Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
Moonlight bathed the beautiful shoreline in silvery light, turning the freshwater pools into mirrors. The snow had stopped falling, but it lay thick on the ground, even blanketing the sand. The salt of the sea would eventually eat away at it, but, for now, the world looked ethereal.
“Am I only allowed out under cover of darkness?” Adeline asked, walking beside Logan. His tall frame and broad body blocked most of the wind that whipped up the beach, prompting her to walk closer to him than she might’ve otherwise.
He nodded down at her hair. “Until ye get rid of that purple in yer hair, aye.”
“I’ve been growing this out for years,” she muttered. “And it’s not like you have a salon nearby.”
“A what?”
She waved a dismissive hand. “Never mind. It’s… a place people go to, to get their hair cut and styled.” She groaned. “The best part is the massage. They get shampoo, and they just…” She closed her eyes, thinking happy thoughts.
“Shampoo?”
Her eyes opened again. “You wash your hair with it.”
“So, soap nuts?”
“Excuse me?”
The ghost of a smile appeared on his lips. “The chestnut trees grow in the middle of the island. They drop chestnuts that we pound up into a powder and wash our hair with it.”
She cast a sneaky glance at his hair. Even tied back, it looked glossy and in good condition. So, maybe there was something to be said for these soap nuts.
“If I cut the purple out of my hair, will you let me go to the northern part of the island, to speak to the people?” she asked, forcing herself to look away.
Staring at Logan for too long had a curious effect on her entire body, making her feel warm and cold at the same time, her heart beating faster, her stomach fluttering, her skin flushing with warmth. All symptoms of a commonplace crush—nothing that couldn’t be fixed with some visual discipline.
Logan furrowed his brow. “I daenae ken if it would be safe for ye. The curse might affect ye.”
“But it’s not a curse,” she insisted. “It’s clearly an illness of some kind.”
“I’ll consider it,” he replied, a few moments later.
She smiled, pleased. “What would our cover story be?”
“Pardon?”
She took a breath, trying hard not to feel frustrated. “What would we tell people, so they don’t think I’m a witch or a Catholic?”
She was astonished by how quickly she’d recovered from the initial shock of being three-hundred-plus years in the past. The moment she’d woken up and discovered that she was still in 1705, and not in a hospital bed or her apartment in 2023, it was like an acceptance had fallen over her.
A sort of, “if I can’t beat it, join it,” mindset. She was well aware that it was probably some kind of coping mechanism, or some residual shock making her numb to the insanity of it all, but she much preferred it to the previous night’s panic.
“Well, to begin, we’ll have to explain yer unusual way of speakin’,” Logan said. “I thought ye were Welsh when ye first spoke to me, so we’ll have to pretend ye’re that. As for the rest…” He paused, turning his gaze toward the mirror black sea. “I suppose we could say that ye’re me guest. A healer I’ve summoned here from Wales, famed for yer ability to lift curses.”
She huffed out a breath. “It’s not a curse.”
“Aye, perhaps not, but it’ll be easier for them to understand if ye call it that,” Logan argued, resting his hand on the small of her back, steering her toward an outcrop of cliffs in the near distance.
The touch made her jump, her body torn between putting distance between them and enjoying the warm sensation of his palm. It radiated through the cloak he’d put on her, tingling up her spine and into her head, where all sorts of ideas popped up without warning.
Presumably, the people here didn’t bathe in their clothes, after all. What harm could there be in some casual skinny-dipping with a tall, ridiculously handsome Scotsman who, in her own words, was exactly what she’d have dreamed up?
I might as well enjoy this… unexpected Christmas vacation .
Thinking of it that way, as if she’d just gone out to a cabin in the woods for some peace and quiet instead of into the past, made it easier to fathom.
“Can I ask ye somethin’?”
Adeline shrugged. “You’re the mighty Laird of this place. I can’t stop you.”
“What did ye say ye were doin’ before ye arrived here? Ye mentioned a snow globe, but I daenae ken what that is. Is it… somethin’ magical, where ye hail from? Somethin’ yer people have created to jump through time?”
Adeline snorted, picturing that snow globe sitting on the mantelpiece in her family home, brimming with secrets, and her mother telling her that it made wishes come true. It still felt like nonsense to her, but, thus far, she had no other way of explaining what had happened to her. The only common denominator was the snow globe.
Maybe when the lights had gone out, there’d been a surge of electricity through the snow globe that had somehow sent her back in time. The how of it was something she still couldn’t wrap her head around, and maybe it was better not to. Physics had never been her strong suit.
“It’s just a ball of glass with little flakes of glitter and plastic that make the inside look like it’s snowing when you shake it. Not magical, as far as I know, though I’m starting to think I don’t know anything about the universe,” she replied.
He pursed his lips. “I see.”
“Do you? ‘Cause I don’t.” She sighed.
“It means ye daenae ken how to get back to where ye belong.”
A shiver ran through her, his words cutting too close to the bone. “I suppose it does. Still, at least while I am here, I get to be a guest instead of a captive. Silver linings.”
He glanced down at her. “Ye still cannae wander where ye please.”
“I know, I know, gilded cage and all that,” she drawled, refusing to explain.
At last, they reached the freshwater pools, sheltered from the wind by the dramatic cliffs above, which curved around the rocky ground where the pools shone. There seemed to be caves inside the cliffs, piquing her curiosity—but first, she needed to slough away the fatigue of a three-hundred-year-long journey.
“How do I do this?” she asked coyly, taking his proffered hand as he led her carefully across the slippery rocks. His palm was rough, warm against her cold skin.
He stopped at a large pool, the water crystal clear. And around the edge, natural seats had been carved by time and, presumably, backsides. “What do ye mean?”
“How do I bathe here?” She let go of his hand, feeling suddenly self-conscious.
He smirked. “Ye shed yer clothes and ye slip in.”
Don’t say things like that.
Her skin was so feverish that she couldn’t feel the cold at all. Her breathing became uneven, her stomach fluttering with a fresh vengeance, imagining what sort of lover he might be.
She had limited experience, but he exuded an energy, a masculine power that suggested it would be the best night of her life.
“I willnae look,” he assured her. “Ye can give me yer clothes, and I’ll make sure they daenae get wet.”
To prove his point, he turned his back to her, his hand stretched out behind him to receive her clothes. Adeline pulled a face and waved her hand, to make sure he wasn’t peeking. Once she was certain, she wiggled out of the skirts she’d borrowed from the guest room’s armoire and peeled off her jumpsuit.
She put the garments into Logan’s hand but hesitated when it came to her panties. Deciding to go with the flow, she shimmied out of them and, with a nervous breath, put them with the rest of her clothes.
That done, she crouched low, bracing her hands against the sides of the pool, and slid one leg into the water. An involuntary scream spilled out of her lips.
“What is it? Were ye bit by somethin’?” Logan’s voice dragged her stunned gaze up to him. He didn’t have his back turned anymore.
“You said you wouldn’t look!” she shrieked, slipping the rest of the way into the water.
The cold was brutal, zapping through her body like electricity.
She covered her breasts with her hands and turned her back to him, glaring over her shoulder. “I’m starting… to think… this was your plan all… along!” she said through chattering teeth. “You just… wanted to see me… naked.”
Outrage flashed across his face. “I thought ye’d been hurt. I wouldnae just peek on ye without yer permission!” He shook his head. “Honestly, I’m nae some savage brute, Adeline.”
“Well, you’re still looking,” she shot back, sinking lower into the pool until only her neck and head were above the surface. There was a peculiar warmth at the bottom of the pool, rising up, taking away the harsh chill of the water. “Is this… a hot spring?”
Logan raised an eyebrow. “Aye, did I nae mention that?”
“No!” She pouted a little. “If you’d told me that, I’d have been way more willing to come here.”
He mustered a small laugh. “We’re nae mad, lass. We wouldnae bathe in icy water in the middle of winter if it wasnae warm, else we’d all die of cold.” He paused. “I thought ye said ye were a doctor? Should ye nae ken that?”
“You’re insufferable,” she grumbled, hiding a smile as she half-swam, half-walked to the other side of the pool. She sat in one of the natural grooves, crossing one leg over the other, while keeping her breasts covered. “Are you going to look away, now that you know I’m not hurt?”
He eyed the water. “Actually, I wouldnae mind bathin’, now that I’m here. I’ll stay on this side, ye can stay on that side.”
“You’re coming in?” She gulped, too naked to get out if he decided to get in.
He shrugged. “I willnae if ye daenae want me to, but it looks temptin’. All that steam risin’.”
Adeline bit the inside of her cheek, refusing to be drawn in by this handsome stranger. But if he kept saying things like that, her imagination was going to win over her logic and reasoning, especially if he stripped in front of her.
Then again, this was his island, and it was bitterly cold outside the pool—who was she to stop him from getting in if he wanted to?
“As long as you promise not to come over to my side, you can do whatever you like,” she said, hoping she sounded dismissive.
Holding onto her clothes, he unfastened a belt at his waist. “Daenae peek,” he chided gently, prompting her to turn her head away sharply.
Yet, the sounds were almost as tortuous. She heard his belt buckle clink, followed by the whisper of fabric dropping to the ground. She heard another breath of material on skin as he took his shirt off, and then… the lapping noise of his body entering the water.
He let out a contented sigh. “Och, that feels nice.”
“Can I look now?”
He chuckled. “Ye could’ve looked whenever ye liked. I wouldnae have minded.”
Her face was red hot as she scowled at him, but her glare soon softened as her eyes flicked to the pile of clothes on the damp rocks. He’d put hers on top of his to keep them dry.
“Do you have a wife?” she asked, her gaze turning back to him.
He looked like something out of a magazine, his strong arms spread out across the rocks behind him, his broad chest, dusted with hair, tensing and relaxing with muscles she knew the medical name for, but had never seen on a man in real life.
There didn’t seem to be any part of him that wasn’t honed to impossible perfection, her heart thumping faster as she followed the hard lines of his chest down to the first ridges of his abdomen. That was where her view ended, and that was probably for the best.
“Why do ye ask?” he replied, tilting his head, exposing more of his corded neck.
She shook her head. “Just curious what she’d say if she knew you were bathing naked with another woman.”
“Och, then it’s fortunate I daenae have a wife,” he said. “Ye need nae be shy, lass… or do ye nae bathe naked where ye hail from?”
She swallowed thickly. “We do, but usually alone.”
“Ah…” A smile formed on his lips, brightening his intense eyes. “What a pity.”
All of a sudden, the heat in the pool rose to the temperature of a sauna, and Adeline had the most alarming feeling that she was the cause, embarrassment and simmering temptation radiating from her.
The most handsome man she’d ever seen in her life was right there in front of her, naked and smiling and flirting, and he seemed to be inviting her to make the first move.
And she had no idea what to do with that information.