Borrowed Time

Chapter Four - Say What?

I procrastinated rebuilding the Rube. There was plenty of iron around, so that was not the issue. I had plenty of skilled metal smiths willing to give me a hand.

I had become quite fond of my new ancient family, especially Circinn. Maybe I could convince him to come with me, but he was one of the main protectors of this village. I was sure he would let me go alone. He was an honorable man, and these people were his family, and it was his charge to protect them.

The decanus had told the warriors the Roman plans, of course under duress. I guess every man; even a soldier has his breaking point when under torture.

His contubernium had been a scouting party, looking for ways to surprise the Caledoni and catch them off guard. The Romans were not done with them, and were hell bent on conquering them, if only for the purpose of saying it could be done.

If we had not gone to collect my Rube, they would have succeeded. It scares me to think of all the murders that they would have been able to commit against the people I had grown to love over a very short time.

I had been here with them for a mere three weeks, but they had made me feel more at home then my parents had in nineteen years. Circinn's adopted father, the clan's Chieftain, had called me a good woman, far from the embarrassment that my mother considered me. I wondered if she had noticed I was missing yet.

Speaking of missing, the decanus had disappeared shortly after spilling the Roman plans to the men. I didn't ask where he went; I didn't think I wanted to know the answer.

Compared to the people of this time period, I was very soft, both of strength and mentality. My ability to have technology and the lack of war made me that way. Although I felt lucky when I was in my own world and enjoyed the easy life, I felt ashamed of it all here in this one.

I will say that this experience has made me a little stronger in both senses, but there still are some boundaries I personally would never cross. My mother would never approve. She definitely wouldn't approve of the fact that I slept in the same bed as Circinn, no matter how innocent it was. Or not.

***

I had been teaching the people of the village English, as I had mentioned before. I spent my evenings after chores were done teaching them to read and write both English and Latin. I wanted them to be able to survive after I left, and it was the least I could do.

I realized I would only know if they made it through the Romans in my history books, if their story was ever told after I left here. To the rest of my world, I was certain they would be forever nameless and faceless. I would remember them for the rest of my days.

I taught the smiths to cast iron, they would have better cooking devices then they had before my arrival. I didn't think it would throw off the balance of history. After all, the Chinese had been doing this since 6 BCE. The Romans were also doing it at this point in time, and I didn't think giving the Caledoni some of the advantage the Romans already had to use against them wrong. In my mind, I was making the playing field a little more even.

They had watched in wonderment as I built them a makeshift blast furnace. Circinn smiled proudly as I showed them how to use it. His pride in me made my mother's disdain that I had wanted to take up smithing irrelevant. She had said it was not a useful skill for a Lady to have. I had always known she was wrong about that. Unfortunately, I had no proof to show her that it did indeed amount to something. I spent more time helping them create new devices and use steam to make their lives easier and chores faster. I had neglected all work on the components to my Rube.

***

"You don't want to leave us, do you?" Circinn asked me as we lay on his bed.