Chapter 16
Evan had forgotten how bright the mornings could be here.
The sky stretched wide and unbroken above the hills, a clear blue that felt almost indecent after so many years spent under low tavern ceilings and salt-heavy coastal clouds. The air was crisp but warming quickly under the sun, carrying the scent of heather and turned earth. It was...pleasant.
He walked beside Niall up the slope that led away from the house, boots brushing through long grass silvered with dew. He glanced at his brother. All this still felt unreal.
Yesterday he had been a smuggler running from men who wanted him dead, preparing to slip away before anyone could tie him to a name he had long since shed. Today he was striding across his family’s old estate with his brother at his side.
His brother who instead of meeting him with anger, resentment, recriminations, had welcomed him into his home despite all the bitterness that had passed between them.
Niall walked with easy purpose, hands clasped behind his back, gaze scanning the land. Evan had lost track of the years that had passed since he’d seen his brother last. He looked older of course, but also more...centered. There was a steadiness about him that hadn’t been there in their youth.
“Ye are quiet,” Niall observed mildly.
Evan huffed a breath. “Just... taking it in.”
His eyes roved over the fields rolling out below them.
Stone cottages dotted the landscape, smoke curling lazily from chimneys.
Patches of barley rippled gold in the sunlight.
It all seemed so peaceful. So familiar. As a lad he had run across these hills with reckless energy, fought his brothers in the long grass, planned futures that had seemed so full of endless possibilities.
And then everything had splintered.
So why was he back here? Why was he trying to step back into his old life? He knew the answer of course.
Because of her. Ruby.
Her face flashed into his mind, and a tingle went right through him.
He had spent half the night lying awake, staring at the ceiling beams, replaying everything that had passed between them yesterday.
The way her voice had trembled when she admitted she hadn’t trusted him.
The way it had steadied when she told him the truth.
That she was from hundreds of years in the future.
He still didn’t understand it. Couldn’t quite wrap his mind around the scale of it. But he believed her. That was the strange part. He believed her without reservation.
And then there was the kiss.
Oh, Lord, that kiss. He swallowed. It had been everything he’d been dreaming of. It had been wild and reckless and utterly, utterly overwhelming, like a fire that had consumed him from head to toe.
And he didn’t regret it. Lord help him, quite the opposite. He wanted more. He wanted her. He wanted...everything.
“I still canna believe ye came back,” Niall said lightly.
Evan dragged his thoughts from Ruby and focused on the man beside him. “Neither can I.”
Niall’s mouth twitched. “If anyone had told me a year ago my wayward middle brother would be strolling up this hill at my side, I’d have called them mad.”
“Ye wouldnae be the only one.”
They crested the rise and the wind rose, tugging at Evan’s cloak. They’d reached the base of the structure Evan had seen from the road when he and Ruby had first arrived.
A windmill.
It wasn’t enormous, but it stood solid and proud against the skyline, gleaming in the sun, wooden sails turning lazily in the breeze.
Evan craned his head back to look all the way to the top and whistled under his breath.
“Ye built this?”
Niall nodded. “With help, of course. I didnae like the fact that my people had to rely on the goodwill of my neighbor, MacAllister, to grind their grain. He and I didnae see eye to eye. And it seemed foolish when we have wind enough to spare.”
Evan approached it slowly, studying the craftsmanship. The stonework was sturdy, well laid. The wooden mechanisms visible through the open door looked carefully constructed, practical rather than decorative.
“Ye always were the sensible one,” Evan muttered.
Niall chuckled. “That’s not how I remember it.”
Evan ran a hand along the smooth stone. “It’s... impressive.”
He meant it. He hadn’t expected this. Hadn’t expected to find the estate thriving rather than decaying. In his memory, everything had been tainted by bitterness—arguments echoing through halls, lawyers with grim faces, Bryce’s cold determination to consolidate power.
But this—
Niall had not only stayed, he had built, expanded, carved out a life for himself from the ruin he and his brothers had made.
A sharp pang of shame pierced Evan’s chest. When things had grown ugly and suffocating, he himself had chosen the open road over responsibility. He had told himself it was freedom. Independence. Refusal to be dragged into his family’s machinations.
But he had also left behind tenants who had relied on him. People whose rents and disputes and harvests he had once overseen, however reluctantly.
“I should have done more,” he said quietly.
Niall glanced at him. “Done more?”
“For my share of the estate,” Evan clarified. “For the people who needed me.”
Niall studied him for a moment before answering. “We all made decisions back then that seemed right in the moment.”
“That’s no excuse.”
“No,” Niall agreed gently. “But it is an explanation.”
The sails creaked softly overhead as they turned. Evan folded his arms, staring out over the land. “Have ye seen them?” he asked abruptly.
Niall’s brow furrowed. “Who?”
“Ronan. Rian.”
Their two remaining brothers, twins, younger than Evan, older than Niall. He hadn’t thought about them in a long, long time. Ronan, sharp-witted and restless, always chasing something just out of reach. Rian, quiet, thoughtful, stubborn as stone.
Niall shook his head. “Not in years. I’ve asked around, but nobody seems to know where they are.”
Evan exhaled slowly. “And Bryce? Our mighty Earl of Newborough?”
Niall met Evan’s eyes, not missing the sarcasm in Evan’s tone. “Aye, I see Bryce regularly. We’ve been trying to repair our relationship. He was here not a fortnight ago.”
Evan’s shoulders went rigid. “Repair yer relationship,” he breathed softly. “As if it’s that simple.”
“I never said it was simple,” Niall replied. “But to my surprise, I find I’m starting to like the man our mighty Earl of Newborough has become. He’s changed, Evan. We all have. I’m sure Bryce would love to see ye again.”
The words dropped like a stone into still water.
“No,” Evan said.
Niall frowned. “He’s still yer brother.”
“He stopped being my brother the day he betrayed us all and tried to take everything for himself.”
“I know. I felt the same. But now I understand it was... complicated.”
“Complicated? It was greed!”
“It was fear,” Niall countered. “Father left matters tangled. Debts, promises, old obligations. Bryce panicked.”
“And so he tightened his fist around everything and left us scraps.”
The old anger rose fast and hot, as though it had been waiting just beneath the surface.
Memories flashed through his mind— days of legal wrangling, documents spread across polished tables, Bryce’s jaw set in that infuriating line that said he had already decided the outcome.
All five of them shouting and flinging accusations.
“I willnae sit across a table from him and pretend none of it happened.”
“I’m not asking ye to pretend,” Niall replied calmly. “I’m asking ye to talk.”
Evan shook his head. “I canna forgive him.” The words tasted like iron on his tongue, rusted and sharp.
“Ye dinna have to forgive him today—or any of us for that matter,” Niall said. “We all played our part in what happened. But carrying this—” he gestured vaguely at Evan’s chest “—it’s heavy.”
Evan thought of Ruby. Of the way she had looked at him last night when she spoke of her former betrothed, Daniel. Of betrayal. Of running rather than facing the wreckage of her life. It was the same instinct that drove him. To run. To escape. But like her, he was tired of running.
“Ye think this could really work?” he said quietly.
“I think,” Niall replied carefully, “that ye didnae come back here by accident. I think, perhaps ye were meant to return.”
Evan’s mouth twitched. “Yer wife told ye about my meeting with Irene MacAskill?”
Niall nodded. “She did. And she’s right: Irene does naught without a reason. And I should know.”
Evan studied his younger brother. “If ye know about Irene MacAskill then ye know what she is? And ye know the truth about where Ruby and yer wife are from?”
Niall laughed lightly. “Oh, ye mean the future?”
“Aye, I mean the future.” He shook his head. “Bloody hell, ye seem remarkably relaxed about it, brother. Ruby told me last night, and I still feel like I’ve been kicked by a plow horse.”
“I’ve had time to get used to the idea,” Niall replied.
“But believe me, when I first found out, I felt like I’d been kicked in the head too.
And turned upside down and inside out besides.
And yet, I wouldnae change any of it. Not when it brought me the love of my life.
” He fixed Evan with a knowing look. “That’s worth any upheaval. ”
Evan looked away, suddenly unable to meet his brother’s gaze. This was all so new and confusing. How was he supposed to begin making sense of the turmoil churning inside him?
He had told Ruby he might stay. He had meant it in the moment, buoyed by the warmth of her kiss and the promise of what was building between them. But standing here now, confronted with the weight of his past, the idea felt heavier.
Staying meant facing Bryce. Staying meant acknowledging what he had abandoned. Staying meant risking his heart and leaving himself vulnerable in a way he’d tried his whole life to avoid.
“I dinna know if I’m capable of what ye are suggesting,” he admitted.