The work in progress

Mom, why do I have to go?

Mom has a thing for England. She was born there.

Cora goes to England.

Visits castle on a tour.

Acidently goes back in time.

Is found by a guard who is rough with her.

She cant understand a word he's saying.

Takes her to his master.

Kind, old knight takes a fancey to her.

Introduces her to his daughters.

The youngest one, Angela, is her age and loves the thought of a friend.

Takes her to her room to change her clothes and talk.

They can't understand eachother.

Cora is feezing and doesn't want to change her clothes.

Angela suggests she stand next to the fire.

Cora realizes the castle has no other heating.

She comments on it.

Angela is puzzled and they talk about where Anna came from.

Cora tries to explain that she came from the future, but Angela doesn't grasp it.

Cora then goes to her backpack and pulls out a camera.

She shows Angela the pictures of her home and family.

Angela is fascinated, and wants to know what the "window box" is.

Cora tries to explain it, but its difficult.

She finally says its a machine that can paint pictures faster that anyone in the world.

Angela starts to understand.

~~~

The next challenge is the language.

If they're speaking english, why cant I understand them?

~~~

Dinner is served at 5:00.

Angela takes Anna down to the table.

Cora is repulsed by most of the food she sees, but manages to eat some fruit and nuts.

The rest of the table continues to eat.

Cora askes to be excused, saying she's tired and would like to sleep.

A servant takes her to her room and fills the foot warmer with coals.

Once alone, Cora looks around.

Out her window, she sees the place where the parking lot used to be.

Now it's a thick forest.

She observes the elaborate bed stand and furniture.

Even the fire place is huge.

There was enough room inside it, for her to walk completely around the fire without getting burned.

In the back of the fire there was a hook on the wall.

Out of curiosity, Cora pulls it.

she is astonished when the back wall opens up to reveil a long, dark, stairway.

She darts back to get her flash light and then cautiously proceeds down the stairs.

First she tries closing and opening the door from the inside. All is well, so down she goes.

Once she reaches the bottom, the tunnel staightens out into a long hallway.

She gets tired from walking so long.

Finally she reaches a small, heavy door.

She cant open it.

Oh great.

The flashlight flickers and dims.

She’ll have to go back.

She looks through the keyhole, but can’t see anything.

Disapointed, she turns and hurries back the way she came before the light goes out.

~~~

Cora is curious about everything.

She sticks to the old knight’s side like a puppy.

She senses that the neighbors don’t like her, but he does.

He’ll protect her.

She doesn’t know why.

Until she can master the strange way they talk, she is very quiet.

She only talks when no one else is around. That way she isn’t stared at.

The old knight asks her where she’s from.

She says America.

He doesn’t know where that is.

She explains that it’s a huge island to the far west. These birds don’t know the way.

The knight is puzzled, but says nothing.

His middle daughter snorts and says she’s crazy.

Her father sternly rebukes her.

Cora is taken aback and wonders why the girl was so rude.

She is definatly not in kansas anymore.

~~~
Angela comforts Cora.

"Don't worry about what they say, Cora. you are my father's guest, and no matter what anyone says, he likes you.”

“Why?”

“I think you remind him of his eldest daughter.”

“Rebeckah?”

“No, she was second born. The first daughter was named Juliana, and she was my father’s pride and joy.”

“My mother's name was Juliana. I had no idea it has been around so long."

"What has?"

"The name. What happened to your sister?”

“She was kidnapped by the knight who used to own this castle. In a rage, my father lay seige against it, but when he finally got inside, the knight had escaped, and taken Juliana with him. My father hunted him down and killed him, but he never found her.”

“How sad! It seems that if I remind him of her, he would hate to look at me.”

“You don’t know my father. It’s been so long since she was taken, by now, she must be a grown woman, and mother of her own house if she lived. He has learned to accept that she isn’t coming back. You are an unexpected comfort to him.”

Cora thought for a moment.

“Why did the knight kidnap your sister, if he didn’t intend for your father ever to see her again? It seems to me, he could have used her to bargan with.”

“That has puzzled all of us. When my father finally caught up with him, he intended to make the man tell him where she was, but he only said he didn’t know.”

“Oh, that’s rediculous. He kidnapped her!”

“I know. That’s when my father killed him.”

Cora sighed. "I'm so sorry."

Angela asks Cora what she liked to do in her country.

Cora talks about art, singing, and about her horse.

Angela askes what she liked to do with her horse.

Train it, talk to it, be it’s friend.

Angela is surprised.

“Ladies don’t train horses.”

“This on does. Theres nothing like a horse that trusts you.”

“You’ll have to show me what you mean. I’m confused.”

“Do you have horses around here?”

“Of course.”

They go to the barn and Cora looks the horses over.

“Most horses are terrified of humans. Since we are predators, they think we want to eat them.”

“That’s obserd.”

“They don’t know that.”

“So how do you tell them?”

“You have to speak their language. It doesn’t use words.”

“Show me.”

“I need tools. Will I get in trouble if I use a few ropes?”

“No. They all belong to my father."

Cora looked around.

“I don’t suppose they’d have a strong, stiff, stick around here, would they?”

“I wouldn’t know. I don’t come out here much.”

“Well, then I’m sure there is one among the trees somewhere.”

Anna walks outside to the woods to find a stick.

After asembling a makeshift carrot-stick and a rope halter with a long lead, she asked Angela which horse she could use.

"Mine. It's this one."

"Do you mind if I take her out to the pasture?"

"Oh no, she's gentle."

Anna goes through general friendly games with the horse.

Horse is very "dead" to everything she does.

The characters

Cora - The main character in the story. From the modern day. She is caught in a time vortex she had no idea about, and has no idea how to find again.

The Lady - A cat who draws Cora into the vortex in the first place. As the story progesses, Cora discovers the cat turns into a tall, very slender Lady with no name, who plays with a dew drop.

Sir Nicolas - The elderly knight who takes Cora into his family when she shows up.

Ester - The jeleous daughter who spreads rumors about Cora being a witch.

Wesley - A quiet house servant who becomes very attached to Cora.

Patrick - A young jester who also takes a fancy to Cora, and follows her around like a puppy dog.

Angela - The youngest daughter of Sir Nicolas. She has great compassion and patience for Cora, and helps her with the cultural differences between her world and theirs.

Julius - The stable hand who thinks everything Cora does is stupid. One day he looses the end of his nose and all his front teeth, and has a reason to hate her.

Terror - The horse Cora rescues from Julius, and tames against all odds.

Juliana - Cora's mother.

The main idea

A girl reluctantly goes to England on her mother's orders. Her mother, being Brittish herself, wanted the girl to have an idea of who her anncestors were.

Girl visits a castle on tour, and slowly begins to take interest. Down in the dungion, she imagines herself actually a prisoner there within it's walls. Taken by fained dispair, she goes to the window to "plan" her escape.

Long story short: She acidently goes back in time. Meets up with people who are speaking a different English than what she knows, and have a whole different way of looking at life.

It's a major culture shock for her, but not so bad as that of her new neighbors. Her strange talk, dress, the fact that she's not from any known country, even the things found in her odd bag, all seem to identify her as a witch.

What is going on here? And what does her mother have to do with it all? Can the girl find out and escape before she is burned at the stake??