Aihne was coming back from vespers alone. Penelope had darted off as they had emerged from the chapel. The night was cold, and Aihne drew her shawl more tightly around her. The rest of the Duke's entourage had lingered at the church to give additional devotions towards Eleanor's upcoming marriage.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed her arm and whirled her around. Pieter stood there, slightly out of breath, his cheeks ruddy, and his breath forming white clouds around his head. He must have run alll the way from the chapel, she thought. She smiled at him.

"Sir Pieter!"

"Please, just Pieter. Do you have a moment? I must talk with you in private."

"Certainly. We can go up to my chambers. My mother will be along shortly, I am sure."

"No. We need to be completely alone with no interruptions." He pulled her to a low doorway at the back of the castle. "I need your help." He took both her hands in his and looked earnestly into her eyes. "I am in trouble here. And I know you can help me. I know you are from the future."

Aihne drew her breath in sharply. She felt fear strangling her. Many thoughts hit her at once and danced around each other, weaving in and out. She feared that she would not make it back to Cambridge in the year 2050, feared that she was changing history as she stood there, and feared that she would be kicked out of the program and never be able to finish her PhD thesis.

"It's OK. I am from the future, too." Aihne felt relief flooding through her, and all at once another fear gripped her.

"But, how....?" She looked at him searching for words that her tongue and lips would form for her. "From what future?"

"From yours. I am from the Oxford program. I used your matrix to get here."

"But, how?"

"Ok. I'll start from the beginning." Pieter then explained that there was a rogue historian who had been kicked out of the Oxford program, but had managed to sneak back in to the travel lab and link the Oxford system with Harvard's. "This man's name is Colin Firth." Aihne looked at him blankly. "So, you haven't come across him yet?" Aihne shook her head.

"But that explains why we found a ghost trail running through the matrix with an indeterminate origin."

"You weren't able to trace it?"

"No. We didn't have time to trace it. Our board had just cut our funding, so the head of the program helped us travel earlier than planned. We had no time to think of anything else except carrying out our mission."

"Which is?"

"Studying the early life of Eleanor of Aquitaine." Aihne stopped. She had just thought of something. "Speaking of which," Aihne crossed her arms across her chest and stood back, "Why were you drooling over Eleanor? You could have fooled me into thinking you really wanted Eleanor for yourself."

"Well, I was trying to fool everyone. I did not want them to know why I was really there. Until Colin arrived, I had hoped to completely convince everyone that I was Pieter de Slavik whose kingdom was collapsing and who was in desperate need of some cash. I had the attention of the Duke and Duchess and the court, not to mention Eleanor herself. Everyone had grown a bit cautious after my attentions. There was no room for another suitor. That way, Colin would have a harder time getting close to Eleanor."

That made sense, Aihne thought.

"Well, will you help me?"

"Yes. If I can. What do you need me to do?"

Pieter outlined a plan in which Aihne distracted Colin and Pieter captured him. "We just need to decide when and where. The sooner the better."

"I must talk with Penelope tonight."

Pieter looked at her with his old amusement. "Ah, yes. The sleepwalker, right?"

"You knew from that moment we were from the future, did you not?" Pieter nodded with amusement. "Hmmmm. And you waited that long to tell us?"

"I had to be sure that Colin hadn't already gotten to you, that you weren't working for him."

Pieter described Colin to Aihne as ruthless and mad. He was charming, however, so she should watch her step. Aihne absorbed it all in wonder. "OK. Well, Let's not try anything tonight. I need to be sure that Penelope understands what is up. I will not do a thing without her."

Pieter grew a bit impatient. "OK! But convince her to work with us."

She left him and went up to her chambers where she found Penelope already there. "You will never guess who I just met!" they said at once.