Chapter 23
CHAPTER 23
Though he had been given no choice but to hold Adeline on the ride back to Gibson Keep, Logan had not been able to take any pleasure from it. Holding her so close was slowly becoming a torment. Breathing in her unusual perfume, feeling the rise and fall of her chest, and the press of her buttocks against his loins was not a teasing joy anymore, but a strange torture.
She has to leave, and I daenae want her to.
It was that simple and that difficult.
And as she slept in his arms throughout the journey, exhausted from the day, the protectiveness he felt took on a dangerous edge. Indeed, it was Oliver’s earlier outburst that had made him understand the reality of the situation, more than he had before. In his world, he could not keep her safe, no matter how hard he defended her.
If the island turned on her, that would be it. He could not fight them all. Even if he could, what would that leave him with? An island of bones and a woman who needed to go back to where she came from, whether that was two weeks, two years, or twenty years from now.
“Ye mustnae listen to what Master Oliver said,” Theo remarked as if reading Logan’s thoughts.
Logan rubbed his weary eyes. “I wasnae plannin’ to.”
“Then why are ye so quiet?”
“Am I nae always quiet?”
Theo tilted his head from side to side. “I’ve kenned ye long enough to ken when ye’re… in a pensive mood, that’s all. Ye’re in one right now. Troubled, ye might say.”
“I’m nae troubled,” Logan lied. “I’m just worried about this curse. If it doesnae lift, they’ll come for her.”
Theo glanced at the sleeping figure of Adeline. “Are ye sure she’s asleep?”
“What?”
“Are ye sure she’s asleep?” Theo repeated. “Ye daenae want to be sayin’ things like that if she’s only pretendin’. Ye’ll scare the lass.”
Logan peered down at Adeline, but it was impossible to tell if she was actually asleep or not. She looked asleep. Her eyes were closed, her breathing was soft and slow, and her expression was as peaceful as it had been that morning, but Theo’s doubts were enough to hold his tongue.
“Do ye smell somethin’?” Logan asked, sniffing.
Theo frowned. “Nothin’ new.”
“It smells like the pigsty at Red Briar.” Logan sniffed again. “I think it’s comin’ from Adeline.”
He waited, watching her face closely for any twinge or tightening that might prove she was pretending. Meanwhile, Theo’s mouth opened, and he flashed a subtle wink as he realized what Logan was doing.
“I do smell it, now that ye mention it,” Theo replied. “Och, she’s ripe. Did she nae have a bath last night? I thought ye were goin’ to arrange one for her.”
Logan squinted harder at Adeline’s cheeks, expecting a flush of pink to color her moonlight-pale skin. But it did not. It was not exact proof that she was truly asleep, but it was enough to soothe his fears that his words might frighten her into leaving his world sooner.
“Do ye think she actually did meet with the seer?” Theo whispered, a few minutes later.
Logan kept his gaze fixed on Adeline. He wondered how a woman he barely knew, who came from a different time and place, could have entwined herself so quickly around his heart. At the beginning, he had been so eager to send her on her way, once she had rested and recovered. Now, the thought stuck in his throat like a fishbone.
“I daenae ken,” he replied, at last.
Theo leaned back in his saddle. “It wouldnae necessarily mean that she’s a witch. Maybe she just wanted to ask the seer somethin’. She’s a wise woman, after all. Me sisters and me maither have both been to see her for different reasons, and they’ve always come back in lighter moods.”
“Can we nae discuss this now?” Logan said tersely.
Theo pulled a face. “Sorry, m'laird. I get these thoughts in me head, and I get carried away, like I have to pour ‘em out me mouth before they take up too much room in me skull.” He pretended to sew up his lips. “I willnae say another word.”
They rode on in silence, Logan choosing to savor every moment he got to hold Adeline in his arms. If she decided to leave, he would not stop her. If the seer had told her how, so be it. She was not one of his clansfolk, she was not one of his people. He had no right to stand in her way when her own home was beckoning to her across a three-hundred-year divide.
All he had to do was put himself in Adeline’s place and think of his mother and sister to know that, when home called, you had to go back. Even if it hurt.
“You’re not coming with me to see your mom?” Adeline asked, pausing at the bottom of the winding stone staircase that led up to Sophie’s chambers.
Logan gestured back at the main door. “I’ve got to get Oliver inside.”
“Surely your brother will want to see your mom,” she said. “Two birds, one stone.”
Logan shook his head. “I’ll leave ye to whatever ye said ye were doin’. Me maither will come and find Oliver when she wants to, and I’ve got other business to attend to, once I have him settled in his old rooms.”
“Such as?”
He frowned. “Pardon?”
“What other business do you have to attend to? We could write that list later if you want?”
His frown deepened, his dark blue eyes clouding over. “I daenae think it’ll be necessary. I ken the primary rule, and that’s all I need to ken.”
“What’s the primary rule?” she pressed, reluctant to leave him while he was acting so aloof.
He paused, sighing. “I’m nae to touch ye. Ye’re nae to touch me. I think that ought to be all.”
“But you held me all the way from Jonah’s, so maybe the rules need to be a bit more detailed,” she insisted. “Plus, if I were to fall over or something, and you could stop me from falling, then you’d have to touch me. You know, grab my arm or something.”
She knew she’d asked for it, but she wasn’t too keen on the distance stretching between them. Being on the horse with him had been a relief, in a way—to feel his arm around her and the warmth of his body against her, lulling her to sleep.
It should’ve been the most impossible place to fall asleep, but she’d awoken at the keep, revived and refreshed. And she was already thinking about the night ahead, and the empty bed she’d retreat to, wishing he was there with her.
The little fabric-covered parcel in the pocket of her apron was to blame, she was certain of that. Every time she thought of it, it triggered something in her brain, making her realize just how little time they might have left together.
Would it really be so bad if they said goodbye in a more… memorable way than just a kiss on the cheek or a handshake? Worse still, what if she opened the parcel and the mysterious object just zapped her back to 2023 immediately, happening so fast that she didn’t get to say goodbye to him at all?
Don’t leave like this .
“I think we understand well enough,” Logan said drily. “We’re nae bairns, lass. We daenae need to put all the details on paper. Now, if ye’ll excuse me, I need to bring me brother in before he starts howlin’ about ye bein’ a witch again. He’s troublesome enough without a fever makin’ it worse.”
He walked off without another word, leaving her standing at the bottom of the stairs. And though she’d promised to teach Sophie how to do the exercises and stretches that would help with her back, Adeline couldn’t bring herself to head up. In fact, she had the most awful feeling that if she saw Sophie and Moira, she was going to burst into uncontrollable tears.
The healer’s chambers.
She shook her head in a vain attempt to shake away her sad thoughts.
With a soft harrumph to give herself strength, she pushed away from the staircase and headed down the labyrinth of drafty stone hallways to the old healer’s abandoned chambers.
As she walked, she pointed out things she didn’t like, to make herself feel better.
“It’s freezing cold all the time,” she muttered. “Everything feels damp. The candles smell funny, like rancid fat. I’ll go blind in no time if I have to read books by candlelight. There’s no medicine. If I get a bad cold, it could genuinely kill me. The clothes aren’t as comfortable as my clothes. I never want to wear stays again, even if it does make my waist look good. There’s not much entertainment. There’s no running water, and drinking the water makes you sick.”
She reached the curved wooden door of the old healer’s chambers and let herself in, taking one of the torches out of a wall sconce on her way. Casting the light around, she searched for the funny-smelling candles and lanterns, lighting them one by one until the room was filled with a cozy, romantic glow.
It was a strange room, resembling a wine cellar with all of the wine removed. Instead, jars upon jars of miscellaneous herbs, powders, and liquids lined the walls, plus boxes of cloths and bandages, and more boxes of healer’s tools that she had no idea how to use. She wouldn’t have even liked to guess how some of them were used. They looked like medieval torture devices, rather than anything medical. Although, she supposed the same could be said of some modern medical apparatus.
In the center of the room was a long, timeworn workbench. Unsettling stains were splashed across the old wood, making her think it might have served as a surgical table as well as whatever else the old healer needed to use it for—his dinner, setting broken bones, taking his evening tea, helping a laboring woman who needed a caesarean, having a snack while he read some of his books.
“Do they even do caesareans?” she pondered aloud.
Her knowledge of medical history was about as thorough as her knowledge of the 1700s as a whole.
“No, probably not,” she replied to herself, shuddering.
She couldn’t begin to imagine the torture of a caesarean without anesthesia, though maybe they had chloroform or something similar.
She settled herself on the high stool beside the workbench and dragged a candle closer. She needed all the light she could get for what she was about to do.
“Okay,” she murmured, reaching into her apron pocket. “I don’t know what supernatural forces sent me here, I don’t know why I was sent here. I don’t know if there was a demon hiding in the snow globe, but if you could not zap me straight back to 2023, I’d be grateful. I just want to see.”
If anyone saw her, they’d think she was insane. Maybe she was. After all, what was more insane than traveling back three hundred years, landing on the island of the most handsome man she’d ever seen, and catching feelings for him?
Nerves set in as she placed the little parcel on the table. Upon second viewing, she realized it wasn’t wrapped in the potato sack material that the “seer” had been wearing. It was finer than that, tightly woven, with a strange sheen to it. Almost golden.
“No zapping back, remember,” she whispered to whichever forces had sent her there.
Slowly, with trembling fingers, she peeled open the parcel as if something might jump out and bite her. She didn’t realize she was holding her breath until her lungs started to ache, filling her chest with a panicky sensation. Immediately, she exhaled, just as she eased away the last bit of fabric.
But underneath the golden material, there was another wrapping—silver, this time. It felt like silk against her skin. Expensive. Not at all the kind of thing she’d have expected a muddy woman in a ragged dress to be carrying around with her. Then again, she’d known at first sight that the “seer” was no ordinary woman.
“Playing games, huh?” she mumbled, peeling away the second layer, just as slowly as the first.
Her eyes widened as she looked at the object in the center of the silver and gold squares of fabric.
She’d joked about the old woman just giving her a random pebble, and the truth wasn’t far off. The gift was a small stone in the shape of an egg, the curved sides perfectly smooth. The stone itself had a milky sheen to it, but when it caught the light, it glittered like the fake frost flakes that had danced inside the snow globe. And though she couldn’t explain why, she had a feeling that if she were to shake it, it would glitter even more.
“What are you?” she whispered, compelled to touch it. “Some kind of opal?”
They were known to be bad luck if given as a gift, but Adeline wasn’t sure if this was a gift or just a key to the gateway home. Did that still count as a gift?
Gingerly, she touched it… and as her fingertips kissed the icy cold surface, a blast of wind came out of nowhere in a room with no windows and a closed door, snuffing out every candle, plunging her into darkness.