Highlander’s Curse (20 page)

So much for his plans.

He’d feared there could be a problem when he’d realized the words she’d said aloud, but by then, it was too late. The Magic had already been invoked.

“You’ve sent us to my home, Abby. To Dun Ard.”

“As if. Don’t you even try that line on me. I know for a fact that Dun Ard is not your home. I was there. I went there looking for you. Those people had never even heard of you.” Abby sat next to him, her face determinedly turned away from him, a woolen coverlet pulled up to her chin. “How did we get here?” she demanded again, twitching nervously at the cover. “And what the hell did you do with my clothes?”

“What did
I
do?” He pushed himself up to sit, shaking his head at how wrong everything had gone. “It’s as I told you. It’s you what did the wishing, lass. You who said the words to send us here. I should be asking what
you
did with
my
clothes. Again.”

It was her words that had directed the Magic to put them here, together, so very far from where they both needed to be, but the fault was all his. He should have realized the danger and told her exactly what to say.

Rising from the bed, he made his way to the fireplace and squatted beside it. The fire had been laid at the ready as it always was. All he had to do was strike the tender and start the flames to bring some warmth to the chamber.

“Right. Like you expect me to believe I could simply wish us out of that cave? That’s about as truthful as Dun Ard being your home.”

Flames licked up over the wood and he rose to his feet, facing the bed.

“First, if you canna accept that it’s yer wishing that sent us here, then how
do
you explain it? And, for the record, Dun Ard
is
my home. Here. Now. In 1306, no in yer time.” Assuming the blasted Magic had at least transported them to the proper time. He resented her implication that he’d lied about his home, though as he thought about it, he did find some satisfaction in the idea that she’d gone there in her own time searching for him. “You looked for me there, did you?”

“Wait. Let’s just back this up for a second. Did you say 1306? That’s crazy. It’s not possible.” She turned to face him, immediately dropping her eyes to her lap. “Could you please put something on? I can’t think with
that
,” she waved her hand in his general direction, “when it’s like that.”

He looked down to where she’d pointed and frowned. His swollen manhood was only now beginning to return to normal.

She waited in silence as he strode to the chest at the foot of his bed and pulled out first a shirt and then a plaid, which he deftly wound around himself.

“Better?”

Abby nodded, her eyes glassy when she looked up. “What’s happening here, Colin?”

“It’s as I told you. You’ve the blood of the Fae in you and the power of their Magic at yer disposal. You saved us from that filthy Nuadian by sending us here.”

Though he could have spent the rest of his day simply watching her, he had to get moving. If the Fae had sent them to the wrong location, there was no telling what date they’d chosen. He could only pray he wasn’t too late to save his friends.

For now, he needed to find his cousin Blane, the MacKiernan laird, and his brother Caden to tell them both what had happened. He also needed to find someone to help ease Abby into life here until they could figure out how to send her home.

His stomach knotted at the thought of her leaving but he pushed the foolish emotion from his mind and walked to the door. Of course she had to leave. She should never have been here to begin with.

“What do you think you’re doing now? You’re going to leave me here? Alone?”

She’d risen from the bed when he turned, the coverlet clutched to her breasts. The look of desperation on her lovely face drew him back to her side.

He enfolded her in his embrace and she leaned into him. “Don’t leave me here, Colin. I don’t think I can wrap my head around this. I’m scared.”

With a kiss to her forehead, he pushed her away. “I’ll only be downstairs, Abby. You’ve no a need to fash yerself. Yer safe here. Climb back into bed and I’ll send my mother with clothing for you.”

“You’ll send your
mother
? Oh, Lord, Colin. Your mother’s going to come in here and find me bare-ass naked in your bed? That’s just perfect. Thank you so much for making things all better for me.”

A twinge of guilt held him in place. A guilt that
forced him to confront what they had done earlier, a task made all the more difficult by his own confusion.

“About what passed between us, Abby. I’m sorry for . . .” He paused, suddenly unsure of exactly what he wanted to say. It would be a lie to say he was sorry it had happened. He wasn’t. If anything, he was sorry they hadn’t finished what they’d started.

She saved him from having to finish. “Forget it. It was as much my fault as yours. I’m sorry it all went so badly and left you, you know, so uncomfortable and all.”

Yes, for that he could honestly say he was sorry as well.

Again he kissed her forehead and turned away, saying at last what was really in his thoughts. “Perhaps next time will go more smoothly, aye?”

Her strangled “Next time?” brought a smile to his lips as he closed the door behind him.

C
olin did not enjoy being made to feel as if he were but a bairn again, called up in front of his mother and the laird to answer for some new misdeed.

“So you drag the lass seven hundred years into her past and then you abandon her? You leave her sitting on yer bed all by herself. And naked at that, if I’m no mistaken, aye?” Caden shook his head and exchanged a look with their laird and cousin, Blane MacKiernan, as if he couldn’t believe his younger brother’s stupidity. “What were you thinking, Col? Have you no good sense about women at all?”

“It was she who did the dragging,” Colin muttered in his own defense.

In hindsight, perhaps he should have waited for a private moment with his mother to mention Abby’s need for clothing rather than to have asked within
Caden’s hearing. His prudish older brother would be hammering away at this one for quite some time, he had no doubt.

“And as to what I was thinking, my mind was set upon ending up at the camp in Methven in time to see to the safety of Dair and Simeon. I’d no intended to bring Abby here.”

“Then I suppose we should be thanking the Fates the lass dinna end up unclothed in the middle of our king’s army encampment.” The lady Rosalyn spoke wearing her best no-nonsense expression.

“I’d intended that the Magic send her to her own home, in her own time.”

His mother opened her mouth as if to speak, but held back, her mouth drawn into a tight, disapproving line. He suspected she had quite a bit more she wanted to say, but she yielded to Blane with a stiff nod of her head.

“Intent or no, Cousin, the lass is here, seven hundred years from where she belongs, and it falls to you to deal with what’s to become of her.” Blane peered over steepled fingers held against his face.

“I canna.” Colin shook his head emphatically as if by his action alone he could abdicate his responsibility. “I dinna have time for any female hysterics. Even if I leave at first light and ride my horse into the ground, I may still be too late to reach Methven before the battle that is to come. At best, I can only hope Dair and Simeon survive long enough for me to reach them.”

Not that he’d ever actually found Abby to be hysterical, not even when hiding in that cave.

“You never change, little brother.” Caden pushed back his chair and stood, shaking his head in disgust.
“Always so sure only you have the answers. How quickly you seem to have forgotten all the worldly advice you poured in my ears regarding Ellie. Can you no see yer responsibilities lie not in battle but with this woman you’ve brought to our time?”

“What passed between you and Ellie was an entirely different situation!” The Fae had sent Ellie from the future to this time specifically because she was Caden’s Soulmate. His older brother had simply been too blindly stubborn to see it without trickery on the part of the entire family to force his hand. “Abby’s being here is an accident, no the plan of the Fae. As I explained to you before, it was only a slip of her words that brought her here with me rather than sending her to her own home.”

Caden threw up his hands and stalked to the door. “I’ve no the patience to argue this with you now, Colin. I go to send my Ellie to the woman in yer bedchamber. If anyone can help her accept what’s happening to her, my Ellie’s the one.”

“My thanks, Brother,” Colin offered stiffly, but his words were lost in the slamming of the door.

Just as well. With Caden gone, perhaps he could get on with making his arrangements to set out for Methven. Surely his laird could see beyond all this bickering to recognize the urgency of his mission.

“With yer permission, my laird, I’ll be off for Methven at first light on the morrow. With luck, I’ll find our king and advise him of the treachery awaiting his army, hopefully in time to save Dair and Simeon.”

To his surprise, it was his mother who spoke up first.

“I’m no so sure our laird should agree to that plan.”

Blane nodded thoughtfully, his long fingers stroking his chin as he spoke. “I would hear your reasoning, Aunt.”

“Our family heritage has long presented us with uncommon abilities and challenges. Those carry with them a heavy burden of responsibility, as well. Yer own father, Colin, fashed himself over what harm we could bring this world if we used the Faerie Magic for our own gain. I dinna believe it wise for you to act based on what you learned of our future while you were in that other time. Yer cousin Mairi told me herself the Fae forbade the changing of history.”

Always it came back to the damn Fae.

“And who am I to follow the rules of the Fae after all the harm they’ve brought down on our family? Because of the Fae, our lives have been disrupted time and time again. Two of your own children suffered at their hands and almost died, or did you forget that, my lady mother?” Not to mention his own suffering thanks to the Faerie Queen.

“I’ve forgotten nothing, Colin MacAlister. It’s quick you are to point out the bad. But can you no give equal consideration to the good? Would either of yer brothers be happily wed today if not for the Magic of the Fae? And what of yer sister, Sallie? Had she not gone through such as she did, things might have turned out very differently for her as well.”

Colin ground his teeth but refused to argue any further with his mother. Rosalyn was obviously blinded by the happiness she desired for her children. He, meanwhile, was talking about the fate of the entire country. The knowledge of the future he possessed
could make a difference in obtaining freedom for all of Scotland.

“No to even mention all the problems you could cause in the future,” Rosalyn continued. “There are too many unknown disasters you could bring down on the heads of our own descendants with one careless slip in the here and now. There’s a reason you’re no to tinker with the way things are meant to be.”

Blane nodded and steepled his fingers again. “I’ll take yer words into consideration, Aunt. And as for you, Colin, I’ll have my answer to yer request by the time we sit down for the evening meal.”

A moment of doubt assailed Colin, but he firmly pushed it away. It made no difference that he’d not had the chance to read any further in the wondrous book he’d found in Mairi’s library. He knew as much as he needed. Certainly enough to prevent King Robert’s army from complete destruction at the hands of the MacDougalls after Methven. That was all that mattered.

Colin stood respectfully as his mother and his laird left the room. For now, there was no further discussion to be had. But that didn’t change anything.

At first light on the morrow, he would be on his way to Perthshire to find his king. With or without his laird’s blessing.