Free Kingdom Come by Kathryn Le Veque

had a chance to prove his honor. Several of his fellow knights, led by Simon, turned against him. They didn't want peace, only the satisfaction and spoils of complete victory over Saladin. Even as Kieran carried the Muslim offering to Richard, his men were plotting against him.  Kieran, sensing the danger, eventually fled the group and they had followed, finally tracking him to Nahariya.  Assassins had caught up with Kieran at an inn, mortally wounding him. 
     The proprietor of the inn, a fat man named Hut, had sent Kieran to a man believed to be a physic but the man was, in fact, an alchemist.  Experimenting on the English knight with the nasty gut wound, the old alchemist had fed him a concoction of potions that had put Kieran in suspended animation. He hadn’t been dead, yet not exactly living. He had been frozen in time, buried by Hut and forgotten by the world.  The wound, through the centuries, had healed over. That was when Rory, a Biblical Archaeologist, had dug him up. Her inadvertent kiss had awoken the sleeping knight.
    And their story continued even now, but they were in Kieran’s time, not the modern world that Rory had been born into. But they were together and that was all that mattered. 
    “I’ve been thinking,” she murmured, gazing up at the astoundingly vibrant stars.
    “What about?” he asked, still lingering on thoughts of Simon and betrayal.
    “About the fact that you’ve been given a second chance to complete your mission,” she said, almost wistfully. “Kieran, how many people throughout the ages have begged God for the chance to live their life over or undo something they have done? And why is it you’ve been given that opportunity and me right along with you? I just can’t help but think that you’re meant for something really great, something that will change the course of history. Maybe the history I knew in my time won’t be the same in eight hundred years. Somehow, you’ll change it. You’ll be the catalyst to greater things.”
    He patted the arms around his waist with a big gloved hand. “Your faith in me is appreciated.”
    She squeezed him gently. “It’s more than faith,” she murmured. “Remember that I read your journal that had been buried with you; I know how remarkable you are. You are one of the greatest men I have ever read about much less known. I just know I’m going to witness something really amazing, something you will accomplish. Did you ever stop to think of the reason why I’m here, too? Maybe… maybe that’s why; to witness it and maybe to write about it. Maybe I’ll be in the history books as your chronicler.”
    He smiled faintly, listening to her awesome take on the situation. “You are here because I need you,” he said simply.
    She hugged him again, laying her head against his back, thinking on her purpose for being here with him, in his time. It was a little less scary when she realized that she must have some purpose.  There was a reason why she was here. Gazing out over the distant city, her thoughts began to wander to their destination.
           “So what are you going to tell Richard about me?” she asked. “He’s going to want to know who in the heck I am.”
    Kieran grunted. “I have been trying to think of a plausible explanation,” he said. “Although Richard is an accepting man, I doubt I can tell him the truth. At least, not right away. I suppose I shall tell him that you are an American heiress and we are to be married.”
    She made a face. “American heiress? He won’t even know what America is.”
    He tried to turn and look at her, made difficult by the restrictive helm and hauberk. “I do not even know what American is,” he informed her flatly. “In fact, I am doubtful that it even exists.”
    She snorted. “It’s not Ameri can , it’s America,” she told him. “And yes, it exists.”
    “I think you have made it up.”
    She giggled. “I did not make it up.”
    “You did.”
    She continued to