When Fate Dictates (33 page)

“I can read, Corran, if you recall it was me
who taught you!” he said, under his breath.

“I’m only trying to help.”

“Aye, but I am trying to concentrate and
every time I start a sentence you interrupt. Besides which, you are
going to get us thrown out of here just now with all the noise you
are making.”

“Well, excuse me for trying to help,” I
shouted, realizing too late what I had done.

An elderly woman bustled purposely toward us,
her large hips swaying from side to side as she did.

“May I just remind you that this is a public
library,” she hissed in a practiced whisper. “If you two can’t keep
the noise level down then I will have to ask you to leave...” Like
an unstoppable horse, her voice droned and on until I thought I
would slap her. The message had been clear with her first few
words, but why she had to continue I couldn’t see. Simon ignored
the woman, his eyes never straying from the page as he moved them
frantically across the words.

“Alright, I hear you,” I said, eventually
sick of the sound of her voice, “I’m going,” I shouted, grabbing my
coat off the back of my chair and making to leave. I had expected
Simon to follow me, but he didn’t, and not wanting to start another
scene, I pushed past the bossy old woman and headed for the
door.

The air outside was refreshing and cool and I
breathed deeply as I congratulated myself on a well-executed escape
from the stuffy confines of the building. The afternoon was young
and I did not intend to waste what was left of our day mulling
around the outside of the library waiting for Simon. Instead I
decided to conduct my own research into the quality of the wines
available in the various inns of York.

Several hours later – and somewhat worse for
my chosen activity – I made my way back to the banks of the river,
where I hoped I might find Simon. The sun was falling in the sky
and that glorious calm between day and night had swept over the
city. I found a bench and sat watching the water as it sparkled in
the late afternoon light. Some people on a boat waved and smiled at
me as they sailed slowly past, and a duck squawked expectantly at
my feet. My mind wandered to the day Simon and I had found Duncan
on this very river bank and the pain of grief tore at my heart as I
longed for the sight of our son. I wondered, sadly, if I would ever
see him again and prayed silently that my God would keep him
safe.

I did not hear him behind me as he
approached, nor did I feel it when he put his hand on my shoulder
but then suddenly, I knew he was there and I knew who he was, but I
turned, just the same.

“Hello again,” he said, his dark blue eyes
deep and dangerous. “How nice of you to travel so far,” he mocked,
lifting his hand off my shoulders and coming to stand in front of
me. I made to move, but his hand shot out and he grabbed my arm.
“Oh, no you don’t. You are not going anywhere. Unless it is with
me, that is,” he growled.

“You can’t keep me here,” I shouted, “Simon
will come looking for me.”

“I’m counting on it. Oh and just so you don’t
try anything stupid, the stag won’t come for you in this time.”

******

“Get up,” he ordered, pulling hard on my
arm.

“Ouch, that hurts,” I said, tugging against
him.

“Then stop resisting and just get up. I don’t
have time for nonsense.”

“You can’t make me,” I shouted back.

“Oh, I think you will find I can,” he growled
dangerously, moving his free hand into his pocket. “Do you want me
to use this?” he said, allowing me to see the knife in his
hand.

I had no wish to test his theory about the
stag. Obligingly, I rose from the bench as he painfully twisted my
arm behind my back. I could feel the sharp point of the knife in my
back as he pushed me forwards.

“You are hurting me,” I whispered.

“Then walk. I am going to release you and you
are going to hold my hand, like a lover. One false move, Corran,
and I won’t hesitate to use this knife. Do you understand me?”

I nodded fearfully, doing as he ordered.

“Now smile and look like you are enjoying
yourself.”

We crossed the river and walked into the
heart of the city. My legs felt weak and unstable as he pulled me
along the cobbled streets.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked
quietly.

“To my flat.”

“Don’t you think Simon will look for me
there?”

“Aye, he probably will, but unfortunately, he
won’t find you there, because you are not stopping. I have a
reputation to uphold in this city and I can do without any
awkwardness to explain. Don’t worry, he will find you, eventually,”
he said, laughing.

“Can’t you just leave us alone?” I asked.

“Sadly, no. Now enough chit-chat. This is my
shop.” he said, slotting a key into a glass-paned door and pushing
me through it. Night was falling fast and the light in the room was
not good and I stumbled on something as he dragged me toward a
door. Putting my hand out to steady myself, I felt something cold
and hard beneath my fingers, and instinctively curled my hand over
the object. “Go on, get up the stairs.” he said, slamming the door
behind us.

“I can’t see a thing, it’s too dark,” I
protested.

He released his hold on me and lifted his arm
above my head. Swiftly, I slipped the object into the pocket of my
trousers as a staircase lit up before me.

“Thank you,” I said.

“Just get up there,” he barked.

At the top of the stairs was another door
which he opened and pushed me through. A sterile, cold space
greeted me as he flicked the light switch. There were no rugs, no
cushions, and no curtains. The floor was a highly polished wood and
on it stood a settee, a glass-topped table, a light wooden cabinet
and a bookcase. The walls were a stark white with nothing but a
large television mounted on it and from the ceiling hung a shiny
steel lampshade with a single bulb in the middle. I scanned the
books on the bookcase for clues about the man and then I spotted
it, a tiny book with the title of ‘Highland Magic’.

He let go of me and moved back toward the
door, slipping a key into the lock he turned it. “Right, stay
here,” he said, slipping the key into his pocket and heading toward
another door. He opened it and disappeared through it. I moved as
quickly as I could to the bookcase and slid the book into the
inside pocket of my jacket. It was small, but I still had to fold
it down the middle to get it in the pocket.

“What are you doing?” he said, reappearing
through the door.

“Nothing,” I said, trying to hide the guilt
from my face. “I was just looking at your books.”

“Well don’t, they are none of your
business.”

He moved to the table and placed a single
candle in its centre. I knew immediately what he was doing.

“Where are you taking me?” I screamed
hysterically.

“Somewhere where you can’t give me any more
grief. Now, come here,” he said, grabbing hold of my arm.

“Leave me alone, damn you.”

He lit a match and held it to the candle; a
flame burst from the wick as he dropped the match and reached into
his pocket. Still holding my arm, he set a tiny box onto the table,
flipping its lid off with his thumb; he removed the oval crystal
and held it to the light. This time I was ready and steadied myself
as I watched the silver thread connect between the flame and the
crystal. The room swam around me, faster and faster and I knew that
we were leaving this place but I had no idea where he was taking
me. Like a whirlwind, the air around us swam in an ever tightening
circle until it stopped and my eyes focused on the face of my son,
Duncan.

“Duncan?”

“Oh, didn’t I mention,” Angus laughed, “I
have your son as well.”

“Let him go!” I insisted.

“Now why would I want to do that?” he said,
still laughing.

“Because when Simon finds out that you have
kidnapped his son as well as his wife, he will kill you,” I said
slowly and deliberately.

“Oh, you think, do you woman?” he replied
seriously, “Let me tell you what I think is going to happen shall
I?”

“And what makes you think I care what
thoughts you have?” I spat.

He smiled at me. “Because I am going to kill
you and your husband and your son, oh, and this pathetic little
mortal as well,” he said, pointing to Eilidh, who was crouched in a
darkened corner of the room.

“What time are we in?” I asked.

“That is for me to know and for you to find
out. Now, I have other things to do beside babysit you lot,” he
said, removing a candle and match from his pocket. He backed away
from us and set the candle on the floor, striking the match he held
it to the wick. I moved toward him but before I could reach the
candle he had whipped his knife out and had it pointed at me.
“Don’t even think about it woman,” he growled, setting the crystal
in the palm of his free hand and moving it slowly toward the light.
Then there was loud noise and blaze of light and he was gone but
the candle still burned gently in the corner of the room. I rushed
toward it and blew it out, grabbing the box of matches he had
thrown on the floor and slipping them into my coat pocket.

“What are you doing ma?” Duncan asked.

“Trying to save the candle before it burns
away,” I said, turning to give my son a big hug, “Oh, Duncan and
Eilidh, I am so sorry,” I said, trying to hold back tears from my
eyes.

“It’s not your fault, ma,” Duncan said.

“How long have you been here?” I asked.

“A couple of hours,” Eilidh replied.

“I take it you have looked for a way out?” I
asked, scanning the room for myself. “Well at least I can answer
one question,” I said, running my hand along the floor. “See this
rug?”

Eilidh and Duncan nodded in unison. “Aye,
what about it ma?”

“It’s called a carpet and it most certainly
comes for the time your pa and I were in. I don’t think Angus has
moved us in time, just in location.”

“Another time?” Eilidh said, wrinkling her
nose in disbelief, “How can you move time?”

“I don’t think it’s that you move time so
much as that you move from one time to another. That is what
happened to pa and me. The crystal somehow took us to a time a long
way in the future from where we were and we have been there ever
since.”

“We thought you had died, ma,” Duncan said,
quietly.

“No, darling, your pa and I are still very
much alive, but if we want to stay that way, then I think we need
to start doing some serious thinking.”

“What can we do?” Eilidh asked, moving to sit
beside me on the cream woolen carpet.

“Well the first thing we need to do is to
figure out as much as we can about the place we are in.”

“What do you mean ma? There is nothing to see
but a tiny window, and there is not much to be seen out of it. I
have tried, but all I can see are hills.”

“Aye, well that is a good start. Could we be
in Scotland?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know ma, we could be,
but the window is so small that it’s hard to make anything out,” he
said, moving his eye close to the glass.

“The walls are stark white,” said Eilidh.

I turned to face the girl. “Say that again?”
I said.

“Say what?” she said.

“What you just said?” I shouted.

“The walls are stark white,” she
repeated.

“That’s it!” I exclaimed, “This is not just a
hiding place for him, this is his.”

“Whose ma? I don’t follow you,” said Duncan,
coming to sit beside me and Eilidh.

“Angus, it’s his house. I have seen walls
like this before, in his flat in York.”

“In his what?” asked Duncan.

“Flat. Oh sorry, it’s a kind of small house,”
I said by way of simple explanation. “But that doesn’t matter. I am
sure this room belongs to Angus, look at the carpets, stark, cold,
sterile. The man’s house is the same.”

“Sterile?” said Duncan and Eilidh together,
“ma you are talking with words we don’t understand,” said
Duncan.

“Sorry darling. Sterile means clean, very
clean. Now if this place belongs to Angus we can learn something
about it. Think, both of you, of anything that could help us get
out of here before your pa comes looking for us and Angus kills us
all.”

But we thought of nothing. The moon was
rising high in the night sky as I squinted out of the tiny window,
trying to catch a glimpse of something, anything that would give me
a clue as to our location. But there was nothing but the moon in a
partially clouded sky. If Simon had been here, he could have told
us exactly where we were, just by looking at the stars, but I
didn’t share his gift for star gazing. The room felt as though it
was growing smaller and hotter and I pulled at the collar of my
blouse, trying to catch some air. My throat tightened and my heart
raced as I felt the growing need to escape the confines of the
room. I took a deep breath remembering what Simon had told me the
night we hid from the Red Coats, but still my heart raced so fast I
thought it would explode. I put my hand up to the glass and touched
its cool surface, longing to claw my way through it. I breathed, a
deep, desperate breath hoping that it would stop the racing of my
heart and then I stopped and turned to see my son asleep on the
floor next to Eilidh and I knew how we could escape this place.

“Duncan, Eilidh, wake up,” I urged, running
across the room toward them.

Duncan sat bolt upright immediately, “Ma,
what is it?”

“It’s alright Duncan, nothing to panic over,
but I know how we can get out of here.”

Eilidh rubbed her eyes sleepily. “Has he come
back?” she said, scanning the dark room with her eyes.

“No, Eilidh, he’s not back, but I do know how
we are going to get out of here.”