"I'm absorbing."

"Aye, well, perhaps you should absorb later. It looks as if a play is about to begin. Do you care to go watch?" Victoria was horribly torn. What she needed to be doing was looking for her grandmother. Yet there, right in front of her, was the Globe Theater. She might even see Shakespeare on stage.

She chewed on her bottom lip for quite some time.

"I say we go inside," Jennifer said suddenly. "Who knows who we might see? Maybe Michael got a part. That would at least solve one problem." Victoria exchanged a brief glance with Connor, then nodded. "All right, let's go. It can't hurt." "It can't," Jennifer agreed. "Come on." Victoria walked with her sister and her... friend across to the theater. But as she became part of the crowd, she found she could no longer ignore the reality of her situation. She was looking for her granny in a city of tens of thousands. It was exactly like looking for a needle in a haystack. She found that she could no longer ignore her very real doubts that they would be successful.

"Victoria?"

Victoria dragged her sleeve across her eyes. "What?"

"Crumble later. Buck up now."

"Why did I bring you?" Victoria asked, blinking furiously. "I could have been happily having a nervous

breakdown right about now if you weren't here interrupting me."

"Let's go catch the play," Jennifer said. "I have a good feeling about this."

"You don't smell like chamber pot."

"I don't, but I'm assuming everyone in the cheap seats will, so you'll fit right in. Should I go sit up in the

boxes with the somewhat-washed?"

"No, you should come stand with us," Victoria said. "And you can walk on the outside on the way back to the inn and maybe you'll be treated to the initiation rite." "Can't wait," Jennifer said cheerfully. "Let's go." Victoria led the way. She paid, watching her hand as it handed over the coins and wondering why she felt as if she'd never seen it before. So she was hanging out with a ghost. That was one thing. Time-traveling was another thing entirely. Her hand shook as she pulled it back. She clenched it into a fist and tried to give the usher a manly smile as she led her little crew into the theater. She was sure she would get it together very soon- But not today. She stood at the very back of the crowd standing on the floor of the Globe Theater and couldn't help a brief, hysterical gasp of laughter.

Good heavens, she was in the Globe.

It was truly theater in the round. The stage jutted out into the crowd that was gathered on the floor in the cheap, standing-room-only area. Up above and behind her were boxes in which she could see men and women showing off their Elizabethan finery. But as fine as these accommodations were, they weren't the ones for the super rich. Those folks were sitting behind the stage. Victoria knew that such was the case, but it was one thing to read about it in a dry historical treatise; it was another thing entirely to look back behind the stage and see lords and ladies wearing clothing that cost probably the equivalent of a year's wages for all the plebeians standing on the floor.

They were certainly on display and, given that Shakespeare could be enjoyed just as much by the words alone, without any complicated scenery, Victoria supposed they were happy enough in their location.

It beat the floor. In the area for the huddled masses, there were no bathrooms, no garbage cans, and no in-between-the-movie workers to give the place a little tidy-up. Did the stench bother the actors? Victoria vowed to give her cast a serious lecture on the ease of their lives the next chance she had.

"What is this play?" Connor asked from behind her.

Victoria realized she had completely forgotten about him. She'd forgotten about Jennifer, too, so she suffered no pangs of guilt. She looked over her shoulder at him.

"I don't know yet. How are you doing?"

"No one is screaming yet," Connor answered grimly. "But the press is rather too close in here. We may yet find ourselves in a delicate situation if someone steps through me." "Let's hope not." She turned back to the stage. "Oh, here comes someone. Three someones." She caught her breath. "It's the Scottish play."

"What?" Connor said.

"The Scottish play," Victoria whispered over her shoulder. "Can't say the name; can't quote it unless you're acting in it. It's bad luck."

"It's MacBeth," Jennifer said dryly. "I'm not an actor, so the dictum does not apply to me."

"MacBeth," Connor said thoughtfully. "Interesting."

"And it's beginning," Victoria said. "Can you two be quiet, please?"

"Can you believe this?" Jennifer said in her best stage whisper. "At the Globe? In the cheap seats?"

"Standing through three hours of play," Victoria pointed out. "Save your strength; stop using it to converse." The play began. Victoria, in spite of herself, felt the magic come over her. Great theater was great theater, no matter the century. But to see one of Shakespeare's plays in the original venue with an all-male cast...

Mind-blowing.

And then Connor laughed.

It was a soft laugh, but it was definitely a laugh and not a chuckle. Victoria turned and looked at him in

astonishment. He was smiling.

He was, put simply, drop-dead gorgeous.

Maybe this was why there weren't dozens of women in his keep. They hadn't seen what she was seeing.

Lucky for them.

Desperately bad for her.

"What?" she whispered.

He leaned down close to her and pointed to the stage. "Look," he said, sounding actually quite delighted.

"Cast your gaze upon yon witch to the left."

Victoria turned back around and looked. And she caught her breath.

"'Tis an awfully big needle that auld witch uses to stir her pot, aye?" he whispered. "Likely a size

fifteen-and bamboo. I daresay she had one in her bag that afternoon. I fear such a needle would snap did it come into contact with a lad's sternum, but that is my opinion only."

"Perhaps she was knitting with big wool," Jennifer suggested.

"Och, I suppose that might be true," he said doubtfully. "Though I thought she preferred a finer gauge.

Well, whatever the case, we now know where your granny is."

"How did she get this gig?" Jennifer asked. "I thought only men got to act during Shakespeare's time."

"She's Granny," Victoria said. "How could they resist her?"

"Size four, aluminum," Connor said wisely. "That would convince me of quite a few things."

Victoria felt her knees grow quite unsteady beneath her. Her relief was complete and so overwhelming

she wasn't at all sure how she was going to manage to get through the rest of the play. She felt Jennifer's arm go around her briefly and was grateful for it. She watched the first several acts of the play unfold without truly seeing them. She would have given quite a bit for a chair, but there was no hope of even pulling up a handy bit of floor.

The first chance they had to sneak out, she turned to Jennifer and Connor. "Let's get out of here and wait for her at the stage entrance. I'm assuming they have a stage entrance."

"Don't you know?" Jennifer asked.

"I've never been here before," Victoria muttered as she threaded her way through the crowd.

She waited with Connor and her sister until the play was over, then waited a bit more as the cast and crew left the building. And when her granny came out, Victoria threw herself at her with a glad cry.

"Victoria!" Mary said, staggering in surprise. "Connor, as well. Jennifer, you, too! How did you all get here?"

"The same way you did, lady," Connor said with a smile.

"Yes, well, that was quite a surprise, wasn't it?" Mary said, smiling. "I had just gotten up to go stretch my legs, paused to admire those interesting flowers in the grass, and subsequently found myself somewhere I never intended to be."

"It's a good thing you never go anywhere without your knitting bag," Jennifer said, giving Mary a hug.

"You never know when you'll be stuck in a line," Mary said.

"Well, it's a good thing it wasn't a line to the Tower's dungeon," Victoria said, feeling almost giddy with

relief. "Come on, Granny, let's go."

"Oh," Mary said with a slight frown, "but I can't go yet."

Victoria frowned, as well. "What do you mean you can't go yet? Let's get out of here before someone

figures out we're not locals!"

"But, Vikki, honey, I couldn't disappoint William."

"William?" Victoria echoed. "William who?"

"Who do you think?" her grandmother asked smoothly.

Victoria felt faint. She'd bypassed woozy, barreled through unsteady, and plowed right into reeling.

"Shakespeare?" she managed in a very garbled voice.

Her grandmother took her by the arm. "Let's go sit over there on that little wall. I have an hour or two before I have to be off for supper."

"Off for supper," Victoria repeated weakly. "Off for supper with whom?"

"Vikki, are you not feeling well?"

Jennifer laughed. "Granny, I think Vikki's having withdrawal symptoms. You know, being separated

from her production of Hamlet by, oh, four hundred years or so. Cut her some slack."

Victoria found herself deposited on a little brick wall. Her grandmother sat down next to her, took her hand, and patted it. Victoria had a hard time not bursting into tears. "I'm all right," Mary said, smiling sympathetically. "I appreciate you coming all this way to get me. Now, give me a few days to wrap things up and I'll be ready to go home."

"Shakespeare," Victoria whispered. "You met Shakespeare? Where are you staying? How did you get a part in his play?" Her grandmother laughed. "So many questions, so little time before I'm due for supper with William. He finds my accent charming, you know. Scottish with a tinge of something he's still trying to identify."

"Is that so," Victoria managed.

Mary put her arm around Victoria. "Yes, it is. Now, I have a thousand things to tell you and some gossip as well. Where are you staying?"

"In the seedy part of town," Jennifer offered. "How about you?"

"Dear William found me a little room in Lord Mountjoy's house."

"Granny," Victoria said, stunned, "do you have any idea whom you're hobnobbing with?"

"I'm an old woman," Mary said with a smile, "so titles don't impress me. But a soft bed does. You know, the pub behind us is quite nice. Let's go chat, shall we? I have some interesting news for you."