The Time Writer and The Cloak: The Time Writer, #0

By Alex R Crawford

Beware of doorways through time… and dark alleys

Author Amelia Murray and her family travels to Edinburgh, Scotland, before their move to Washington DC. While picking up an overpriced cloak, she is chased into Lady Stair's Close where she steps through a door and is thrust back to the late 17th Century. 

 

Amelia, believing she is somehow stuck in the middle of a renaissance fair, visits Edinburgh Castle, helps thwart a kidnapping, and finds herself in a pub mingling with pirates.

 

She must find her way home and to her own time, while avoid being thrown in prison as a witch.

 

How will she get back to her time when she doesn't realize that she has been thrown back three hundred years into the past?

 

The Time Writer and The Cloak is a Historical Time Travel Adventure Travel exploring 17th Century Edinburgh, through the wit and mindset of a 21st Century woman. Prequel to The Time Writer and The Notebook.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Spilled Red Ink
• Release date: Sep 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781953485076

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

M om, mom, mom, rattled on Hannah for the solid ending of my last bit of patience.

For the love of all that is good in this world. With a final last thread, my patience could barely hang on. Hannah, we will land soon. I turned to my husband, Todd. Can you field the ‘when will we be there’ question for the rest of the flight?

It should’ve been a vacation to spend with the family and take some pictures and write a few notes for my upcoming travel book. In reality, it became so much more than that. Plus, with all the running, I can include it in my list of workouts. Yes, I have a running list of the times I exercise. It is short. I don’t run unless it’s to the taco truck or I’m being chased by zombies. I still haven’t met a zombie.

To this day, Hannah calls it the best trip ever. She is a bigger fan of the trotting from one location to another and the last-minute change of plans than I am.

We had planned to make this our last big trip before moving back to the States and into the Washington, DC, area. Todd worked for the US State Department, and they assigned him to the Prague office for the past two years. Hannah, our daughter, spent most of her time growing up overseas. Two years in one country, two years in another, and at ten years old, the upcoming move would be her first time living in the United States since she was a baby.

As the plane approached the Edinburgh airport, butterflies danced around my stomach. We began the descent through the thick layer of clouds. The lower the plane got, the more the butterflies fluttered. I put my arm around Hannah’s shoulders and stared out the window with her. Clusters of towns and villages surrounded by large swaths of open green land stretched out below us. The plane touched the ground, gave a bounce, and continued its deceleration. The sound of the plane as it slowed down and began its slow roll to the gate only increased everyone’s anticipation. People stirred about the cabin, ready to launch out the door as soon as it opened. You would think they had not flown on a plane before. Calm down people, everyone will get off the plane, but all the crowding in the aisle would only slow everyone down. Remain calm, Murray, you have plenty of time.

I’ve got the entire trip planned, I said as we walked up the boarding bridge on our way to collect our luggage and head to customs and border protection. Living in Europe was an absolute dream for us, but the end was near. So near, in fact, after our brief visit to Scotland, we were to jump on a flight to Washington, DC.

Of course you do, Mel. Todd walked hand-in-hand with Hannah. We’re excited to see what you’ve concocted.

I had not given them too many details about the trip. I wanted to make sure we hit a few tourist spots and take the rest of the trip as we wanted. It was supposed to be stress free.

I struggled with my big leather satchel, which contained my laptop, notebook, pens, cables, and a stack of loose notes. It was heavier than I had expected. I would have loved to store everything in my suitcase, but I needed to find time to squeeze in work, between flights, visits to the castle, museums, plays, tours, shopping, eating, and who knows what else. It was not only our last vacation before our move, but it was a working trip for me. Just a routine research trip for my transition from travel blog to novels. Who was I kidding? It thrilled me to go.

No kidding, there we were, in Edinburgh, Scotland. For me, it was a dream come true. A vacation of a lifetime. For Todd, he was eager to get started at his new assignment. He seemed a bit on edge the entire flight, always looking over his shoulder, as if he were expecting something or someone to jump out at him. It must have been nerves. It kept me on edge, down to my teeth. I tried to ignore his stress and enjoy myself, but it continued to niggle at the back of my mind.

With me being a no-frills kind of woman, not to mention frugal, I thought it would be a great idea to walk from the train station to the flat we rented on the outskirts of New Town. It would be a mile and a half walk from the train station. If I could save money not taking a taxi, that meant we could spend it on a ghost tour or another tourist trap.

We emerged from out the train station with our suitcases dragging behind us. Thank the luggage creators for wheels on suitcases. I might have over-packed. I can neither confirm nor deny that I may have packed a pair of knee-high boots, a pair of sneakers, brown loafers, fuzzy slippers to wear around the flat, and I wore my black loafers. Then, there was my blue corduroy blazer, a raincoat, four sweaters, a few tee-shirts, and a couple of button-up shirts. And don’t get me started on the number of jeans, slacks, and a black wrap dress, just in case we went out for dinner. Not that I had planned for a fancy dinner, but I prepared for one, just in case. To travel in, I wore a pull over black long-sleeved blouse–you never know what will spill down the front while traveling–topped with a grey cardigan, skinny jeans, and my aforementioned black loafers.

Todd, on the other hand, packed everything he wanted in a small carry-on bag. He wore his black slacks and jacket, packed a pair of khakis and a couple of polos. Hannah packed light. She took after her