Chapter 26
Terror exploded in my chest like a firework set off inside a box. But my instincts worked, so I slammed the door in their faces and locked it. I rushed back to Cian and lowered my voice. “We’ve got to find another way out of here.”
“Who is it?”
“A man. Two old women. Your time traveler! He must have been watching the news. That stupid reporter!” When he didn’t move, I grabbed his shirt, along with the plaid sash across his chest. “This stupid tartan!”
His shoulders fell, and his eyes closed.
“You can’t just give up!” I tried to shake him into action, and when I failed, I ran for the turret and tried to open the windows.
“We’re only one floor up. We can jump. Or you can. I’ll only slow you down. We can meet up at John’s when the coast is clear.”
“Matty?” His calm scared the shit out of me.
“Come on, Cian! There’s no time!”
“Matty? Join us, dear.” The old woman’s voice froze me in place. Like Cian had done, I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to see proof that they’d gotten through the locked door.
The thought of them taking Cian away got me moving again. “Don’t you dare!” I rushed back to him, bumped the arm of a chair, and threw off my balance.
He caught me when I would have fallen on my face and pulled me close.
I held onto him like the life raft he was. “You can’t take him! You don’t need him! Just leave us alone!”
“Matty.” The man’s deep voice got my attention, but I buried my face in Cian’s chest and refused to turn.
“Matty, I havenae come to take him away.”
Cian gasped. “Then why have ye hunted me? Ye mean to erase me from this century another way?”
“Nay. Come, sit. I vow I mean ye no harm. Nor will I send ye back to certain death.”
“Ye ken, then, that it is precisely what I fear most?”
“Aye. What ye once feared most. I reckon ye fear something else more, now.”
Cian pulled back and looked at me, then smiled. “Aye, I do.”
One of the women chuckled. “Come, you two. Sit. The sooner we explain, the sooner we can leave you alone.”
“And we will leave you alone,” sang her sister.
Cian took my hand and led me to one of the chairs. He sat, then pulled me onto his lap. “Guan, then.”
“My name is Wickham Muir. These are my sisters, Lorraine and Loretta.”
The three of them were seated on the couch. I glanced at the door, expecting it to be broken, but it was closed and the deadbolt was still turned. I had to ask how they got in.
One of the sisters winked. “We’re witches, dear.”
I reminded myself that I was in Scotland, and we were already sitting down with these people to talk about time travel. Actual time travel. Them flying through a wall, or whatever, wasn’t any more of a stretch.
She smirked. “Oh, we don’t fly.”
I sucked my lips between my teeth in a lame effort to keep myself from thinking anything at all.
Wickham continued. “I saw ye that night, Mr. MacInnis, on the battlefield. I was a wee dazed from bein’ shot.”
Cian nodded. “I assume now that ye had armor under yer clothes, for I saw ye take the shot.”
“Aye. I did. But that wee ball still kicked like a mean mule.” He waved his hand. “By the time I understood exactly what had happened, ye were long gone.”
“Ye went to the battle to save the blond man. Simon.”
“Aye. I did. For he and my niece had fallen in love, and I feared she wouldnae go on livin’ without him. But the lassie lives in the here and now. I had to save Simon before that shot could take him down, to bring him to her. The rest of it doesnae matter now, but the timin’ was important.”
“I heard ye tell the man you could get him free of the place. I wanted the same, but I never got the chance to ask. And then…”
“And then ye reached out when I would have fallen. A kindness in the midst of so much madness. And I am glad.”
“Ye’re not angry that I took a gift that wasnae offered?”
“If ye could have saved one man from a sure death, would ye have done it? And been glad about it?”
“Certainly.”
Wickham shrugged. “So ye can understand how glad I was.”
“I dinnae ken. Why hunt me doon?”
“Glad or not, I took something from ye that day, though unintentionally. I stole yer possibilities. There was always a chance ye might have survived the battle and gone home to yer family. And I took that chance of happiness away from ye. So, to make amends I needed to find ye and ensure ye had another chance to be happy.”
He looked at me and smiled. Very handsome, and very deadly. I almost pitied the woman who had to wake up to that every morning and still be expected to breathe all day.
“Wait a minute.” I had to look away to keep my thoughts straight. “He probably could have made a happy life all on his own if he wasn’t worried you’d send him back. Why didn’t you explain all this a long time ago?”
He cocked an eyebrow at Cian. “I would have, happily…”
Cian grunted. “But he couldnae find me.”
Wickham nodded.
I looked down at the man I adored and kissed him on his forehead. “You should have believed the posters.”
“I did try everything I could think of,” Wickham insisted. “Coded messages never worked. Ye were just too clever for yer own good.” The man bit the side of his lip, holding a grin in check, then let it go. “Had I found ye sooner, though, yer heart might have chosen another woman.”
Cian stiffened. “Nay. Fate played a hand here. Ye should have seen the storm…” He frowned and looked at the sisters. “An unearthly storm.”
They shrugged.
“I dinnae suppose it was one of ye that was oot in that weather playin’ wil-o’-the-wisp?”
Wickham chuckled. “One rarely gets into mischief without the other.”
I didn’t understand and asked Cian to explain wil-o’-the-wisp.
“A phenomenon of blue lights. But they never happen in winter, and usually only on the moors. Wee blue lights that some might believe are mystic spirits guiding them home.” He glanced from sister to sister and lifted a brow. “Science claims ‘tis merely bog gas.”
The women admitted nothing. Nor did they deny anything.
“If ye had a hand in the storm, and a hand in nudgin’ Matty and I together, that means ye found me long before tonight.”
Wickham nodded.
“May I ken where I went wrong?”
One of the sisters scooted to the edge of her seat, bursting to speak, but she waited for a nod from the brother before answering for him.
“After someone reported that they’d seen the MacInnis tartan on the Ghost of Glenmore, we put a map on the wall, and each time the ghost was sighted, we would find out the location and mark it with a pin.
After a while, we could follow a straight line from the foot of the mountain to Aviemore—not just the town, but to John’s armory. ”
“We’d also marked our calendar,” the other offered. “So we knew you were always spotted near the first of the month, and on Saturdays. Catching you was a matter of waiting a few hours. Tracking you home was simple enough.”
“And very exciting,” said the first sister.
“When?” Cian croaked, then cleared his throat and tried again. “When was it ye followed me home?”
“December,” she said. “A foot of snow on the ground. We held back and just followed the tracks.” She leaned forward, her smile gone. “We are sorry for the loss of your grandmother. The ring of stones is lovely.”
Cian gave a curt nod, then tapped my leg and helped me off his lap. “Weel, ladies, Wickham, if there is nothin’ more?”
The siblings shook their heads and stood. All three looked nearly as relieved as I was.
Cian rubbed his hands together. “This is where I thank ye fer all yer troubles, fer bein’ the force that removed me from the battlefield, and for guiding this woman into m’ lonely wee glen. And now, I will guide ye to the door.”
They were all in the hallway when one sister turned back and winked. “When I kick someone out, I like to say, ‘Here’s yer hat, what’s yer hurry?’”
“I would’ve said the same.” Cian grinned. “But ye didnae bring hats.”