Chapter 1 #2
Though he shared his friend’s joy, he needed to step away from it for a moment.
Not that he envied his friend. Not that the couple’s happiness highlighted the empty place by his own side.
The empty place in his heart. He was too strong for such womanly feelings as that.
No, it was simply that he needed the quiet and solitude to think.
He needed time alone. Time to carefully plan.
There actually were any number of details to take care of before he left.
Charlie, his bright-eyed Boston terrier came to mind.
He knew Connor would see to picking the dog up from boarding and take it to his home where Charlie would be cared for and well loved.
That was no worry. Though the idea he might never see his adoring pup again—that was a bit harder to stomach.
There were other arrangements to make as well. Legal paperwork of some sort would be required. He should set up a power of attorney, turning all his property over to someone.
Just in case.
If all went well, he’d do what needed to be done and then the magic would bring him home. The problem with using Faerie Magic was that it didn’t always do the expected, and Robert knew going into this he could well be giving up the life he’d come to love.
When a woman with Cate’s considerable Faerie Magic told you she might not be able to get you back home, you’d be well advised to take her seriously.
If this was going to end up being a one-way trip, he’d best make sure someone here would have access to his belongings.
None of his wonderful toys, not the vehicles or the machinery he’d collected—none of it would do him any good where he was going.
When he was going, he corrected himself.
The Highlands of Scotland in 1272. The exact same time he’d left behind all those years ago.
As long as they’d determined to hide Leah in the past, he could think of no better time than the one he’d left.
It would suit both their needs. He’d be able to fulfill his vow to Thomas, and there were many people in that time they could trust to keep Leah safe.
The Nuadians had vowed to hunt her down, no matter where she went.
No one in the room he’d just left doubted for a moment they would do exactly that.
But as everyone sitting in that living room had reasoned, while the Nuadians might well track Leah down wherever she hid in this world, they’d have no chance at all of finding her in a completely different time.
He would accompany Leah on her unimaginable journey to thirteenth-century Scotland. He’d see her safely settled.
And then?
Then he’d be free to fulfill the oath he’d made over seven hundred years ago. He’d find Thomas’s daughter, Isabella, and take her to his own family’s home, where she would be cared for properly.
“Mr. MacQuarrie?”
Robert looked over his shoulder to find Leah picking her way across the damp lawn toward him.
Though the young woman herself was almost hidden in the baggy jeans and heavy sweater she wore, she couldn’t hide what she most wanted to remove from her identity.
Whether it was the long golden hair tossed by the breeze or simply the way she carried herself, there was no denying her Faerie heritage.
If he ever had been blessed with a daughter, he would have wished for one as brave as this girl.
“Robert, lass. Call me Robert. Is there something you need of me?”
She nodded, her eyes fixed on her feet even as the color rose in her cheeks.
“Everyone back there’s pretty excited about planning a wedding. I didn’t want to interrupt them.” She lifted her gaze to meet his steadily. “But I have so many questions. Can you tell me where we’ll go? What it will be like?”
“I can try,” he answered as he led the way to two garden benches separated by a small table.
When he reached toward her, she flinched, a haunted expression fleeting across her face.
How could he have been so thoughtless? Considering what the lass had been through, he shouldn’t be surprised she could bear no man’s touch.
The filthy Nuadian bastards had kidnapped Leah and held her captive, poked her with needles as they drained her blood to increase their own powers, and all but raped her.
Stepping back a respectful pace, he waited for her to choose one seat before he took the other.
“You’ve no changed yer mind about going, have you?” Was that the root of her questions?
Her eyes rounded and she shook her head vehemently, her fingers playing over the stone hanging from her neck.
“Oh no, not at all. I want to go. We can’t leave soon enough as far as I’m concerned.
” She shrugged and looked out over the expanse of garden.
“I just . . . I just want to have some idea of what I’ll be facing when I get there.
I mean, it’s not like we’re talking about a trip across the country.
I remember from my literature class last year that the language used in medieval Britain was entirely different from what’s spoken today.
How are we even going to communicate with people? ”
Robert nodded thoughtfully. That one had concerned him, too, when he’d first come forward in time.
“You’ll have no problem, lass. I canna explain how, but the Faerie Magic takes it all into account.
What you’ll speak, what you’ll understand when you arrive in that time—it will all be the same to yer ears and to those around you.
The only difference you’ll note is that some of yer words are unknown to them, so they’ll likely find yer speech patterns to be strange. ”
“What kinds of words?” Leah leaned toward him, her thirst for knowledge lighting a fire in her eyes.
“Words for those things they’ve no understanding of. Cars, for example. Or airplanes. Do you get my meaning?”
She nodded thoughtfully, wisps of gold hair falling over her shoulder. “So I don’t need to worry about learning a new language. Do you have any idea where we’ll go?”
It was Robert’s turn to nod slowly. He’d been giving this some thought since the moment he’d volunteered to accompany Leah. “We’ll head for the MacQuarrie Keep. I’m thinking you’d be safe there, with my own family.”
His parents would welcome her into their home even though he wouldn’t be able to stay there himself. Not under the same roof with that redheaded bitch his brother had married. MacQuarrie Keep stopped being his home the day Elizabeth moved in.
When Leah’s brow furrowed, he held up a hand to forestall the questions he saw running through her mind.
“It’s where I came from, lass. When I came from, to be more accurate.
Just over nine years ago, Jesse’s sister, Cate, used her powers to bring me forward in time to save my life.
It’s too long a story for now, but I’m sure you’ll hear the whole of it as we prepare for our journey. ”
Too long and too painful for him to recount to the lass. Likely the women of the house would fill her in later.
Leah chewed on her bottom lip for a moment before making eye contact again. “Is that why you said you’d go back with me? Because you feel like you have a debt to them? I’d hate to think you’re disrupting your whole life because you feel like you have to.”
He shook his head. It was a debt that was driving him, all right, but not the one the girl feared.
“Dinna you fret yerself over this, lass. Accompanying you is but a piece of my reason for returning. I’ve my own purposes to be met in going back.”
Purposes long past due.