CHAPTER TWENTY #3
“No, darling, he’s not. I was afraid—I had you to guard and protect. I asked Lug to send me to the safest place. He sent me to Will Monroe.”
Allie trembled, staring at her father, a handsome man who reeked of mortal power, even being dead.
William Macleod smiled at her. “I am proud of you, daughter,” he said.
He took her mother’s hand and Allie saw the white light coursing between them, happiness and love. “Father,” she managed to say. She wanted to know this man.
“You will know me through your brother,” he said.
Allie smiled through her tears. It was a command. She nodded. “I sensed the truth the moment Royce told me about you and Mom.”
“I know.”
Allie started. “How much can you see from the other side?”
Elasaid’s beautiful smile played. “Darling, that is not a just question. The gods bless you and Ruari and your children and their children.” She blew a kiss.
Allie saw her and her father fade. She lifted her hand.
They continued to smile at her, their love so evident and consuming.
They slowly receded, until she was left standing alone in the room.
She wiped her tears. They were together for eternity—and she would get to know her father through Guy, as he had ordered her to do.
Wow, Tabby was in for a huge ordeal. Allie bit back a smile. She’d manage. It would be worth it in the end.
She found Royce in the hall, in a deep conversation with his steward. But he instantly looked at her, his eyes warm with deep, undying love.
Allie’s own heart swelled with delirium and joy.
She sat down to eat, ravenous. When the steward was gone, Royce came over. “Did ye enjoy yer bath?”
“Yes. What’s wrong, Royce? Did I tire you out?”
Annoyance flashed. “I was being kind by not coming to yer bath! We made love for two days!”
She laughed at him. “Gotcha.”
He smiled back. Then he sobered. “Three Masters have gone to Moffat Cathedral an’ retrieved six pages o’the Book o’ Healing.”
“That’s great!” Allie cried.
“Aye, but I had hoped they might find the Book o’Power there.” He sat down beside her.
Instantly Allie knew he wanted to ask her something. “What is it?”
He smiled at her, his expression so beautiful and open, so unguarded, her heart ached. “Ye met me at Eoradh.”
She blushed, recalling that sexy encounter with his younger self. “Oh, yes. We met.”
His smile faded. “I remember the day so well. In one moment, ye changed my world. I wanted ye so badly—an’ dinna wish ye to leave. I still dinna ken how I let ye go, but I understood I needed ye more in this time than then.”
She was stunned. “You remember what happened?”
His smile returned, and his gaze flickered. “Ye told me how much ye loved me, even my young self—an’ ye let me take a kiss.”
His memories of that terrible day had been changed by her arrival in the past. She was stunned. “But it’s forbidden to change the past.”
He eyed her oddly. “Did we change the past?”
“You do remember that the first time you met me was in the future—in 2007—three weeks ago.”
“Nay, lass,” he corrected softly. “I met ye the day I rescued Brigdhe. An’ I never forgot ye, not in eight hundred long years.” He smiled and stroked his hand over her hair and then down her back.
Allie breathed hard. What had Sam said about an incomprehensible passage in the Book? “My friends never understood some spell about Fate interrupted and Fate corrected.”
Royce’s brows lifted. “From time to time, something happens that is not meant to be. In the Code, it tells us that Fate will always adjust such errors in history.”
Allie met his gaze. Fate had done just that in her case, because she should have been born in the thirteenth century. “I need to go to Blayde,” she said suddenly. She had a new family to meet and learn about—and she had a best friend to visit. Boy, would they talk up a storm!
Royce smiled. “I’ll take ye so ye can gossip with Lady Tabitha.”
“Lurker! Have you met her?”
“Nay, but I’m glad ye have friends in our time.”
Allie met his gaze. “Our time. Oh, Royce, I am the luckiest woman in the world.”
“I’m the most fortunate man.” He stood. “We can leave in two days. I have many matters to attend before we visit yer brother an’ his wife.”
Allie nodded happily.
“I will be back to sup with ye.” He surprised her yet again by brushing her cheek with a kiss, his hand lingering in her hair. Then he strode across the hall.
Allie watched him go, loving him so much it hurt. “You know, you do have a way with words.”
He glanced back at her. “That’s ye, Ailios. I prefer action, but ye love to talk—even in bed.” His eyes gleamed. “I dinna mind.”
“You love talking in bed—don’t you dare deny it. Mr. Medieval has a soft side after all.”
“There’s nothing soft about me in bed,” he returned, but he was smiling.
And even though he was so light and happy now, Allie loved him so much she lifted her hand and sent her white healing light deep into his bones—and his heart.
He started and turned.
She waited for his reaction.
And he simply laughed at her before going out into the light of a new Highland day in their time.