate any story, you know.”
“You mean you weren’t really with the Chicago police before you joined Chad’s organization?”
“Of course I was.” George, in fact, had been one of many agents sent to infiltrate organizations interested in time travel. Chad Treadman had simply been the one to win the lottery. Given that Chad had hired David’s uncle Ted, the odds had been in George’s favor, if in anyone’s. “You forget that your parents showed up in that clinic in Aberystwyth seven years ago. We’ve had time to plan. My bosses wanted Arthur rather than you, but they’ll settle for you, and I’m pretty sure they’ll realize soon enough you’re the better option. Even my outfit can get antsy about exploiting a kid.”
