Love Beyond Time (Morna's Legacy Series) (17 page)

“I think they were a warning or an omen of what’s to come. As terrible as it is, it’s nothing compared to what will happen to everyone else, unless we stop them. The fire at the wedding was the first warning, the horses the second, I don’t know if there will be a third.”

Eoin stood and grasped my forearms, lifting me so that I stood in front of him. He gently wrapped his arms around me in apology. “Thank ye for telling me all ye know, lass. I doona see how I have any choice but to believe ye, and I’m glad ye are no a witch. We shall work together to find whoever poses a threat, aye? And then once our safety is secured, we’ll find a way to send ye back to yer own time. Though, I must say, I will miss . . .” He said no more, letting his words span the distance now growing between us.

I allowed myself to fall into him, letting my head lie firmly against his chest as I wrapped my arms around his waist. “Deal. I’m sorry for not telling you sooner. I’d forgotten about the ruins, forgotten about everything but trying to get home.”

He placed one of his large hands on my head, calming me as you would a small child. “Hush, lass. I doona think I would’ve believed ye, unless I’d walked in on ye in these awful rags. The truth has come out as it was meant to. Now, we have no choice but to make the best of it. We are all too tired to speak more of this now. Let’s all find our way to our own beds and sleep a while. We can discuss this more at the evening meal. Today shall be a day of little activity around the castle, I expect. We’ve all had a day of it. Aye?”

I nodded against his chest and pulled out of his embrace as Arran stood from his place on the ground, coming alive for the first time since I’d stopped talking.

“Does this mean Blaire is in the time and place that ye came from?” The pain and fear on his face was evident, and I finally understood why Arran had seemed so displeased with me over the past few weeks. He loved Blaire, and it had hurt him to see me so pleased in Eoin’s company when he thought her heart was his.

“I assume so. I expect she’s with my mother. If that’s the case, you have no reason to worry about her. She will be working just as hard as we are to get us switched back. I’m sure my mother’s also thrilled to speak to someone she’s devoted her life to learning about.”

“Forgive me, lass, if that does nothing to ease me mind.” As he turned and walked out of the room, I said a silent prayer that Blaire was safe and in the overbearing arms of my mother.

* * *

Present Day

“Is it really true what ye say about women reading and writing in this time? Can most of them really do it? I can, but only because I begged Father until he agreed to let me learn. Very few women are allowed to do so.”

Adelle grinned at what must have been at least Blaire’s one thousandth question of the day. Over the past weeks, they’d spent every day working through the contents of the old spell room, and while they’d learned that a spell had caused the switch, they’d yet to find one that would switch the two girls back. “Yes, all children are taught to read now, and they all go to school from the age of five until they’re eighteen. A woman doesn’t have to be married to find success in this time. I divorced my husband nearly twenty-five years ago, and haven’t been married a day since, and I think I’m doing just fine.”

“Aye, I believe that ye are.”

“I think we are both about to be doing even better, Blaire! I think that this might be the right spell.” Adelle stared down at the faded, aging page, double-checking to make sure she was translating the Gaelic inscriptions correctly.

“Do ye think so? What will we have to do?”

“Yes, this is it. She even wrote notes in the margins about what she intended to use the spell for. It’s amazing really. She knew that Bri would be born, and that the two of you would look identical. She hoped that by switching the two of you, Bri could help stop the tragedy that befell everyone at Conall castle all those years ago.”

“Do ye think that she can?”

“I don’t know. I hope she’s listened to me speak of this enough to know that she’s approaching the time of the tragedy. But I don’t intend to wait and see if she stops it. We are switching the two of you back as soon as we can gather the materials.” Adelle didn’t miss how Blaire’s smile shifted into a rather uncomfortable position at the mention of returning home. The girl’s heart was hurting from something recent, and although Adelle didn’t know the cause of her pain, she’d seen the same expression on her own daughter’s face enough times to recognize it.

“What do we need?” Blaire moved about the small room, trying to look as helpful as possible.

“Most of the items shouldn’t be too difficult to find. Herbs and things grown locally, which I’m sure Gwendolyn will have no problem helping us locate. We also need the portrait, which we already have. The only thing that we don’t have is Alasdair’s ring. Morna says here that she gave it to him, and that he would’ve passed it down to Eoin. We didn’t find any such item in our original dig, so we better hope that it’s down here in this room somewhere, or we may have a problem.”

“Oh, doona worry yet. We’ve spent our time looking through the books that could hold the location of the ring.”

Adelle leaned to the left as Blaire approached her right-hand side, giving the girl a better view of the spell.

“Adelle, did ye see this? It looks as if the spell may only work for a short time.”

“What?” Adelle leaned forward to stare down at the page once more, her veins suddenly flooded with panic. Sure enough, scribbled in tiny Gaelic letters, the paper stated that once the original spell had been set into motion, it could only be reversed until midnight of the night before the anniversary of the massacre.

One month from today.

* * *

1645

Just passing through on his way back to Kinnaird Castle, the stranger sat silently in the back of the tavern. He watched as Arran Conall downed one goblet of whiskey after another, until he couldn’t begin to contemplate how the lad was still conscious, let alone rambling on as he was doing.

“I doona think I should give ye another, lad. Ye are far enough gone into the cup as it is, aye?”

The stranger listened in as the tavern master tried to discourage the lad from drinking more.

“Nay, not nearly far gone enough,” Arran argued. “We shall all be dead within the month, according to my brother’s wife, and I dare say I’ve no had nearly enough to drink to let me forget that.”

The stranger stood and slipped quietly outside into the cold night air. It was time he finished his journey with haste.

He had very interesting news to share with his master.

Chapter 24

Morning brought particular success down in the spell room and we’d only been working for a short amount of time. We’d finally found the spell book with the title that matched the one I’d been trying to sound out when Eoin walked in on me a few days earlier.

The process of searching through the Gaelic books in the spell room moved much more quickly once Eoin knew the truth. Since our heart-to-heart a few days prior, our days were spent either in the spell room sifting through books or meeting with Arran to discuss the best way to find out who was to be responsible for the upcoming tragedy.

It was nice to live openly among them and to finally be able to behave normally. It seemed to me that the friendship I shared with Eoin grew stronger with each passing day. I enjoyed every moment I spent with him, and the realization made me even more anxious to return home before I surrendered my heart completely.

I hovered uncomfortably around the spell room while Eoin read each page, searching for whatever spell might be helpful. I was unsure of how to help, most of the books already having been gone through, and found myself staring at him while he worked.

God, he really was beautiful. I’d never in my twenty-eight years in the twenty-first century seen a man that looked so much like a man. He oozed masculinity, but not in a way that seemed to diminish his intelligence. He was smart as a whip, no doubt, and his eyes displayed a sort of hidden kindness; the kind that, while hard to get to, would change your world if you were able to get him to open up and show you his true self.

He must have felt me staring at him, and he turned to catch me red-faced as I scrambled to look as if I were doing something productive.

“Come here, lass. This is it.”

I walked over to his side, surprised when he turned toward me, opening his arms and prompting me to sit on his knee. Hesitantly, I took a seat, trying to think of spilled finger paint, runny noses, and sticky fingers; anything to keep me from concentrating on the hard chiseled body I now found wrapped around my own.

“What does it say?”

“This is the spell she used. See, her own notes are written along here.” He grabbed my hand from my lap and, using his hand, guided my fingers along the side of the page. Tingles swam over every inch of my body.
Cheetos in the carpet, boogers on the chair backs, pink eye outbreak
. No thought helped.

“I see. Will it work to switch us back?”

“Aye. I think it will.” He didn’t let go of my hand as he continued. “We need a few items. Mary can locate most of them. But it speaks of my father’s ring, and I doona know where that is. I believe he always meant to leave it to me, but his death was sudden, and I doona think it crossed his mind.”

“Well, we can find it, right?”

“Ach, lass. I suppose we shall have to. But it says something else as well.”

I looked up into his eyes, waiting for him to continue.

“The spell will only work until midnight on the twenty-eighth of December, then ye canna return home.”

“Well, we have to find it by then anyway. That’s right around when they think the massacre happens.”

“Aye, we shall. Doona worry. Knowledge is the best defense we could have. It willna come to that.”

His left hand laid casually upon my knee while his right wrapped around my back, his palm now resting just above my hip on the curve of my waist. He squeezed me in closer to him, drawing his right hand up to my shoulder so that it brought the side of my face closer to his lips.

“I know I’ve given ye no more than trouble, lass, but I shall be sorry to see ye go.” With that he leaned in as if to kiss the side of my cheek, and I nearly turned us both onto the floor with my quick leap out of his lap.

“Yes. I’ll be a little sad too. I think of you, and Mary, and Arran as friends, and it will be odd to no longer get to see you.” I awkwardly patted him on the shoulder and turned abruptly to make my way out of the spell room, cursing my heated cheeks with each step. I knew they’d given me away.

* * *

Kinnaird Castle

“Why would the lass have told him such a thing? She has no way of knowing they will be attacked.”

“I doona know, sir. I’m only telling ye what I heard. Arran said that Eoin’s new bride believed they’d be dead within the month.”

“Perhaps she’s got more brains about her than I would’ve expected, being Donal’s daughter. The old sot is the silliest fool in the shire. She must’ve known that the fire and horses were to serve as warnings.”

“Aye. I suppose she must’ve, though Arran dinna seem to know what the lass meant. He was quite drunk; I could no understand how he was still conscious.”

“Aye? Well ye did right by making haste to come tell me. Now go, and keep in mind what will happen to ye and yer family if word of our conversation spreads.”

Ramsay watched as the man turned and made his way out of the room. He’d intended to warn them, to make them fear what was coming, but now that he knew the Conalls were suspicious, he found himself less comfortable with the idea of a straightforward attack.

“Gregory, find yer way in here at once!”

Quickly the man burst through the doorway and stood before Ramsay, awaiting his instructions.

“Ye are the most cunning lad I have in my command. Ye know how to surprise an enemy, how to throw them off course of yer plan. I need ye to advise me on a matter.”

“Of course, sire.”

“We will soon be planning an attack against Conall Castle. It is my intention to destroy all who reside under the castle’s protection. It seems Eoin and his brother have heard news of a possible attack, and I doona want them to suspect us in any way.”

Ramsay watched as the young lad took in the news with a look of shock. An attack on Conall Castle would be a surprise to all who served him. The two clans had been allies for decades.

“Give them cause to suspect another clan. Send me to Conall Castle, but dress me in the tartan of a distant clan. I will say I am a runaway criminal, seeking refuge with the clan for the information I bring to them. I will tell them that my laird is planning to attack them.”

Ramsay clasped the boy on the shoulders. “Aye, perfect. Ride out come morning.”

Chapter 25

“Where’s Arran? I haven’t seen him all day.” I sat down in my usual place as we gathered for the evening meal. I’d spent the day with Mary, gathering the herbs needed for the spell, while Eoin had searched through Alasdair’s things looking for the ring. Although I’d finished the day with an armload of needed herbs, Eoin’s hunt had been less successful.

“I sent him to the village to see if any travelers or townspeople might have heard anything about a possible attack. He was also going to meet with some men to discuss our defenses. It will be important to let the villagers know so that we can be as prepared as possible.”

“Good idea, but we will figure out who’s planning the attack and stop it before it gets to that point.” I gave him a reassuring smile across the table, quickly averting my eyes when his smile turned upward at the corner, his eyes staring flirtatiously.

I simply couldn’t allow myself to get any more attached to him than I already was. If someone had told me six months ago I would be doing everything I could to “friend zone” a man this good looking, I would have thought they were out of their mind, but that was exactly what I was dead set on doing until I made it back home. He was making it incredibly difficult.