Chapter 16
Bright and early the next morning, Dougall rousted Logan from bed. “Get up. We’ve got work to do.” He was back in charge and barked out orders to Logan as he would have done back in his own time.
“Work? What are ye speaking of, Dougall?” Logan rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stretched.
“We must find a way to get Helene to return with us. I cannae be away too much longer. I wish to begin our life together and I wish to do it now.” He impatiently paced back and forth across the small space.
“Sara thinks ye should take yer time and woo the lass.” Logan was obviously still trying to wake up.
“Sara thinks that does she?” Dougall raised his voice, losing patience with Logan’s moonie-eyed admiration for everything Sara said and did. He stood, arms crossed and a menacing look in his eyes. If Logan knew what was good for him, he’d get up and follow orders.
“Aye. She says ye need to allow Helene to make the choice. Ye cannae force her.” Logan said, finally sitting up and facing Dougall.
“Sara doesnae ken the way of it fer me and Helene. And neither do ye, Logan.” Dougall pointed a finger in the direction of Sara’s room and then at his friend.
He hadn’t slept well. His thoughts all night long were of Helene in the arms of Zeke.
As much as he tried to blot it from his mind, it kept returning over and over again.
Now, this morning, he’d had enough of it and all he wanted to do was get Helene and head back home where they belonged.
“I’m sorry, Dougall. I ken ye love her, but mayhap Sara has a point,” Logan barked back.
“What are you two talking about so loudly.” Sara entered the living room holding her head.
“Do ye nae feel well, Sara?” Logan asked, obviously concerned.
“I think I drank too much tequila last night. My head hurts. You two don’t seem any worse for wear.” She walked past them and into the kitchen.
“Do ye have any food?” Dougall asked.
“I don’t usually cook much. You can get coffee downstairs.
” She rummaged through the cabinets and finally found what she must have been searching for.
She opened the bottle and poured some of the contents into her hand and then put it in her mouth.
She followed that with a long drink of water.
“I’ll get dressed and we’ll go down together. Maybe some coffee will help.”
Dougall noted that his friend, who was back down on the sofa, followed Sara with his eyes and a longing that truly must be noticed by the object of his attention. If she didn’t notice, he deduced she must be blind.
“Get up. Ye heard the lass. We’ll go downstairs fer food and more of that coffee,” he commanded. Dougall was feeling very out of sorts this morning.
Logan rubbed his eyes again as Dougall shook his head at their situation.
“Why would Edna bother to send me here if Helene wasnae to come back with me. I dinnae ken it.”
“She’s a witch. She can do as she likes,” Logan said.
“Ashley and Jenna say she sends people through time with a purpose in mind. She can be quite manipulative, but the end result is usually worth whatever she puts ye through to achieve it.”
Sara came back into the room, looking much better than when she left.
She had gotten dressed and brushed her hair into something resembling a horse’s tail from Dougall’s perspective.
She even had a smile on her face. “Come on. Let’s go.
” She bounced off ahead of them. Dougall and Logan followed behind, both fascinated with the way her horse tail hair swung back and forth as she walked.
Dougall and Logan followed her out of the apartment and down the stairs to the street.
They sat at the same table Sara had been sitting at when they’d first met her.
Now that he thought about it, Dougall was suspicious about the fact that Sara was one of the first people they met and she just happened to know where Helene was. Hmmm…
“Sara, when we met ye here yesterday, ye didnae ken we were coming?”
“No. It was a surprise to me, although seeing two big guys in kilts did catch my attention, which is why I spoke to you before you passed me by.” Dougall noted the flirtatious glance she sent Logan’s way.
“I thought it might have been fer another reason.” Logan gave Sara a look that Dougall knew he had practiced on many a lass back in their time.
Sara blushed and looked away.
“Hey, you’re back with your friends.” The server from the day before approached their table.
“Yep,” Sara said. “Three coffees and cinnamon rolls all around.”
“You got it.” The lass walked away and back into the coffee shop.
“I’m confused by all of this,” Dougall said, gesturing to everything around them.
Sara followed his hand with her eyes. “Do you want to narrow it down to one thing?”
Dougall could tell from her tone of voice that she was having fun at his expense. “Well, for one thing, is this the kitchen of your castle?”
“No. This is a coffee shop. I have my own kitchen in my apartment. I’m pretty sure you saw it, although I’d bet money that it’s a lot different than the castle kitchen.”
“This is nae an inn and ye dinnae pay fer yer food…”
“Oh, I see what you mean. I have a tab here. They send me a bill at the end of the month. It’s pretty convenient since I live right upstairs, so I have breakfast here every morning. I know the owners, so they trust me.”
Dougall wasn’t sure of the meaning of some of the words, but he got the gist of what she was saying. “There are many of these coffee shops in this city?”
“All over the place. Not just in this city. People love their coffee.”
The lass returned with a tray carrying three mugs and three dishes. She placed one in front of each of them and after giving them all their coffee, smiled and walked away.
“What is this?” Logan said, examining the cinnamon roll.
“It’s a cinnamon roll. They don’t have those back home?” Sara asked.
“Nae.”
“It’s good. You’ll like it. I promise.”
Dougall exchanged looks with Logan and then broke off a piece of the unusual looking roll and placed it in his mouth.
The flavors were not what he’d expected.
This roll was very sweet and filled with cinnamon, something that was a rare treat back in his time.
It was delicious. He took another bite and Logan joined him.
“’Tis amazing! Do ye eat this every day, Sara?” Logan asked.
“Of course not! I’d get tired of them and I don’t want that to happen. You’ll see. If you stay here again tonight, we’ll try something different tomorrow.”
The two men continued eating and enjoying the rolls and coffee.
They were surrounded by others who sat outside at the tables and seemed to be very focused on the objects they held in their hands or that sat in front of them on the table.
Dougall didn’t want to appear ignorant, so he refused to ask Sara what they were doing, but his curiosity was piqued.
“Almost everyone has a cell phone or a computer when they come here. I know you don’t know what those are, but they are extremely important in this time.” Sara must have noticed his interest.
“How so?” Logan asked.
“They can check their emails, or work remotely. Some people go on social media to see what’s going on with their friends.”
“Why dinnae they just ask them?”
Sara laughed and began explaining her meaning to Logan, but Dougall had heard enough. He held up his hand to stop her. “Dinnae continue on with this. We dinnae understand any of it and we willnae be here long enough to need any of it.”
“You know it’s very rude to interrupt someone when they’re speaking, don’t you?” She scrunched her brow and narrowed her eyes as she spoke.
Dougall wasn’t sure how to respond. He’d never met a woman quite as outspoken as Sara. Ashley and Jenna were also from this time, but they were different. While they spoke their mind, they did it in a way that didn’t offend anyone.
“Me apologies.” He sipped his coffee and finished the last of his roll.
He then waited impatiently for Sara and Logan to stop their inane chattering and finish theirs.
It didn’t appear that would be any time soon.
He harrumphed to himself, but apparently they heard him because both of them glanced his way, Sara with irritability and Logan with question.
“I apologize once again.” This was becoming redundant.
He wasn’t used to apologizing for anything.
At Breaghacraig he was in charge of his own teulu and no one ever expected him to apologize to them for anything.
Around the MacKenzie family he was, of course, careful not to offend.
And yet here he’d been put in his place twice in one sitting by this lass.
“I merely wish to get on with the day. I must see Helene.”
“Do you really love her, or is she just a possession to you?” Sara asked.
Dougall was once again taken aback by Sara. “Of course I love her. If I didnae, I wouldnae be here enduring this, this…” He threw his arms in the air in exasperation.
“I get it,” Sara said. “When you love someone you’ll do anything for them.”
Logan glanced Dougall’s way as if afraid of his reaction and then turned to Sara. “Have ye ever been in love, Sara?”
“Once. It was a long time ago and it wasn’t mutual. I made a complete fool of myself at the time and I promised never to let that happen again.”
Dougall impatiently tapped his fingers on the table top.
Every fiber of his being wished to be gone from this place, but he vowed he wouldnae leave without his love.
He tuned out Sara and Logan and in his mind’s eye he saw Helene.
She ran to him with open arms. He felt every inch of her pressed close to his body and he remembered a time not long ago when she’d wanted nothing more than to be with him.
He was amazed at how quickly things could change and he hoped that they would change back just as quickly.