Chapter Four
Jenna watched Arran MacLeod walk down the drive and then turn onto the path into the trees.
She hugged her arms around herself, trying to tell herself that she was glad he’d gone.
What he’d asked her to do… It was ridiculous!
Go back in time with him? Use her powers to restore some ancient spellweaving she’d never even heard of?
Yes, she was glad he’d gone. So why did she feel so shaky? Why did she feel like a coward?
Her eyes strayed to where the gold torc had lain on the kitchen table. Arran had been right—it would be worth a pretty penny. Maybe even enough to pay off some of the mortgage arrears. Certainly enough to get her a bit of breathing space until she could figure something out.
And all she had to do to get it was break her vow and use the powers she had lost faith in long ago.
No. She wouldn’t do it. She couldn’t do it. She would find the money another way.
She sighed. This was turning into one of those days where she wished she hadn’t bothered getting out of bed.
“Come on,” she said to Bunny, who was standing in the doorway staring in the direction Arran had gone. “Let’s get you home.”
Clipping on Bunny’s leash, she took her down the street to a grateful Mrs. Turner, then hurried home. She had to get ready for work. The last thing she wanted to do was be late and get into trouble with her boss. She wasn’t likely to be given the overtime she needed then, was she?
But as she hurried up the steps and onto her porch, her phone beeped. Digging it out of her pocket, she opened the message that had just appeared, and read it. It wasn’t very long, just a few simple words, but they spelled the end of Jenna’s hopes.
Your loan application has been declined.
Jenna stared at the words, fighting back the sudden tears that stung her eyes.
The dark wave of despair she’d been holding back ever since she’d found Alex in bed with that blonde woman rose up and threatened to drown her.
She took deep, steadying breaths, but it didn’t help.
She felt suddenly as if a giant pit had opened in front of her feet and if she took another step, it would swallow her.
She was going to lose her house. She was going to lose everything.
There is more where that came from. I will pay ye a king’s ransom if ye can save my people.
A tiny chink of light opened in the darkness, like a firefly in a dark room. It was a crazy choice, but it was the only choice she had. Hurrying down the steps, she took off along the path to the lake.
She just hoped she wasn’t too late.
In fact, she wasn’t. Luck, it seemed, was on her side for a change. Running at full pelt, she spotted Arran on the trail ahead and managed to catch him before he reached the spot on the lakeshore where she’d first found him.
“Wait!” she cried. “Wait!”
He turned and she saw a flicker of surprise cross his face as he spotted her. He stopped walking and waited.
Jenna puffed up to him and doubled over with her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath.
“What is it, lass?” he asked. “Is something wrong?”
She held up a hand. “Just… give… me… a… minute.” She gulped in great whooping breaths and then finally straightened. “This fee you’re willing to pay. How much exactly did you have in mind?”
He frowned, his forehead creasing. “I thought ye said—”
“I know what I said! How much are you offering?”
He studied her for a moment. “I can offer ye one hundred gold lions.”
Jenna thought about this. She had no idea how much that equated to in modern money but with the price of gold these days, she guessed it was a fair amount. Enough to pay off her mortgage arrears? Probably. And more, if she was lucky.
She took a deep breath and then stuck out her hand. “All right. You’ve got a deal.”
Arran looked at her hand but didn’t take it. “So… ye will do it?” Despite his size and seeming confidence, there was an odd vulnerability in his voice as he asked the question, as though he wanted to hope but didn’t dare let himself.
Jenna nodded tightly, not quite able to believe she was doing this. “I’ll do it. Do we have a deal?”
“Aye, lass,” Arran breathed, his blue eyes flashing. “We have a deal.” He reached out and took her hand, his big hand dwarfing hers. She could feel the strength in his grip, and the callouses that marked his palms. Whatever else he was, this laird of Clan MacLeod was a man used to physical labor.
“Good,” she said with a nod, shaking his hand. “That’s agreed then.”
“Aye,” he replied. “It is.”
He did not release her hand and stood for a second just staring at her.
There was a faint dusting of stubble on his chin and Jenna found herself wondering stupidly if they had razors in the fifteenth century.
Or toothbrushes. Or soap. Or a million things she took for granted.
Oh, heck. She hadn’t really thought this through, had she?
Perhaps she ought to go back home and pack a few things—
“This way, lass. We must hurry.”
Before she could say a word, he released her hand and strode off along the path.
Jenna trotted behind. She ought to be asking questions, finding out as much as she could about the strange place she was going to and the task she’d be doing when she got there, but all such sensible considerations were pushed out of her head by the craziness of what she was about to do.
Had she really just agreed to go back in time with some strange guy in order to fix some magic she didn’t know the first thing about? What had happened to her promise never to use her magic again? What had happened to her determination to live a normal, sensible life?
Alex happened, she answered herself. The mortgage arrears happened. My normal, sensible life going down the toilet is what happened.
Arran strode along in silence, his gaze fixed on the path ahead.
He was getting some strange looks from the dog-walkers they passed, and Jenna wasn’t surprised.
After all, it wasn’t every day that you passed a hulking Highlander dressed in a tartan plaid that covered him to his knees and left his muscled arms bare for all to stare at, was it?
But Arran barely seemed to notice. Didn’t notice or didn’t care.
They finally reached the spot where she’d pulled him out of the lake. A few ducks were paddling around by the lake’s edge looking for food but there was nobody else in sight, for which Jenna was profoundly grateful.
She looked around. “So what now?”
Arran strode down to the water and looked back, holding out his hand. “Now we go in.”
Jenna took one look at the cold, dark water stretching out ahead of her, and felt her stomach twist with apprehension. “In there?”
“Aye, lass. It’s the portal.”
Oh, bloody hell. She reached out, gingerly taking his hand, and allowed him to lead her into the water. It was bitterly cold and she gasped as it reached her ankles, then her knees, then her thighs.
What was she doing? If her aunts could see her now, they’d think she’d lost her mind. Perhaps she had.
For his part, Arran didn’t seem to feel the cold at all, and strode into the lake with all the confidence of someone who was born to water.
In only moments, it was so deep that Jenna felt the bottom disappear and found herself swimming awkwardly, following Arran as he moved with confident strokes out towards the center of the lake.
He turned to wait for her, treading water easily, and Jenna struggled up to him, trying to ignore the cold that seeped through her clothes and right into her bones.
“What now?” she gasped.
Even as she said the words, she felt something grab her ankles and begin to pull her under. She screamed, terror exploding through her, but then Arran was there, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her against his hard, muscular chest.
“Take a deep breath and dinna fight it. Close yer eyes. Trust me. I will keep ye safe.”
Jenna sucked in a deep breath and clung onto Arran as she felt herself yanked into the dark, freezing water.
It took everything she had not to panic, not to try and claw her way back to the surface, to hold her breath and close her eyes as he’d instructed.
Arran’s arms tightened around her and the solid feel of him, hard and unmovable like granite, was the only thing that kept her from screaming as they went down, down, down, into darkness.
It was over in a heartbeat. Jenna’s lungs hadn’t even begun to strain for air when the blackness suddenly retreated, light appeared above, and then the two of them broke the surface with a whoosh. Jenna drew a great breath, gasping in lungfuls of the sweet, clean air.
She felt Arran give a powerful kick, and he pulled her over to a shelf of barnacle encrusted rocks. Jenna grabbed hold of a rock and shook her head, trying to clear the clinging threads of wet hair from her face.
“Are ye all right, lass?” Arran’s voice was so deep she felt it vibrating right through her chest.
With a start, she realized he was still holding her and that she was pressed against him, his wet clothes doing nothing to hide the hard ridges and contours of him.
Heat flooded her cheeks. “I… um… yes… I’m fine.”
If he noticed her embarrassment, he didn’t show it. He nodded as if satisfied and then released her. Despite herself, Jenna found herself a little disappointed as he moved away from her, grabbing a rock and then hauling himself up to sit on the lip.
She glanced around. She seemed to be in some sort of rock pool. It wasn’t large—perhaps five feet across, and encircled by boulders covered with barnacles and seaweed. Wherever she was, this was clearly not the lake anymore. She could hear the sound of waves crashing nearby.
Arran climbed to his knees on the rock shelf, water cascading off him, then held out a hand. Jenna took it and allowed Arran to haul her out of the pool and onto the rocks that circled it. Jenna’s legs felt a little wobbly, so she sat on one of the rocks while she caught her breath.