Then he called out, “All together, now!” and chanted the verse again, only this time, they all understood the words:
A fist pounded on the door.
“The words make sense!” Papa cried in delight… but he spoke in the language of Merovence, not America, and the world suddenly went crazy, tilting and spinning around them.
When it stilled, Mama slumped against Matt. He held her up, saying, “It’ll pass, it’s just disorientation…
Gilbert, how’re you doing?”
“Well enough,” the knight called back. “Come now, Goodman Mantrell, it is a sickening feeling, but bear up and it will pass… there!”
Matt glanced over and saw Papa still leaning on Gilbert’s shoulder, but straightening. “Thank you for your arm, Master Gilbert.”
“My honor.” But Gilbert looked a little nonplussed.
“He’s a knight, Papa,” Matt began, but Mama looked about her at the sun-filled space and let out a cry of amazement. “El Morro!”
Papa looked around, too. Matt took a quick glance, enough to be sure they were in the courtyard, Mama with him, Papa with Gilbert, their huge pile of boxes in between. A couple of knights and a dozen footmen were running toward them.
“I see the resemblance,” Papa told Mama, “but I do not think this is El Morro. It is a castle, though.”
“Not even a Spanish one, now that I look at the architecture,” Mama said, “but still, a real castle! How did we come here?”
“Magic, Mama.”
“Mateo, I have told you not to be superstitious!” Mama scolded.
“No, really… magic works here!” Matt opened his mouth to explain further, but Mama rushed on. “Why are those men dressed as knights, Mateo?”
“Because they are knights, Mama.” That was as much as Matt got out before the first of the guardsmen reached them. “Lord Wizard!” he panted, bowing. “Is anything amiss?”
His parents turned to him, eyes wide. “Lord Wizard?”
“That’s the government job I was telling you about,” Matt said lamely.
“Government job?” Papa fixed him with a gimlet stare. “Which government?”
“You have been wasting your time with those Renaissance Fair people again,” Mama accused.
The knights came panting up. “Sir Matthew! Is all well?”
” ‘Sir’?” Papa asked.
Mama clucked her tongue in criticism.
“Just fine, Sir Norton, thank you… now that we’re back,” Matt said. “Uh, could you detail a few men to guard this heap of luggage? I’d like to take my parents to meet their hostess.”
“Parents!” Sir Norton bowed, and Sir Cran followed suit. “We are honored to meet the illustrious parents of Her Majesty’s Wizard!”
“How gracious of you,” Mama said, with a warm smile. “We are honored to meet such gallant knights… are we not, Ramon?”
“Indeed we are.” Papa bowed, then said to Matt out of the corner of his mouth, “Definitely too much time on Renaissance festivals.”
Sir Cran said, “It will be our honor to guard your belongings.” He ‘gestured to the footmen, who formed a circle around the boxes.
“Thank you all,” Mama said, and gave them such a radiant look that half of them caught their breaths.
The other half were on the other side of the box-pile and didn’t see.
“Yes, thanks,” Matt said quickly, before Papa could begin to get jealous. “The mistress of the castle is this way, Mama, Papa.” They went in through the doors at the base of the keep. The guards at the inner door gave them cold stares until they recognized the Lord Wizard. Then they leaped to open the panel.
As they climbed the broad winding stairs set against the outer wall, Matt said softly to his father, “You know, I’d never realized it before, but Mama really is a beautiful woman, isn’t she?”
Papa grinned, looking very smug. “She is indeed, my son, and she grows more beautiful every day.”
“You were lucky.”
“I was,” Papa admitted, “though there was quite a bit of hard work in winning her.”
Matt didn’t doubt that Mama had made him sweat. He also didn’t doubt that she’d been in love with him from the moment she saw him. He might never have realized his mother was beautiful, but he had always known he would never be as handsome as his father.
They came out into the broad, carpeted upper hall, the grimness of its stone walls softened by glowing tapestries. Mama stared, but Matt didn’t give her time to think… he went straight to the solar. The guards looked up, then smiled as they saw him. One reached for the door, but Matt was there before him. He opened it and stepped in, ushering his parents with him.
Mama cried out in delight. “How lovely!”
“She certainly is,” Papa said.
Alisande looked up at them from a table strewn with parchment rolls. The sunlight through the tall windows turned her hair to gold, and the maroon gown set off her complexion perfectly. The simple golden band about her temples could have been a mere decoration.
Mama gave Papa a sharp elbow in the ribs. “I spoke of the room, husband!”
Papa looked around at the beamed ceiling, paneled walls, and tapestries. “You’re right, Jimena. It’s a lovely room!”
“And what a lovely girl!” Mama said, fairly beaming at Alisande.
“Mateo… who is this woman?”
“Uh… Mama, Papa… ” Matt took a deep breath. “There’s something else I haven’t told you.”
Mama recognized the tone and turned to him, frowning. “You’ve been a bad boy.”
“Very bad,” Matt admitted. “I didn’t invite you to my wedding.”
Both parents cried out in protest.
“I didn’t know how,” Matt explained. “I’ll make it clear later, but for now, believe me… this really is a different world, and I didn’t know how to call home.”
Mama looked up at Alisande with dawning realization. “Why do you tell us this now?”
“Because I’d like you to meet my bride.” Matt took a deep breath. “Mama, Papa… may I introduce you to my wife, Alisande?”
“His mother?” Alisande rose, eyes huge.
“Oh, my dear!” With her arms wide, Mama stepped up. Surprised, Alisande reached out… and the two women embraced.
“I think you got away with it this time,” Papa muttered to Matt, “but don’t let it happen again, okay?”
“Uh, there’s more,” Matt admitted.
“More?” Papa stared, then frowned, and the storm clouds gathered. “How long have you been wedded to this woman, anyway?”
“Three years,” Matt admitted.
“Three years!” Papa squawked, and Mama broke from Alisande to stare at Matt. “But we saw you last Easter, only a few weeks ago, and you said no word of having met her!”
“I hadn’t,” Matt told her. “It was only a few weeks for you, but it was… ” He winced. “… four years for me.”
“Four years!” Papa yelped. “How can that be?”
Mama turned, frowning. “And in all that time, you never thought to write to us?”
Matt chose the easier question. “I haven’t figured it out for sure, but I think time runs at different rates in our two universes… an hour in your neighborhood is a week or so here. Or it could be that whoever moves us between universes is plugging us in at whatever time he or it chooses.”
Mama let go of Alisande, frowning at her son. “You mean you didn’t know you could go home?”
“Didn’t know I could go, write, or call,” Matt said. “I just figured that out a little while ago… in fact, only two days, for me.”