Reunited (Book 2 of Lost Highlander series) (7 page)

He caught the jeans as they whizzed past his head and started to pull them on. She focused on a point on the wall above his left shoulder. When he’d managed to get them on, he stumbled over to her and took her by the shoulders, trying to get her to look at him.

“Piper, I was scared of something that had to do with ye,” he said, shaking her a little.

She looked up at him. “With me? But how?”

He wiped his hand over his face. “Can we no’ go to the village?” he pleaded. “I want so desperately to be with ye for as long as I can.”

She stared at him and refused to budge.

“Piper, I think we must go back. Something went wrong in my time. I think I may have made a grave mistake.”

He let go of her shoulders and his whole body slumped. He pressed his hand against his forehead as if he were trying to rid himself of a headache.

“Lachlan, are you sick?” she asked, taking his hand away and feeling his head for fever.

The illness had started before as a headache, and even though he didn’t think he could get sick from time travel anymore, she couldn’t help but be gripped with fear.

He looked at the ceiling as if for answers from on high and shook his head.

“I dinna know how much time we have, or if everything is fine or not,” he said, his voice tinged with anguish. “I was so glad to see ye alive and well, I wanted to believe it may have worked itself out.”

“What?” she cried, trying to shake the answers out of him.

He was as reticent and unyielding as a mountain.

“I think ye may be in danger,” he said finally, his voice low and harsh. “That time may change and ye may no’ be born.”

All of the air seemed to get sucked out of her. Before she could get a breath or even a coherent thought to reply, the chime of the doorbell she’d recently had installed tinkled its way up to her room.

They both stared at each other, Lachlan stricken and pale, then they both turned toward the sound of the doorbell.

“Sam and Evie, no doubt,” Piper said blankly and turned to go let them in.

She heard Lachlan follow her, but she didn’t turn around.

“Come in, hurry,” Piper said, opening the door.

She squeezed Evie in a welcoming death grip after she pulled her into the front hall.

Evie looked as fantastic as ever—a tall, voluptuous, red haired glamazon. She’d come into her gorgeous good looks as a late bloomer, and as such, didn’t act like someone who knew she was pretty.

Lachlan and Sam exchanged manly claps on the back and shook hands. Sam couldn’t seem to believe his eyes and kept clearing his throat and laughing nervously.

“Piper, are you okay?” Evie asked, peering into her face. Piper still felt stunned from Lachlan’s revelation and was having trouble concentrating. “You look a little green,” Evie said, and then started to go green herself, as if in sympathy to Piper’s shock.

“Go.” Piper pointed to the nearest bathroom, and Evelyn took off running, retching sounds reverberating from behind the closed door.

“We had to stop twice,” Sam said, looking concerned. “I hope whatever she has passes quickly.”

Piper snorted, and then winced at his shocked look at her seeming lack of concern.

 “We need to get a little food on her stomach,” she said.

She yelled through the bathroom door for Evelyn to meet them in the kitchen and then headed in that direction, giving the men no other choice but to follow her.

After Lachlan’s bombshell, she felt as if she we were slogging through knee deep water, as if an unseen clock was ticking down and she could slip under at any moment. She forced herself to remain calm, at least until she knew all the details.

When they were all gathered in the kitchen, she looked out the window to see the stable workers busily airing out the barn. A man she assumed was a fire inspector was waving his arms around and pointing while Pietro stood by. She knew he would be distressed and she knew she should eventually get down there and help deal with things, but she couldn’t seem to shake the sense that she was under a noose.

She pushed a plate of crackers in front of Evie, who groaned and shook her head.

“Eat them,” Piper demanded, looking meaningfully at her best friend.

She would out her, Evie knew she would, if she didn’t eat the damn crackers and quit throwing up all over the place. Evie seemed to absorb all this from Piper’s glare and started nibbling.

“Now, you,” she said, turning to Lachlan, who looked like he was on the verge of throwing up as well. She took his hand. “Tell us what happened.”

She turned to Sam and Evie, who was now on her third cracker and seemed better already. “Try to keep up, okay?”

Lachlan looked around at everyone and took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly, then wrinkled up his brow and started confessing.

“Well, it was around the time I was learning from the herb woman, Agnes,” he began. “All the time, guests were arriving for the feast. There were dozens of bloody Glens and their cousins trickling in from all over Scotland. I couldna keep up with them all until one day a particular young lass arrived home.”

“What was so particular about her?” Piper asked a little saucily.

Evelyn smiled at her and got up to rummage in the refrigerator for more food.

“She was away visiting a relative. I had no’ seen her since she was a wee lass. Her name is Isobel Glen.” Lachlan said the name with some fanfare and everyone stared at him. “Her married name would be Isobel Glen Mckellen.”

He looked around and was still faced with blank looks. He sighed. “Do ye remember when we went down into the crypt and ye told me to wait behind for ye?” he asked Piper and she nodded.

She’d had to go down into the crypt, had actually been compelled by her dead ancestor Daria to go to Daria’s tomb and get information that would let her do the spell needed for time travelling. She’d brought Lachlan with her and made him stay in another room, fearing Daria’s spirit wouldn’t want him around.

“Aye, well, I was in the crypt for quite some time waiting for ye,” he said. “I learned quite a lot about yer ancestry.”

“Isobel Glen is your direct ancestor,” Sam said, finally snapping to it. “Of course. She’s on the family tree we were working on.”

“You’re working on a family tree?” Evie said, sitting back down with a plate of green grapes and more crackers. Her eyes filled with tears. “That’s really sweet.”

Piper and Sam stared at her agog, and Piper wanted to reach over and thump her one, but she mustn’t hit a pregnant woman, even if her pregnancy hormones were making her a distracted nutcase.

“Aye, Isobel Glen is Piper’s great-great-great …“ Lachlan trailed off and looked to Sam, the supreme nerd of such things.

“How far removed is that?” Piper asked, trying to do the math in her head and going cross-eyed.

“Thirteen generations?” Sam pondered, then shrugged. “We can look on the tree and figure it out later. At any rate, it’s a ways back.”

“So you met my great etcetera grandmother,” Piper said, nudging Lachlan to continue. She slapped her hand over her mouth. “Did you accidentally … ?”

“No!” Lachlan said. “I didna accidentally kill yer many times great-granny.” He looked down and twisted his hands together. “She was going to be getting betrothed at the celebration feast. All the ladies were aflutter with it. But, I remembered from the crypt, the name of her husband, and it wasna this man they were all speaking of.”

Piper sucked in her breath. “What did you do?”

Lachlan looked down, then up, anywhere but at her. She glanced warily at Sam and Evie, and they both shrugged.

“I tried to find the man she was supposed to marry, but it was as if he didna exist. I asked everyone at the castle, I sent out messengers to neighboring lands. No one knew of him or for that matter, his family. He simply didna exist!”

Piper laid her hand on his arm to calm him. “Do you think maybe this guy was her first husband? Maybe he died a year later without her having any children, or something like that. Maybe her second husband was my ancestor.”  

Lachlan looked tormented. “In truth, I didna think of that,” he said quietly, almost to himself. His face paled and he rubbed his temples. “Piper, my love,” he started and stopped.

“What did you do?” she asked, barely a strangled whisper.

He was silent for several long moments, head in his hands. Then with a long sigh, he nodded once, as if to give himself courage.

“I threatened the man she was meant to be promised to, and he left in the middle of the night.”

“Lachlan, you’ve changed history,” Piper said.

Sam had an open mouthed look of horror on his face. “Can you get him back?” he asked.

“No,” Lachlan said. “It is done, I am afraid.”

They all sat around the bar, grimly staring back and forth. Sam got up and raced from the kitchen, returning before anyone could muster any questions. He slapped down a large, rolled up piece of paper, smoothing it down on the bar.

“Piper’s family, so far as we’ve gotten,” he said, pointing to a branch on the spottily filled out genealogical chart. “This is Isobel Glen. She was married to Connor McKellen in 1730, but we don’t know the exact date. Poor record keepers, your lot,” he said irritably, and not for the first time. “What year was it when you left, mate?” he asked Lachlan. “Still 1729, or are you running concurrent with us?”

“It has been six weeks since I left here the first time. It was October of 1729,” Lachlan answered.

“Six weeks?” Piper said. “It’s been six months for me.”

“It must skip around. It was the same with Evelyn and me when we got knocked back. At any rate it seems there’s still time,” Sam said. “Hopefully,” he added.

“Time for what?” Evie asked. She reached across the bar and took Piper’s hand.

“Time to find Connor McKellen and make sure he marries Isobel.”

***

Piper swung open the bedroom door and let Evelyn go in ahead of her. They had left Lachlan and Sam downstairs to study the family tree and pore over old ledgers looking for any mention of the slippery and mysterious Connor McKellen.

Evelyn had started nodding off over her cup of cocoa and Piper called it a night, barely getting a grunt from either one of the men when they left the kitchen, they were so absorbed in their studies.

“The room is pretty much the same as last time, although you’ll be pleased to know I renovated the bathroom. It’s got a whirlpool bath now. No more leaky shower.”

Evelyn sighed and sat on the enormous four poster bed. Piper tossed her small suitcase by the wardrobe and sat down next to her.

“How far along are you?” she asked.

Evie sighed again and flopped backwards onto the overstuffed mattress, almost disappearing into its squishy depths. “About eight weeks,” she said.

“Eight weeks!” Piper repeated in astonishment, giving her a dirty look. “And you’re only just telling me?”

“I called you about twelve seconds after I took the test. I thought I was late from stress over my thesis, which—ugh.” Evie rolled over and hoisted herself back up, pulling up her legs to hug her knees. She looked miserable.

“You don’t work at Hoochie Mama’s anymore do you?” Piper said, picturing her godchild in one of those little baby backpacks while Evie pranced around in a tiny pleather mini skirt and tube top.

“No, I quit. I couldn’t make my unborn child go into a strip club. So now I’m unemployed, single and pregnant.”

“Aren’t you happy?” Piper asked.

She was so happy and excited for Evie, she forgot that Evie might not feel the same.

Evie furrowed her brow and shrugged. After a moment, a tremulous smile wavered across her face.

“Yes, I think so. Yes. It’s just such a shock.”

“Why didn’t you tell Sam? He thinks you have the flu or something.”

Evie laughed. “I know. He was afraid to kiss me at the airport. I couldn’t tell him in the car, or at the cafe we stopped at on the way here. He stopped at the same place as when we first met. Isn’t he romantic?” she sniffed and wiped away a tear.

“He’s amazing. He adores you. Why are you so scared to tell him?” Piper asked, rummaging in the bedside table drawer for tissues.

“I don’t know. What if he thinks I’m trying to trap him?” She took a tissue and gave a honking blow.

“He’s not going to think that. For one, nobody thinks that way anymore, and two, he owns a bookstore in a village of about twelve hundred people. If anything, he’s trapping you! Quite honestly, you could probably do better than him, even knocked up.”

“Shut up,” Evie wailed. “We’ve hardly been together six months, and it’s unplanned, and I still have to finish my damn degree …”

“Evelyn, you’re always so dramatic about everything. So the timing isn’t perfect, but it certainly wouldn’t be the first unplanned pregnancy in history. And you’ve been crying about your damn degree for three years now. Defend your bloody thesis and be done with it already, then move here and live happily ever after with Sam.”

“But—”

“You’re acting like you’re some sad teen mom. You’re twenty-six. I’ll be twenty-six in a few months. We’re grown ups now. Grown ups settle down and have kids. In fact, I’ve decided I’m going to get pregnant, too.”