Chapter 16 #2
Niall’s voice was steady. “Ye are more capable than ye think. Ye were always the strongest of us, Evan, even though ye didnae see it yerself.”
A breeze swept across the hill, tugging at Evan’s hair, carrying with it the faint sound of laughter drifting up from the direction of the house. Her laughter. She was probably out walking with Charlie, probably asking questions about everything and everyone with that relentless curiosity of hers.
She had come here to escape her old life. To begin again.
Perhaps he had too.
Evan let out a slow breath. He had told Ruby that it would take something close to magic to mend his broken family.
But magic, it seemed, had already found him once.
THE MORNING LIGHT INCHED slowly across the courtyard as Charlie showed Ruby around. It was one thing to hear about Charlie’s new life over tea and scones. Another to experience it—and Ruby wanted to experience everything.
As they walked, she kept turning in small circles, taking everything in—the low stone outbuildings, the neat kitchen gardens, the sound of chickens protesting somewhere over by the fence.
Beyond the main house, the estate stretched into a landscape of fields and cottages, with a windmill presiding over it all.
“So this is all yours?” Ruby said.
Charlie laughed. “Ours. Mine and Niall’s and all the people who call this place home. It’s like one big extended family. Nice at times. Damned infuriating at others.”
Ruby glanced at her cousin. There was something about Charlie’s posture now, an ease that hadn’t been there before. Back home, she had always been slightly restless, as though part of her was always looking for something.
It seemed she’d found it.
They passed a sturdy-looking barn, and a man emerged carrying a crate of apples.
“Joseph!” Charlie called.
The man turned, breaking into a wide grin. “Ah! Lady Charlotte!”
Ruby blinked at the title. Joseph wiped his hands on his britches and approached, nodding respectfully to Ruby. He was in late middle age, with kind eyes and weathered skin.
“Ruby, this is Joseph,” Charlie said. “Flora’s husband. He manages most of the estate’s affairs and keeps the place from falling apart.”
Joseph chuckled. “That’s generous, but I think ye overestimate my abilities.”
“Nice to meet you,” Ruby said.
Joseph smiled at her. “Flora’s been buzzing about ye all morning. Says ye’ve come a long way. Almost as far as our Charlotte, perhaps?”
Ruby glanced at Charlie, wondering how much she’d revealed about where she came from. “I have,” she replied carefully.
“Well, ye are very welcome here. Now I’d best get these apples to the kitchen or my wife willnae be happy.” He gave them both a wink, hoisted the crate, and strode away.
Ruby and Charlie continued walking, stopping to greet a seamstress who lived in one of the cottages, then a young stable hand who blushed furiously when Charlie teased him about a lass he’d recently been spending some time with.
Everywhere they went people smiled at Charlie—not out of obligation, but genuine affection.
“Everyone likes you,” she murmured.
Charlie shrugged lightly. “We’ve been through a great deal together. That tends to bind people.”
“You’ve built a life. A whole new life.”
Charlie’s smile softened. “Yes. I suppose I have.”
“Do you ever miss home?”
Charlie didn’t answer immediately. They reached the edge of a field where the breeze tugged at their skirts, and she paused, looking out.
“Of course I do,” she said at last. “I miss Mum and Dad and my old friends. I know I visit, but it’s not the same. And I miss electricity. Hot showers. Proper coffee.” She shot Ruby a mischievous look. “And online shopping.”
Ruby laughed. “God. What would we do without that?”
“I would kill for next-day delivery.”
They dissolved into giggles at the absurdity of the conversation in this setting.
“And television,” Charlie added wistfully. “Tell me what’s happening in Hearts Entwined.”
Ruby groaned. “You are not serious.”
“Deadly.”
“It’s been the usual chaos. Maya finally found out about Leo’s secret twin.”
Charlie gasped. “I knew it! I always said there was something off about him.”
“And now there’s a baby involved.”
Charlie pressed a hand to her chest. “Right. That’s it. Next time I visit home, I’m binge-watching the lot.”
Ruby rolled her eyes. Charlie had always been a sucker for soap-operas and her words stirred up some questions Ruby had been avoiding.
Since coming to live in the past, Charlie had visited home several times—and was supposed to have returned in order to be Ruby’s bridesmaid in a few weeks’ time.
Ruby had never asked how she moved between times.
She realized now, she’d been avoiding it.
That way, she’d been able to pretend that her cousin was still only in Cardiff, many miles away, true, but still in the same century at least.
But she couldn’t ignore it any longer. When she’d come here, when she’d done that reckless ritual in Princes Street Gardens, she’d given no thought as to how she might get home. To be honest, she’d not given thought to anything beyond the desperate need to escape her life.
She glanced at her cousin. “How do you do it?” she asked softly.
Charlie turned to look at her. “How do I do what?”
“Um. Get home. How do you travel between times?”
“Oh,” Charlie said softly. “That. There’s a door,” she said carefully. “In Edinburgh. In the twenty-first century, it’s in a bookshop, tucked down a side street. In this time, it’s not a bookshop but a hidden door in a townhouse. But if you know where to look—and how to open it—it leads home.”
Ruby blinked. “Just like that? You just walk through a door and poof! You can step through time?”
Charlie reached out and squeezed Ruby’s arm. “Yes, just like that. I don’t think it would work for just anyone, though. But if Irene MacAskill brought you here, I’m sure it would work for you too, as it’s Fae magic that makes it work. Ruby, there is a way home—if you want to take it.”
The words hung between them, heavy with implication. There was a way home. To her parents. Her friends. Her job. Her apartment. A way back to everything she knew.
She pictured her favorite café on the corner, the hum of traffic, the glow of streetlights at dusk. She pictured her apartment. Her phone. Her music apps.
But when she tried to imagine stepping through that door and leaving this place behind—
Evan’s face flashed into her mind.
The way he looked at her, like nobody else existed. The way he made her feel seen in a way she never had before.
“I thought I’d feel relieved,” she said quietly. “But I don’t. I don’t know how I feel.”
Charlie squeezed her hand. “That’s allowed.”
They stood there a moment longer before turning back toward the house. When they reached the courtyard, they found Flora standing in the doorway, hands on her hips.
“Dinner in an hour,” she announced briskly. “And if ye are late, ye’ll be eating cold stew.”
“Yes, Flora,” Charlie and Ruby chorused in unison, as though answering a stern headmistress.
Once inside, Ruby excused herself and headed upstairs to think, her thoughts a tangled knot. She sat on the edge of her bed and leaned forward, elbows resting on her knees. There was a way home. She tried to picture walking away from this place.
From Charlie. From...him.
And she just couldn’t do it.