Chapter 20
CHAPTER 20
In the dawn light that filtered in through the chamber window, Logan watched Adeline sleeping. The blankets had twisted around her in the night, barely covering her naked figure. He would have liked to sit there, admiring every curve he had kissed and caressed the night before, but with the chill in the air, he feared more for her well-being than the need to satisfy his eyes.
Carefully, he took new blankets from the pile on the chair and draped them over her. Whenever she stirred, he paused, not wanting to wake her. But she slept deeply—the slumber of someone who had worked hard—and soon enough, she was covered in enough blankets to keep her warm until morning properly came.
He resisted the urge to brush the dark locks out of her face.
Did I stop ye from thinkin’ too much, or should we have thought a little more before we did that?
He was not a man who regretted much in his life, and he refused to regret bringing Adeline the kind of pleasure that had consumed her, albeit temporarily. But he had considered what might happen if they went beyond a kiss before, and he was considering it even more intently now. Now, he had an inkling of what it might do to him when she left.
We cannae be alone together again . I cannae let her get further under me skin.
He knew he should probably leave her alone, to sleep until the sun and her healing duties awoke her, but the serene sight of her kept him where he was. He would go out for a walk soon, to clear his head. But, for now, he would enjoy the peace of standing guard over her as she slept, knowing it was likely the last time they would ever be in a bedchamber alone together.
Adeline wouldn’t admit that she’d been a bit disappointed to wake up alone in bed. She’d instinctively reached over to the other side, expecting to feel the warm comfort of Logan beside her, but there’d been nothing but cold blankets. It didn’t even look like he’d slept there, his side of the bed made.
He’s just doing what we agreed.
She dressed quickly and then made her way downstairs. Surely, he’d be in the main space below, having breakfast or something.
But he wasn’t there either.
She paused, staring at all of the empty tables as if she could make him appear if she willed it hard enough. If she did have some witchy powers she didn’t know about, they’d have come in handy right about then.
Did I dream it all?
It was something she had to consider. She hadn’t yet gotten to the bottom of why her head had hurt so much after her abrupt arrival into the past. Now that the pain had faded, she’d mostly forgotten about it, but maybe there was some damage to her brain. There’d definitely been a knock to her impulse control, that was for sure.
“Good mornin’ to ye,” the innkeeper’s wife chirped, appearing from nowhere.
Adeline jumped in fright, her hand flying to her heart.
“Goodness, I’m sorry!” The innkeeper’s wife hurried over, resting a hand on Adeline’s shoulder. “I thought ye’d heard me. Me husband is always sayin’ I’m catfooted. I should’ve announced meself.”
Adeline mustered a smile. “Not your fault. I was in my own world for a moment there. You could’ve stormed in, and I probably wouldn’t have heard it.”
“Och, well, as long as I dinnae scare ye too badly.” The woman relaxed. “Me name’s Maureen, by the way. I dinnae get to introduce meself properly last night, and I dinnae want to intrude on ye this mornin’. There’s breakfast to be had if ye want?”
Adeline felt her racing heart begin to slow. “A pleasure to meet you, Maureen, and thank you for the bath. I think it might’ve been the best of my life.”
She’d been thinking that a lot, lately, her mind constantly rewinding to the night before. In her twenty-six years on Earth, she could confidently say she’d never experienced pleasure like it. She hadn’t even known her body could climax like that, from head to toe.
“Ye’re nae feelin’ unwell, are ye?” Maureen looked concerned as Adeline realized her cheeks had responded to the memory of Logan’s touch. They were red hot.
Adeline shook her head. “Not at all.” She paused, collecting herself. “I think I’ll skip breakfast if that’s all right. I’m not much of a breakfast person, to be honest. But I can look in on your son now if you want?”
“I daenae think there’ll be any need,” Maureen replied, her eyes suddenly filling with tears. “His fever broke in the night. This mornin’, he’s been askin’ for milk and bread with a thick spread of butter on it. He’s still nae himself, but… he’s better, and it’s all thanks to ye.”
Adeline should’ve been pleased, but panic struck her first. “You didn’t give him any milk, did you?”
“I boiled it first,” Maureen said, worry creasing her brow. “Did I do the wrong thing? Should I nae have given it to him?”
A smile broke out across Adeline’s face. “If you boiled it first, he’ll be just fine. From now on, boil everything, just to be sure you get rid of any… bits of the curse that might be hanging around.”
“Och, ye frightened me, Miss Adeline!” Maureen burst out into relieved laughter, clapping Adeline on the back. “I suppose I deserved that for scarin’ the life out of ye.”
“I’m just glad his fever broke,” Adeline said, her heart full of hope. “It’s a good sign for everyone else, as it’s usually the younger ones—though not the youngest—who recover first. Children are notoriously resilient.”
Maureen nodded. “I couldnae believe it when he started callin’ for me, and I daenae mind admittin’ that I had me doubts about yer methods, but I shouldnae have doubted ye for a second. Ye’ve given me son back to me. If I had all the gold in the world to give ye, it wouldnae be enough.” A happy tear fell onto her cheek. “After all we’d been hearin’ about folk in the north, we thought the worst was comin’ for us, that we’d be buryin’ our loved ones by the week’s end, but… ye’re a blessin’, Miss Adeline. I praise yer maither for sendin’ ye here to help us. I’ll praise her and ye until me last breath.”
“I’ll tell her,” Adeline replied, her voice catching. “And there’s no need to thank me. I’m just doing my duty.”
The snow globe…
A thought snuck into her mind as she went over Maureen’s words. The snow globe had been her mother’s. The snow globe was the thing her mom used to wish on and had encouraged her and Jane to wish on. What if it hadn’t just been a silly game to make everyone feel better? What if her mother had known something about the snow globe, something she might’ve gone into more detail about when her daughters were older, but never got the chance to?
“You don’t know where the Laird went, do you?” Adeline asked, remembering something Logan said.
Have ye ever thought that ye might actually be a witch… I wasnae jokin’.
She didn’t think she actually possessed magical powers—that was ridiculous—but there was obviously something unnatural going on. And if she could just put the pieces together, between magic and snow globes and curses, maybe she’d be able to figure out how to get home.
The quicker, the better, before she started imagining a future in the past.
“He left just after dawn,” Maureen replied. “I daenae ken where, but I expect he’s gone to watch over that brother of his.”
Adeline nodded, picturing the hut where she’d treated Oliver Anderson the previous day. He’d been out of it, knocked unconscious by the illness, and with too many other people to treat, she hadn’t really paid much attention to him. He was just another patient, not the hellraiser Logan had alluded to.
“Thank you,” Adeline said, heading for the door.
There weren’t too many people up and about in the village, though the few that she passed were a million times more civil to her than they’d been the day before. They bid her a good morning or stopped her to tell her how their sick family members were faring. Despite it being early days in terms of eradicating the illness, Adeline grew more confident with every person she encountered, feeling it in her bones that her survival medicine crash course had done some good.
It wouldn’t fix everyone, with the old and the very young being more vulnerable, but if it fixed the majority, she’d be content.
Leaping over a mound of horse manure, she cut through an alleyway and moved away from the community of the village. Ahead of her sat a solitary stone cottage, set apart from the rest of the settlement. Whether it had been built first or last, Adeline didn’t know, but that was where she’d find Oliver. And, hopefully, Logan.
Not exactly sticking to the rule .
Seeking Logan out was definitely on the prohibited list if they were going to stand any chance of not repeating the absolute bliss of last night. Then again, with his brother lying sick in the same place, that was probably a decent remedy for any impulsive thoughts that might sneak in.
She was just wandering around the side of the cottage to reach the front door, which faced away from the village, when a figure stepped out.
Adeline gasped, having a mini heart attack for the second time in less than twenty minutes. “I’m going to have to insist on everyone wearing bells around their necks,” she muttered under her breath, recovering quickly. “Good morning.”
The woman moving toward her didn’t reply, and as she neared, Adeline noticed there was something… odd about her. It was hard for Adeline to put her finger on what was so strange, but the woman’s entire demeanor seemed off, ringing alarm bells in Adeline’s head.
She was tall and rake-thin, shrouded in what looked like a potato sack. Her feet were bare and caked in mud, her ankles dotted with something that, at first, Adeline mistook for more mud. Upon closer inspection, she realized they were tattoos, clumsily inked against pale skin. Two matching anklets that resembled snakes eating their own tails.
The woman’s face was equally intriguing. Like her body, her features were thin and angular, reminding Adeline of a heron or a stork. Her white hair hung loose in ratty tendrils, and several streaks of black ash seemed to have been deliberately smeared across her cheeks and forehead, and over her eyelids. It made her strange green eyes stand out, and as Adeline met her gaze, she was struck with the weirdest feeling of having met this woman before.
“Good morning,” Adeline repeated, trying to remember where she’d seen the woman before.
The woman stopped a half-step too close for comfort. “Good mornin’,” she replied, at last. “I trust ye slept well and yer headache is gone.”
“What?” Adeline blinked in confusion.
“It’s nae easy on the body, what ye’ve been through,” the woman continued.
Adeline could’ve sworn her heart stopped beating for a moment. “What I’ve been through?”
“The journey ye’ve been on,” the woman clarified, her green eyes shining with wisdom that sent a shiver down Adeline’s spine. It was as if she was seeing right through Adeline, into her very soul. “Ye’ve traveled a long way, Adeline.”
Adeline cleared her throat. “You know my name?”
“Aye, ye announced it to the village yesterday,” the woman said with a wry smile, as if they were sharing a joke instead of having some bizarre encounter. “But I kenned ye’d come, long before. I kenned yer name before I kenned who ye were and what ye were here to do.”
A weird hope suddenly surged in Adeline’s chest. “Do you know why I’m here?”
“There are things that can be seen and things that cannae be seen, Adeline,” the woman replied, almost apologetically. “I’m learnin’ at the same time that ye are, in many respects. But there’s one thing I do ken…”
The unusual woman with the wise green eyes reached into the pocket of her potato sack dress, removing a small parcel wrapped in the same fabric that her dress was made from. She passed it to Adeline. When Adeline wouldn’t take it, scared of what it might be, the woman grabbed her wrist with surprising strength and placed the parcel into her palm, forcefully closing her hand over it.
“If ye ever wish to return,” the woman whispered.
Adeline’s eyes widened, feeling the rough material in her hand… and something hard inside. “You know how I can go back? Tell me how. You have to tell me.”
But the woman was already walking past her, rounding the corner of the cottage and vanishing out of sight. A second too slow, Adeline ran after her, determined to make her talk.
The stretch of barren grass between the cottage and the rest of the village was empty. The woman wasn’t there, though there was no way she could’ve run that fast, not with her bony legs.
Rubbing her eyes, Adeline looked this way and that, searching for any sign of the woman. People didn’t just disappear into thin air… apart from her, vanishing from her apartment on Christmas Eve—but that was different. That was some kind of physics glitch. A phenomenon that had an explanation that hadn’t been explained yet, like alien abductions or time loops or ghosts.
Or magic .
Slowly but surely, she was running out of rationalizations that didn’t point to the “m” word.
She was about to keep running, hoping that the old woman simply was that fast and was just in the village somewhere, minding her own business, when a voice stopped her in her tracks.
“Is someone out there?” Logan called out. “I can hear ye creepin’ around.”
Panicking, Adeline shoved the small, fabric-wrapped parcel into the pocket of the apron around her waist. “It’s just me!” she called back, heading back down the side of the cottage.
She’s probably the village madwoman .
Whatever was in her pocket was probably just a pebble, or worse. As for what the woman had said about a long journey, she’d probably meant Wales.
But those haunting eyes lingered in Adeline’s mind, still piercing her soul, though the woman was long gone. They weren’t the eyes of a madwoman. They were the eyes of someone who knew things, had seen things, and possibly knew more than she’d been willing to say.