My Laird's Castle (24 page)

I looked down at my hands again, trying to think of a way to convince him. The brown satin of my skirts caught my eye. Certainly the distinctive ivory bodice embroidered in threads of red, gold and brown was memorable.

“This dress, Colin! Don’t you recognize it? It’s your wife’s dress.”

Colin blinked.

“My wife?”

“Yes, Mrs. Agnew loaned me your wife’s dresses. This was one of my favorites.”

“Mistress Pratt, I dinna have a wife. I have never had a wife. How could we have...fallen in love, as ye say, if I were married?”

Now I drew my brows together.

“Because you’re a widower? Didn’t she die last year? Along with...” No, I couldn’t say it.
 

“I dinna ken where ye heard that I was married. It was my sister, Lady Mary McKenna, who died last year. She and her bairn. She was widowed and had come home to live with my father. I had just returned from school for a visit when she took ill and died of a fever.”

He rose and approached me. My heart thudded. His sister! And all this time I thought he’d been mourning for his wife and child.

“So you’ve never been married?”

“As I said.” He ran a finger down the sleeve of my dress, and a chill ran up my spine.

“I remember this dress. It was one of my sister’s favorite dresses as well. I ordered it for her from Edinburgh to cheer her following the death of her husband. She wore it only a few times before she grew too large with her child.”

His expression showed grief. I remembered Mrs. Agnew had said he couldn’t be consoled at her death.

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” I said. “But doesn’t this prove that I’m telling the truth?”

He took the seat beside me on the bench, turning to look at me, almost with curiosity.

“I dinna ken what to think. I dinna ken how ye could have come by my sister’s dress, but it is a strange tale ye weave.”

“Maybe you don’t have to believe that I have traveled through time, Colin, but you do have to believe that I’m trying to save you from dying. Please stay away from Samuel.”

George entered with the tea, interrupting the moment. The butler handed me a cup and set Colin’s on the table. He spoke to Colin briefly in Gaelic before leaving the room.

“Supper is ready. Are ye hungry?”

I realized I was. I nodded, picked up my tea and moved to the table, just as I had before. While we waited for supper, we glanced at each other, but neither of us spoke again. I didn’t know what else to say, and Colin seemed lost in thought, toying with his cup.

George returned with supper, and Colin and I ate without speaking. He watched me out of the corner of his eye, but said nothing. The heavy silence wore on me, but I didn’t want to disrupt what seemed to be a softening of his suspicions of me.
 

I still didn’t know if the rebels were in the area already or not. I wanted to press the issue but didn’t dare. Colin hadn’t been particularly open about them when he knew me and loved me. I couldn’t imagine why he would speak of them now to a stranger.

For now, he was alive, and I intended to keep him that way.

When George returned, Colin spoke to him in Gaelic. Within moments, Mrs. Agnew hurried into the room. She stopped short at the sight of me. I smiled at her.

“Mrs. Agnew,” Colin began. “Mistress Pratt will be our guest for a few days. Please prepare a room for her.”

“Right away, yer lairdship.” Mrs. Agnew dipped a curtsey and turned away.

“Mrs. Agnew, a minute before ye go, please.”

She turned around and eyed us expectantly.

“Is this my sister’s dress?” Colin nodded toward me.

“How could that be possible, yer lairdship?”

“I wondered the same myself, but I believe it is. Could you examine the dress?”

 
“On the young miss, sir?”

“Aye, ye dinna have to examine the stitching. Ye knew my sister’s clothing though.”

Mrs. Agnew approached me with wary eyes, as if she expected me to jump out of my seat and attack her.
 

“May I, mistress?” I nodded, and she bent to examine the embroidery on the bodice.

She straightened and shook her head with a furrowed brow.

“Aye, yer lairdship. This was one of her ladyship’s favorite dresses, one of the dresses ye ordered from Edinburgh. How came ye by it, mistress? For I ken I stored it in a trunk after her ladyship’s death. Who could have taken it and given it to you?”

“Thank ye, Mrs. Agnew,” Colin said, dismissing her question.

Mrs. Agnew pressed her lips together and hurried out. I’m sure she went straight to wherever she stored Mary’s clothing to see if the dress was still there.

“Well?” I asked.

Colin stared at me as he had been doing for the better part of an hour.

“Mrs. Agnew verifies what I already kent. Do ye truly expect me to believe that ye come from the future, Mistress Pratt? How did ye come here? Why?”

I nodded, then shook my head.

“Yes, I do want you to believe me. I don’t know how I came here. Not really. It’s the river. I was on a bus tour of Scotland. We stopped, and I walked down to the river. I knelt and splashed water on my face, and here I was. And there you were. It’s the same way I traveled back to my time.”

“Why did ye not stay in yer time, lass?” His voice took on a gruff note. “The Highlands is a dangerous place to be right now, an unhappy place.”

I nodded.

“I know, Colin. Remember? I came back to save your life. There has been so much violence over the past few years, oppression by the English government, clan feuding, Culloden. I know how dangerous it is here.”

Against my will, but perhaps because my will demanded it, I reached for his hand on the table and covered it with my own. He did not pull away but dropped his eyes to my hand.

“And ye say I was attacked by a boy? Samuel? And mortally wounded?”

I nodded.

“Yes, his sword pierced your heart. Captain Jones brought you back down from the hills, but you were dead when you got here.”

Colin stiffened and pulled his hand from mine. I’d made a mistake.

“Captain Stephen Jones, from Fort William?” He jumped out of his seat and towered over me. “How came ye to ken Captain Jones? How came he to be involved in this Jacobite matter of which ye speak? Ye
are
an English spy, madam. Admit it.”

I stood, trying to shorten the distance between us. Frankly, Colin scared me at the moment. I didn’t think he would hurt me, but I was terrified he wouldn’t believe me.

“He had to go in search of the Jacobites, though he really didn’t want to. The same boy attacked him...or will attack him in a few days. I know this all sounds bizarre, but I’m telling you the truth.”

“If by bizarre, mistress, ye mean daft, ye are correct. I will admit that I almost believed ye for a moment, but any friend of the English army canna be a friend of mine.”

“I’m not friends with the English army!” I said sharply, my frustration rising. “And you don’t know Stephen Jones very well. He’s really a very compassionate man, and he sympathizes with the Highlanders.”

“Ha! An Englishman sympathizing with Scots? I have yet to see it. Madam, ye do yer cause nae good to speak so highly of the captain. I would wonder if it were not he that ye were in love with, and nae me.”

I opened my mouth to argue and then thought better of it. I didn’t know what to do, but I wasn’t about to let him out of my sight.

“I believe Mrs. Agnew must have yer room ready.”

And right on cue, Mrs. Agnew appeared.

“Mrs. Agnew, please see Mistress Pratt to her room.”

“No, I’m fine. I’ll just hang out here with you,” I said, planting my feet. Even if I had to watch him twenty-four hours a day for the next month, I wasn’t letting him out of my sight.

“I am weary, Mistress Pratt. I am for my own bed.”

“Good, then we’ll all walk upstairs together.”

Colin raised his eyebrows and shook his head.

“Is it yer intent to spy upon me all night?”

I nodded, and wished I hadn’t.

“To report to the English? There is naethin to report. I am a loyal subject, as was my father. See this castle?” His expression was bitter as he waved his arm to encompass the great room. “This is the proof of our loyalty.”

I bit my lip. Mrs. Agnew watched us with widened eyes, her hands clasped in front of her.

Colin returned his gaze to me.
 

“Come then,” he said, gesturing for me to precede him. “Let us retire for the night.”

Mrs. Agnew led the way out, and I followed. George stood by the door. I turned to see Colin following. We climbed the stairs, with me making frequent checks over my shoulders to check on Colin.

We stopped in front of the room Mrs. Agnew had placed me in before, the room belonging to Colin’s sister.
 

“Thank ye, Mrs. Agnew. That will be all.”

“Yes, yer lairdship,” she said with a quick curtsey. She disappeared back the way we had come.
 

Colin opened the door to the room and held it for me with a courtly bow.

“Good night, Mistress Pratt. We shall speak again tomorrow. If I must return ye to Fort William, then so be it. But ye willna have anything to report.” He started to turn away, and I grabbed his hand.
 

“I am not a spy, Colin. I am what I say I am. Just a woman who traveled through time.”

He laughed without mirth.

“It is easier to believe ye a spy than a time traveler, Mistress Pratt. Good night.”

He turned away and did not see the tears streaming down my face. I watched him walk down the hall and enter his room. I left my door open and walked over to the bed to drop onto it. I could watch the hall from my room or lay down on the floor in front of his door. Either way, I was watching the stubborn man all night long.

Chapter Eighteen

After about an hour of sitting upright on the bed, my back started to ache, and I slid down to the floor to prop myself against the bed frame. I’d heard no sounds in the hallway.
 

Another hour passed, and I felt myself start to doze off. I pulled my knees to my chest and rested my head on my knees for a second. The fire Mrs. Agnew had lit had died down, and I was growing cold, but I eschewed a blanket. I didn’t want to get too cozy.

A sound caught my ear, and I lifted my head. I looked up to see Colin standing in the doorway, still fully dressed in his plaid.

“What are ye doing, lass? Is the bed not to yer liking?” He looked into the room and eyed the fire. “Yer room grows cold with the door open. Surely ye arna watching out for me to leave my room?” He stepped inside and approached the fireplace to add wood.
 

I said nothing but stood to stretch out my legs and back. He rose from his kneeling position and faced me.

“Well?” He eyed me with a lifted eyebrow.

“Yes, I’m watching you. I’m not going to let you put yourself in danger. If you go to meet the Jacobites, that wretched group of old men and boys, I’ll try to stop you. And if I can’t, then I’m coming with you.”

He put his hands on his hips and tilted his head. How I loved him.

“Ye think ye can stop me?”

“I can try, Colin.”

He moved toward me, and I held my ground. His demeanor wasn’t threatening, but almost hesitant. He came to stand in front of me, and I tilted my head to look up at him. My heart pounded.

“Ye say ye loved me. Do ye still?”

With a catch in my breath, I nodded.

“Yes, I do.”

Before I knew what he was about, he pulled me into his arms and kissed me. I wrapped my hands around his neck and clung to him. I realized he didn’t know me, but I knew him, and that was enough.

He released me gently and stepped back.
 

“Ye might be verra easy to love, Mistress Pratt,” he said softly.

“I don’t know about that,” I said with a wry smile as my heart melted. “But you did love me.”

“Perhaps I will again,” he said, reaching out to run a finger along my cheek. “If I can believe that ye arna spying for the English.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him that he could ask Stephen himself when he showed up, but I must have been wising up. My advance knowledge of Stephen’s pending arrival would only reaffirm Colin’s belief that I was a spy.

“How can I prove it to you?” I asked.

Colin shook his head. “I dinna ken. Perhaps time,” he said, “time and trust.”

“So you’re not dragging me off to Fort William tomorrow?”

He smiled and chuckled.

“Nay, I think I must keep ye here awhile, mistress, if only to assure myself that ye are nae a spy.”

He tapped my nose with his finger and walked past me.
 

“I dinna go out this evening to engage with Jacobites or rebels or the like. Ye may close yer door.” Which he promptly did.