Leith: A Clean Time Travel Highland Romance (Highland Passages Book 3)

by Annis Reid

  It took less than a moment for her to understand, her face lighting up—until apprehension furrowed her brow. “Oh, Leith. I would love to, more than anything. But you know it won’t really count… later.” Her gaze cut over to where the men had gathered.

  It would not matter that they were wed once they returned to her time. If that were even possible.

  “Aye, I had supposed as much.” He dipped his head nearer. “But to say the words before my father and brother…”

  “Of course,” she agreed, fresh tears sparkling in her eyes.

  “Ye will, then?” he asked, his heart ceasing to beat in anticipation of a single word which would unlock all of heaven to him. He held her dear, beloved face in his hands and thought he might as well have been holding the entire world.

  His world. Nothing less.

  “Aye,” she beamed. “I will.”

  He was laughing when he looked to his father, his uncle. “Could we perhaps impose upon ye for a small wedding ceremony?” he asked, knowing what the answer would be.

  24

  “You’re completely sure of this? I mean, one hundred percent?” Melissa craned her neck to look up at her husband, trying to get a feel for what he was thinking by reading his expression.

  Naturally, just to spite her, he angled his face away. She nudged him, growling, and he laughed.

  “Aye, lass. How many times must I tell ye? I am utterly certain.”

  “It’s a whole other world,” she reminded him. “I mean, your eyes are gonna fall right out of your head when you see how things have changed. We have cars and planes and the internet and TV and…”

  “Ye need not say any more,” he grunted. “I know my own mind. If there is nothing else I know, ‘tis that.”

  She knew it, too. Once he made up his mind, there was no changing it. What would the world think of this man when she brought him back? He was like a Viking come to life. Women would swoon when he walked past.

  Then again, she was assuming there was even a way to get back.

  Castle MacNeill rose up before them, and her heart ached for everyone who’d died behind those crumbling walls. “That poor family,” she whispered, holding Leith tighter than ever.

  “Aye,” he grunted. “Tis a pity, to be certain. Wicked thing. Greedy.”

  “I can’t help but feel sorry for Flora.”

  “Ye what, now?” He twisted his head around, staring in shock. “Ye canna mean it.”

  “I do. She couldn’t help being the way she was, raised with her grandmother in the house. No wonder she got all the ideas she had, being fed that sort of madness from the time she was born. It’s a good thing Fiona was too young for much of it to sink in.”

  “Flora was her favorite, that much I recall,” he mused. “Aye, she would wish to shape the lass in her image. None of us saw it.”

  “It’s too terrible to imagine. I can barely imagine it, and she told me how they died to my face.”

  “Dinna think upon it any longer,” Leith murmured, patting the hands she clasped above his navel. “Tis the past now. The dead can rest peacefully. Malcolm and Fiona will unite the clans. And we are free to be together, always.”

  Always. Her skin tingled at the thought.

  How had she ever imagined herself happy with Jimmy? How had she lied to herself for so long, telling herself they’d make it as a married couple? Compared to Leith, he was nothing. He was barely even a man, since a man wouldn’t betray her the way Jimmy had.

  But she hadn’t known Leith then. It was a shame she hadn’t met him years earlier. He might’ve spared her some pain.

  Not to mention the money she’d spent having that necklace made.

  “The necklace!” she shouted out into the open air. “It was the rune! I forgot about the rune!”

  “What? What are ye on about? And quit squeezing me,” he coughed, loosening her arms.

  “I must have lost my mind. It was the rune. I forgot all about it. The necklace. Remember? I told you I had a necklace when we first met. It fell off my neck and I went back to get it. Remember?”

  “Aye, I recall something about a necklace.”

  “It was a rune Jimmy found after his concert—long story,” she added when Leith looked back at her in complete confusion. “Anyway, the more I think about it now… It had to be the rune. The necklace fell off my neck and, like, slid across the floor. No way would that have happened on its own. What if it has magic powers or something?”

  “Witchcraft?” he asked, his voice heavy with doubt.

  “I don’t know! Whatever you want to call it, something brought me back here. It’s as good an explanation as any, isn’t it?”

  “I will give ye that much,” he agreed with a chuckle. “Where is the thing, then?”

  “It should still be in my purse.” She crossed her fingers, praying it was still there. All along, she’d had the key that would take her home and she hadn’t known it.

  But if she had gone home before now, she would’ve missed so much. Sure, she would’ve missed almost dying—not something she ever wanted to relive, the sensation of a noose around her neck—but she would’ve missed exchanging vows in front of Leith’s family, too.

  She would’ve Leith. Full stop. And the thought of it was unacceptable.

  They reached the front gate. Melissa was out of the saddle before Leith, jumping off Eoghan’s back and finding the pack which held her purse. She dumped the entire contents of the bag onto the ground and picked through it with shaking fingers.

  What if she’d lost it?

  But she hadn’t. A flash of silver caught her eye, and she held the rune up by its chain. “See? I told you.” She handed it to Leith with a smile.

  “Och, ‘tis Fehu,” he murmured, studying the carving in the stone. “I dinna see how it brought ye here, however.”

  “Neither do I, but it’s the only thing I have to do on right now.” She shoved everything back into the bag and slung it over her shoulder. “We have to try.”

  Only Leith wasn’t smiling. It took her a second to understand why.

  He looked around, gazing out over the green, lush landscape with its gently rolling hills and rocky valleys. It was beautiful, so beautiful her heart felt like it might burst.

  And he would never see it this way again.

  “We don’t have to.” She wrapped her arms around his waist, settling her head against his arm. “Honestly. If it hurts to leave, we don’t have to. Not ever.”

  “Nay, lassie,” he grunted. “I only wished to look upon it once more.” He reached out and patted Eoghan’s neck. “I shall miss ye, my good friend.” He then released the horse in a patch of tall grass. “Someone will find ye and take ye home with them before long.”

  This was all for her. He was doing this for her. Now she was sure her heart would burst as she watched him murmur his goodbyes to his beloved horse before turning to her with a firm nod.

  “There’s no going back if this works.” She went to him, taking his hand. “You know that.”

  “I do.”

  “And you’re willing to go?” When he sighed, she insisted. “Leith. I won’t live the rest of my life thinking you have any regrets, even for a second. I want you to be sure. I wouldn’t want you to be unhappy for anything, even if it means going back to a world full of modern conveniences.”

  She looked around. “I could stay here with you, if that’s what you wanted. We could stay in Scotland, or maybe sail to the New World. We could live in America before it’s even a country. We could start a new life there.”

  “But ye have a life already, do ye not?” he asked, stroking her cheek. “And people who love ye. Who would spend their lives wondering what became of ye. My father and brother and cousin… I said my goodbyes.”

  “It’s such a huge sacrifice,” she whispered.

  “Tis nothing, for it means I shall live my life with ye.” He held up the rune, dangling from its chain.

  She took it, holding it tight in her clenched fist
. Right away, a faint, green light shone from between her fingers.

  “Hold onto me,” she gasped, instinct making her reach for him and take a firm hold before it was too late and the green glow enveloped them, blocking out the rest of the world.

  Until it stopped.

  Until there was no more glow.

  Until it was just the two of them standing together in front of the ruins. Eoghan was gone.

  “Who are they? Mum, who are that man and lady?”

  Melissa blinked hard, shaking her head to clear the fog. Where was that voice coming from? She turned her head back and forth until she found a little girl standing maybe thirty feet away, pointing at her and Leith.

  The girl’s mouth hung open. She couldn’t have been much older than five, maybe six. A young couple stood behind her, holding a map between them and murmuring back and forth. They weren’t paying a bit of attention.

  “Mum!” the little girl shouted. “Where did the man and lady come from?”

  “What are ye on about?” the mother asked, exasperated, before seeing Melissa and Leith for the first time. She took in their rough clothes in a glance. “Actors, I would imagine. Come, Sophia.”

  She took the girl’s hand and led her inside the castle walls. Sophia wasn’t so easily convinced, but her parents weren’t hearing any of it.

  Actors?

  “What was she on about?” Leith whispered, looking up and down and all around. “What is this place?”

  Melissa barely noticed his questions. “My God,” she whispered, holding her hands to her mouth. “It’s a museum. They turned it into a living museum.”

  “A what?” Leith joined her, standing in front of the open castle gate and looking inside.

  “It’s all different,” she explained, never taking her eyes from what went on behind the walls. “When I was here, it was ruins. There was a legend about the people who died here. Nobody knew how, but they assumed it was a curse. But now they know, because Flora told me. And I told Niall and Mervyn and everybody.”

  Inside, it might as well have been the eighteenth century again. Except not at all. A young boy led a pair of horses across the courtyard. A blacksmith demonstrated his skill for a crowd of eager tourists. A tour guide gave the history of the castle as she led a group from one building to the next.

  “We changed things,” she marveled. “Instead of letting it fall to ruin, somebody maintained it. I can’t believe this.”

  She bent to pick up a pamphlet somebody had tossed aside and flipped to the entry about Castle MacNeill. “See? Look.” She read aloud, “When it was discovered the family and remaining members of the household were killed by poison, Laird Niall MacNeill ordered the castle restored. His eldest grandson, Leith—”

  A lump in her throat stopped her for a second, tears blurring her vision.

  “His eldest grandson, Leith MacManus—son of Malcolm and Fiona—lived in the castle with his family upon becoming laird of Clan MacManus in the late eighteenth century. The clan donated the castle to be used as a museum two hundred years later.”

  “He named his son for me,” Leith whispered.

  “He did.” She leaned against him, closing her eyes. “And they lived here, and they were happy. And their family lived here, too, for hundreds of years.”

  “Thanks to ye.” He tipped her chin up with one finger. “All thanks to ye.”

  “To us,” she corrected, smiling. “We did this. I can’t even start to understand how, exactly, but we did it.”

  “With the help of a rune,” he added, looking down at her clenched fist. She hadn’t opened it since before they came through.

  And when she did, she found nothing but a chain and a setting which used to hold a stone. “Oh, no,” she gasped, looking at the ground around her. “It’s gone! It must have fallen off!”

  “But how? Ye never opened your hand. Even I noticed that.”

  Melissa stared at her palm, where the rune had sat. Maybe it was her imagination, but she could’ve sworn she still felt a faint charge of magic pulsing through her hand.

  “Maybe that’s just the way it was meant to be,” she guessed. “Maybe somebody else will find it and use it someday. Maybe I was never meant to keep it for myself.”

  She then looked up at her husband, grinning. “I already have you. I don’t need any other keepsakes from the past.”

  They left the castle arm-in-arm, walking out into a world she couldn’t wait to show him.

  I hope you enjoyed Leith!

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  Copyright © 2019by Annis Reid

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