Awakened By Time (The Bridge Through Time #8)

Chapter 1

“She’s all yers,” Wallace said as he steered his cart away from the bridge.

“Wait!” Hamish called. “What do ye mean?”

“Edna told me ye’d handle this one,” he yelled as he drove out of sight.

“When did she tell ye that? Ye’ve been here the whole time.

” The last thing he wanted to do was babysit one of Edna’s time travelers.

Hamish watched as Wallace disappeared. “But Edna, I wanted to be the one who time traveled,” he called into the air.

No response. He turned back to the bridge where the fog was rolling in a circular fashion.

“She’s all yers. Hmm …” he said to himself.

He could mount his horse and ride away, but would that be right?

The thought of leaving this displaced person, whoever they were, didn’t set well with his chivalrous side.

What if they had some special purpose for being here?

He’d wait. Arms crossed and legs spread wide, he furrowed his brow, staring into the dense fog, unable to see a thing.

A moment later, the fog began to dissipate into the air and much to his surprise there was a girl, or was it a lad, standing there staring at something they held in their hand.

She or he didn’t seem to notice that they’d arrived.

He said nothing, instead examining this waif-like creature.

What could they be doing? Fingers flew over the small flat item they held in front of their face.

“Damn,” a decidedly female voice said. “No service.” She glanced up and around her, eyes fixing on Hamish, who thought her quite beautiful despite her very short hair.

She looked around and seemed confused. “Wow! I have no idea where I am.” Her eyes flew back to Hamish.

“Do you know where I am? I was walking along the marina and I guess I was so focused on my phone that I walked a lot further than I’d planned. This doesn’t look familiar at all.”

“Yer in Scotland, lass,” he said.

“Don’t tease,” she said, looking down at the object she’d called her phone. “Still no service. Unbelievable. I get myself the best phone and the best plan and yet here I am in the middle of San Francisco and I’ve got no service.”

“I can help ye,” Hamish said.

“Can you get me back to the marina?” She walked a little closer to him, seeming unsure of herself.

He wanted to smile at her obvious inability to see what had happened, but he didn’t. He continued scowling, not at her, but at the situation he now found himself in. “Mayhap. It could take some time,” he said. “Edna will have to help and she’s nae here.”

“How hard can it be?” she asked. “Oh, I get it. The Scottish accent and all. You’re not from around here either.”

How could he explain this to her? It seemed that she was unaware of the time traveling. If so, it would surely be a shock to hear that she was no longer in San Francisco. He should take her to Breaghacraig. The lasses there would know what to do.

“No, I’m nae from San Francisco,” he barked.

“Come. I’ll help ye find yer way,” he turned and started towards his horse.

When he checked over his shoulder to see if she was keeping up, he realized she was frozen where he left her.

He could understand why. A lass certainly should not go off alone with a man she hardly knew.

He softened his voice and replaced his scowl with a reassuring smile.

“Ye needn’t worry. I’ll nae harm ye.” He whistled for his horse.

Aylwen had been grazing nearby enjoying the fact that Hamish was busy doing something else.

The lass looked startled when his horse trotted up. “You have a horse.”

“Aye. Do ye ride?” he asked.

“No,” she appeared shocked to see Aylwen and began looking around again.

He imagined she must be searching for something more familiar to her than he and his horse. “Ye can ride with me. I willnae let ye fall.”

“Oh, I get it, this must be some sort of new ride sharing thing. I’ll have to be sure to get the app on my phone.” She spun around yet again. “Did I somehow walk all the way to Golden Gate Park? I really wasn’t paying attention, was I?”

Her words made no sense to him, but if it helped her to trust him, it would certainly make his job much easier.

She moved a little bit closer and seemed to make up her mind to trust him. “Alright. Let’s go. The sooner I get back to the Marina, the better. I’m supposed to meet my manager. He hates it when I’m late.”

“We should be off then.”

“Okay …” The look of concern on her face softened his heart.

“I be Hamish MacBeown.” If he was to be her caretaker, it would be best to put her at ease, to gain her trust.

“I’m Elle Carrera.” She still sounded hesitant.

“I’m pleased to ken ye.” Hamish held out his hand to her.

She eyed him warily at first, but gave in and put her hand in his. He led her to the horse and, placing his hands on her waist, easily hoisted her up in the saddle.

“Oh!” she squealed.

Hamish vaulted up behind her, wrapped his arms around her, and took hold of the reins. He clucked to Aylwen who understood and slowly walked on.

***

Elle was finding it hard to believe that she was sitting on a horse with this man.

She really had to learn to pay attention.

She’d been trying to limit her phone usage, but she wasn’t sure who she was kidding.

It wasn’t working. She’d been in mid-conversation with her sister when her phone suddenly lost signal and she found herself lost. Unbelievable.

She could kick herself. And to top it all off, she was doing the other thing she’d been warned over and over again not to do.

She was trusting some man she didn’t know from Adam.

Not only that, she was sitting on his horse, her back up against what seemed to be a very hard, muscular chest. She couldn’t help but notice his arms. They were wrapped around her after all.

They were the kind of arms she’d always dreamed a guy should have, but so far not a single guy she’d dated had them …

or the chest or the abs. She imagined Hamish had great abs based on the other things she was seeing and feeling.

She glanced at her phone again. No service.

She could still use this time wisely, she started making notes on her to do list and drafted a couple of emails that would be sent as soon as she had service again.

Wasting time was out of the question with her busy schedule.

Elle looked up again. This was really unfamiliar territory to her.

“Excuse me,” she said. “I wonder how it is that you have maps service here when I can’t even get a signal on my phone. ”

“I’m sorry, lass, but I dinnae ken what yer speaking of,” he replied.

“Edna … that’s your GPS device, right?”

“GPS?” he sounded confused by her question.

“Never mind,” she said, resigning herself to the fact that there was a definite language barrier between them.

As they rode it became clear to Elle that she was totally and completely lost. But how?

San Francisco was only seven miles across, but she couldn’t have walked so far that she left the city completely.

The scenery they passed seemed so foreign to her.

It could have been the East Bay hills, but it was much greener.

Golden Gate Park took up a few blocks on the west side of the city, but they hadn’t seen a single car.

Something was wrong, but she wasn’t sure what.

She craned her neck to see behind Hamish, hoping to recognize some landmark.

“Is something wrong, lass?” Hamish asked, his deep voice rumbling in her ear and his warm breath caressing her cheek.

It sent a shiver up her spine. “No. Why? Should there be?”

“Nae.” He fell silent again.

“Hamish?” she hoped she was getting his name right. He had quite the thick Scottish brogue.

“Aye.”

“Where exactly are we going?” she asked.

“I’m taking ye home.”

“But you don’t know where I live.”

“Aye. But there are those who do. They’ll help ye.”

“Oh.” Now she was definitely sure something wasn’t right.

He’d said they were in Scotland. She knew that wasn’t possible.

She’d have to get on a plane to end up there.

What were the other options? Had she suddenly lost consciousness and this was all simply happening in her head?

She pinched herself, if for no other reason than she’d seen that done in movies when someone wasn’t sure if they were dreaming or not. “Ouch!” She wasn’t dreaming.

Hamish chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” she asked, feeling a little irritated to be so out of her comfort zone.

“Why do ye pinch yerself? Do ye nae ken it will hurt?” He continued chuckling. A low, soft rumble from deep in his chest that reverberated through her back.

“I don’t know. I thought for a minute I might be dreaming, but I guess not.” Unless she was in a deep coma and everything she was seeing seemed to be real … was real. That thought made her panic.

Hamish seemed to notice her anxiety and he pulled her closer into the warmth of his chest. “All will be well,” he assured her.

“You seem pretty certain about that,” she said.

“Because I ken it will.”

Elle needed to get him talking. His short, to the point answers were doing nothing to ease her anxiety.

“My men are up ahead there. Do ye see them?” he asked.

“Men? You have men?” She peered ahead and saw a group of men on horseback all dressed much the same as her rescuer. Or kidnapper! Don’t panic! She tried to calm herself with deep breaths, but instead found herself gulping air and feeling sick to her stomach.

“They’ve stopped to make camp for the night.”

“What?” She was in danger. As usual, she’d stupidly trusted this stranger. Now she had to figure out how to get away from him.

They rode up to the others and Hamish dismounted, reaching up to help her down. Once he did, she slapped his hands away.

“Who’s this?” one of the men asked.

“Her name is Elle. She’s lost and needs help finding her way back home.”