Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
E nough was enough. Kate couldn’t sleep.
The stone walls of the chamber seemed to press inward, the darkness thicker than usual. She’d been staring at the ceiling for hours, listening to the wind moan through the cracks in the keep. It sounded like Kenna’s last cry before she’d thrown herself from the battlements.
That sound haunted her dreams. When she did manage to drift off, she saw Kenna’s face. Accusing, broken, eyes hollow with grief. Then the MacDonald assassin, Malcolm, his expression of shock as he plummeted to the rocks below. Both deaths stained her hands.
Kate pushed herself upright, abandoning any pretense of sleep. The fire had died down to embers, casting the room in ghostly shadows. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to ward off a chill that came from within rather than without.
A flicker of light caught her eye. Through the narrow window, she spotted a lantern bobbing across the courtyard. Connor’s broad-shouldered silhouette was unmistakable, even in the darkness. He moved with purpose, his stride long and determined.
Where was he going at this hour?
Without thinking, she slipped from bed. The stone floor bit at her bare feet as she pulled on her shoes and wrapped a shawl around her shoulders. She’d barely spoken to Connor since Cameron’s death and then Kenna’s suicide. The distance between them had grown into a chasm she didn’t know how to cross, and he didn’t seem to care to bridge the distance.
Everyone was asleep, even the young guard posted in the corridor. If Connor found out, there would be hell to pay, but the guard’s dereliction of duty was her advantage. She crept down the spiral staircase, careful to step over the servants asleep in the great hall near the hearth. Like a ghost or a mirage, she slipped past them, following the faint glow of Connor’s lantern through a side door left ajar, one she’d never noticed before.
The passage was narrow and damp, smelling of earth and time. Kate trailed behind, keeping enough distance that Connor wouldn’t sense her presence. The walls pressed close on either side, occasionally brushing her shoulders. After what felt like an eternity of careful steps, the passage widened into a small, circular chamber.
Connor knelt before an ornately carved wooden chest, his back to her. Kate pressed herself against the wall, barely daring to breathe. She watched as he produced a key from around his neck and unlocked the chest with reverent care.
The lantern light caught something that gleamed within, a flash of silver, gold, and sapphire that made Kate’s heart stutter. The brooch.
Connor lifted it carefully, turning it in his hands. Even from her hiding place, Kate could see the tension in his shoulders, the weight of responsibility evident in every line of his body. He murmured something too low for her to hear, a prayer, perhaps, or a promise to his dead father and brother.
After a long moment, he returned the brooch to its resting place, closed the chest, and locked it. Kate shrank back into an alcove as he rose and made his way back through the passage, his footsteps fading into silence.
She waited until she was certain he was gone before approaching the chest. Her fingers trembled as she touched the polished wood, tracing the intricate carvings of Celtic knots and thistles.
“I can’t stay here,” she whispered to the empty chamber.
The words hung in the air, a truth she’d been avoiding for days. Connor had withdrawn completely after Cameron’s death, throwing himself into his duties as acting chieftain. The clan looked at her differently now, too. Whispers followed her. The strange woman who brought death and tragedy in her wake.
She didn’t belong here. She never had.
The chest was locked, but Kate had dated a locksmith for a few weeks and learned a thing or two. She removed a hairpin and worked it carefully into the keyhole. After several tense minutes, she felt the satisfying click of the mechanism giving way.
The brooch lay nestled on a bed of faded velvet, its silver, gold, and sapphires catching the faint light that filtered through a tiny window. Her breath caught in her throat. It was even more beautiful than she remembered, an intricate Celtic design surrounding three perfect gemstones.
“This is my only way home,” she told herself, fingers hovering over it. “I don’t belong here.”
Images flashed before her eyes. Connor teaching her to ride, his large hands steady on the reins. The little girl she’d saved from drowning, who now followed her around the keep like a shadow. Moira teaching her which herbs could heal and which could harm. Nessa laughing as she told Kate old stories. The nights by the fire, listening to tales of ancient Scotland.
For a moment, her resolve wavered as she thought about asking him if she could borrow it. But then she saw Kenna’s face again, heard the accusations in the whispers that followed her through the halls, and knew he’d never let her near it for fear she’d curse it with her bad luck.
Ye bring naught but ill fortune, outlander.
The laird’s heart has turned to stone since ye came, Sassenach.
Two deaths follow in yer wake.
Kate’s fingers closed around the brooch. The metal was warm to the touch, as if it had been lying in sunlight rather than a dark chest. She tied the ends of her shawl around it, heart pounding so loudly she was certain it would wake the entire keep.
Back in her chamber, Kate quietly dressed, choosing the practical clothes she’d been given, hoping it wouldn’t matter that her modern clothes had been burned.
Once more she crept down the stairs and across the hall. After making sure everyone in the kitchen was asleep, she opened her satchel and placed a small loaf of bread, a waterskin, and a knife Ewan had given her.
There was no telling what would happen when she tried to use the brooch. Would she return to exactly the same moment she’d left? Or would time have passed the same as it had here? She hoped she’d return to the same moment to spare her parents any worry.
Would she even make it back at all?
Kate pushed the thought away. She couldn’t stay. Not when her presence brought nothing but pain. There was nothing here for her.
The keep was silent as she made her way out and into the herb garden. The night air was crisp, heavy with the scent of heather and salt from the sea. The moon hung low and full, painting the landscape in silver.
At the edge of the garden, she paused. She turned to look back at Bronmuir Keep, its ancient stones solid against the night sky. Torches flickered along the battlements where guards kept watch. Somewhere within those walls, Connor slept, or more likely lay awake, burdened by grief and duty.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, though there was no one to hear. “I never meant to hurt anyone.”
The path to the cemetery was etched in her memory. Kate picked her way carefully over the uneven ground, grateful for the moonlight that illuminated her way. The wind tore her hair from the bun, whipping it around her face. Her fingers kept straying to the shawl, reassuring herself that the brooch was still secure.
The cemetery appeared before her, its ancient stones standing like sentinels against the night sky. Kate’s steps slowed as she approached the place where she had first arrived in this time. The old woman was nowhere to be seen, but Kate could feel a presence in the air, a watchfulness that prickled along her skin.
She stood before the oldest stone in front of the chapel though the spiral was nowhere to be found. With trembling fingers, she removed the brooch from the shawl. The sapphires caught the moonlight, seeming to glow with an inner fire.
“Please,” Kate whispered, pinning the brooch to her chest above her heart. “Send me home.”
The wind rose around her, tugging at her clothes and hair. In the distance, she thought she heard footsteps, but she didn’t turn to look. Her entire being was focused on the brooch, on the desperate wish to return to a time where she understood the rules, where her presence didn’t bring death and heartbreak.
“I don’t belong here,” she said, her voice breaking on the words. “Please... I want to go home.”
The brooch remained cool, showing no sign of the magic that had brought her here. Her throat tightened with panic. What if it didn’t work? What if she was trapped here forever, an outsider bringing misfortune to those she had come to care for? Would she end up like Elspeth? Living alone in a tiny cottage with no friends or someone to love?
The footsteps grew closer. Kate closed her eyes, pressing the brooch harder against her heart.
“Please,” she whispered one last time. “Send me home.”