"Hey!" she shouted, waving her arms furiously. Who cared what kind of renaissance fair reject this guy was? He was a human being with a light and a way of getting around — after the bizarre night she'd had, she'd take it. "Hey! Help!"
"Who's there?" There was that Scottish accent again — it was beautiful, she couldn't help but notice, despite her fear. "It's the middle of the night —"
"Down here! Hi!" She had reached him. She felt a bizarre sense of relief when he looked down at her and saw her, his torch lifted high in one gloved hand. A man about her age, she realized as she looked up at him, a little surprised. She'd always imagined men on horseback to be much older, for some reason. Maybe because she hadn't read stories about knights in armor on noble steeds since she was a young girl. "Hi. Thanks for stopping. Sorry — I got lost out here somewhere, I was — you know the sandstone caves in the cliffs nearby?"
The man was staring at her, clearly nonplussed. To Helena's dismay, she could feel her heart pounding out of control — there was an odd lightness to her vision, a strange swirling, swimming sensation behind her eyes, and she realized with a shock that she was close to passing out. She stumbled a little, reaching out blindly and feeling her hands encountering the great black horse's flanks. The creature huffed a little, shifting under her touch, extending its long neck to sniff warily at her. She was leaning hard against it, fighting her dizziness. She could hear the man speaking, but she couldn't make out what he was saying, only hearing concern in his voice.
And then there was a thump, and she realized he'd dismounted the horse and was standing beside her. The horse shied away finally, and she lost her balance, lurching forwards — and feeling the man catch her in his arms. She took a breath, a little shocked by the sudden intimacy, feeling the impulse to pull back but not having the strength… the man held her close, his body warm and comforting in the cold of the night. The strange night she'd been having caught up with her in a rush, and to her dismay, she felt her consciousness giving out — and before she knew it, blackness had reached out to claim her.
The next thing she knew she was sitting bolt upright again, breathing hard. For a moment, she almost expected to look around and see the walls of the cave… but to her dismay, instead she saw the unfamiliar walls of yet another place she'd never been. Rough, gray stone walls… a little window looking out onto a gray sky, light again — how much time was passing? Was this, too, a dream? — and a fireplace with a fire cheerfully crackling in it. Dizzy, she sat back… and realized that she wasn't alone in the room. There were a handful of women sitting near her bedside, three of them in total. They'd been talking amongst themselves in low voices — was that what had roused them? Their eyes were on her now. All three of them were wearing strange gowns — period clothing, she thought dazedly. Like a renaissance fair. What was going on?
"You're awake," one of the women said softly, moving to her bedside and reaching out to press one cool hand against her forehead. "That's good." The woman looked to be in her early fifties, perhaps a little younger. She had kind, dark eyes, a long braid of dark red hair, and a thoughtful expression on her face as she took Helena's temperature.
"Are you a nurse?" she asked, feeling a hunch. The women still sitting by her bedside exchanged amused glances as the redheaded woman laughed.
"You got me. My name's Audrina," she said softly. "Yours?"
"Helena," she said, struggling to sit up straighter — then wincing as a wave of dizziness rushed over her. "Helena Crane. I'm so sorry to trouble you like this — where am I, exactly?"
"We'll get to that," Audrina said gently. "This is Cora, and Marianne."
The two women sitting by her bed both had dark hair and looked to be about Audrina's age. Cora was smiling, her dark eyes twinkling — she had a warm, inviting manner and a curvier figure than the woman sitting beside her, whose dark hair fell straight around her sharp gray eyes.
"Nice to meet you," Helena said faintly. "Are you nurses, too?"
"I'm a midwife." Cora chuckled. "And Marianne, well —"
"I'm an equestrian," Marianne said quickly. "I train horses, teach riding… that kind of thing."
Helena couldn't help but think that she wasn't being told something important… but she shrugged, not wanting to press the matter. "I'm a geologist."
"A geologist? We don't have a geologist yet," Audrina chuckled. "I'd stay in bed if I were you, Helena. You've been through a lot."
"I can't figure out what exactly I've been through," Helena said, frowning as Audrina offered her a glass of water from a pitcher on the bedside table. At least she was warm and safe in bed… though she felt a little ridiculous. "What happened?"
"What's the last thing you remember?"
"I — well, it's complicated," she said, frowning a little. "I was in the caves, looking around — there was a minor cave-in and I was waiting for a friend to help me get out a different way… I fell asleep for a minute, and then I guess I'm not sure. Something happened, and the next thing I remembered I was lying in the grass on the moors out there in the middle of the night." She frowned. "Do you know much about memory loss? It's like I lost a few hours there."
Audrina, Cora and Marianne were exchanging knowing glances. "I don't think you did," Audrina said softly. "We'll help you figure out what happened in a minute. Do you remember anything else?"
"Not really. I got up, walked through the fog a bit, found some sheep…" She hesitated, remembering the monstrous thing she'd seen through the fog… but something stopped her from describing it to Audrina. She'd almost certainly been dreaming when she'd seen the thing, and she didn't want these women to think she was out of her mind completely. She already felt silly enough having to have been rescued like this. "Then there was… some guy on a horse, I think? I guess he must have been the sheep farmer, or something. He helped me — I was dizzy, or something, I must have nearly passed out. I remember him putting me on the back of his horse…" She frowned, trying to piece together these fragments. "I don't remember the ride very well. He kept calling me Brigid. Then I saw… surely not."
"Saw what?" Cora asked, leaning forward curiously. "What did you see?"
"It sounds stupid. It must have been a dream." She shook her head, grinning ruefully. "I've been hearing all about the ruins around here, I must have had castles on the brain. It was like… I looked up over the guy's shoulder, and I saw this enormous castle. Like — a proper, real castle, with lights in all the windows and everything."
The women exchanged glances again. "About that castle," Marianne said softly. "It wasn't a dream."
"Yeah, it was," Helena said patiently. "The only castle around here's the old ruin, right? The one with all the witches? Castle Mac-something."
"MacClaran," Audrina said simply. "Castle MacClaran. It's where you are, Helena. Have a look out the window if you don't believe me."
"I thought it was a ruin," Helena said blankly. She glanced out the window, a little shocked to see that they were several floors up — she could see a courtyard below, ringed by a high stone wall. Beyond it lay a dirt road rolling down a hill through thick trees… and beyond them, the familiar grassy moors she'd been wandering on. "The guy at the airport said there were only foundations left."
"There really is no easy way of saying this," Cora said softly. "Helena — this is Castle MacClaran. But not as it is — in your time."
Helena tilted her head, grinning a little. "Like a re-enactment, or something? Is that why you're all wearing those gowns? My sister was really into that stuff for a little while."
"Not a re-enactment. Just an … an actment, I'm afraid. The reason you can't remember how you got from the cave to the moors, Helena, is that you've been brought back through time. This is the fifteenth century. Welcome to Castle MacClaran."
Helena stared at the three of them, waiting for the joke. But it didn't seem to be coming. They were all looking back at her, serious and intent. Her mind was spiraling, the dizzy, panicky, feverish feeling she'd had back on the
moors beginning to claim her again. She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself. Were these women crazy? What did they mean, she'd traveled through time?
"Very funny," she said cautiously, raising an eyebrow. "But where am I really?"
"I know it's hard to believe," Audrina said softly. "But it's something that's been happening for… well, a very long time. I'm originally from America. And I was born in your time. But I was brought back here when I was in my twenties, by… well, we've spent a long time figuring out exactly what happened. Basically, though, it was magic, Helena. I know how it sounds," she added with a smile, because Helena had uttered a hearty guffaw of laughter.
"Okay," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "Don't tell me, then. But I'm going to need to get back to where I'm staying pretty soon. All my stuff's there. And I lost my phone."
"We're telling you the truth, Helena," Marianne shrugged. "It's a lot, but you're going to have to believe us eventually. There are … God, so many of us now. Women who've been brought back from your time through to this one. It's a long story… it has to do with a curse on the MacClarans. We've put a stop to the curse, but it seems that women are still being brought back through time…"
But Helena wasn't listening. The dizziness had rushed up again, and she felt herself sagging back into the bed as consciousness abandoned her for the third time in what felt like only a few hours. Her last thought as she fell back into sleep was that it was a little unsettling, how serious these women seemed to be about the utterly ridiculous story they were telling her.
Chapter 4
When she woke up, the sun was low in the sky outside her window, and she was feeling a lot less dizzy and weak than she had been. Audrina was still sitting at her bedside, her eyes lowered to a book in her lap, and Helena realized that the older woman hadn't noticed she was awake. Well, that was good. She could use a little time to herself.
What the hell was going on? The explanation the women had given her as to where she was and what had happened was completely ridiculous… but then again, she had to admit that the information she had so far was pretty much in keeping with what they'd said. A man on a horse had saved her from the moors… she'd woken up in what definitely looked like a castle from the inside, with a view to match… was it possible that it was the truth? Possible, sure… but completely ridiculous. But still, the possibility gnawed at her.
Whatever the case was, it seemed that these women believed what they were telling her. So it was possible that her best course of action was to go along with it… to pretend to believe them, at least until she could do her own research on what was going on. It would be pretty ridiculous to believe them without even having a look around the castle herself. And she had to admit, she was a bit curious about what lay beyond the rough wooden door to this room. Would they let her explore? Surely they would.
The question she couldn't avoid thinking about was — why would these women lie to her? Ridiculous as the story was, she couldn't think of a justification for it as hard as she tried. She was a geologist — she had no money, and neither did her family, so kidnapping her was pretty pointless. Why would they have bothered with any of this? Unless they were telling the truth… unless there really was magic, and time travel, and curses… unless she really was several hundred years in the past…
The shiver that ran through her at the very thought drew Audrina's attention, and the nurse smiled as she reached out to take her temperature again.
"Still no fever," she said softly, smiling. "That's good. A few of us got very sick when we first got here, and you were out in the cold and the damp for a long time."
"I don't get sick very often," Helena shrugged. "Just lucky, I guess."
"Good immune system. That'll help."
"You were a nurse — back in … the future?" How did that work, exactly — the continuity of it? "What was that like?"
"I worked in an emergency department," Audrina said, settling back into her seat with a smile. "It was rewarding, but exhausting. Being back here… well, it's different. But Cora, Karin and I have done a pretty good job of translating some of our medical knowledge to be useful in these times."
"Karin? Did I meet her?"
"Not yet. She was an infectious disease specialist at the CDC," Audrina explained with a smile. "She helped us deal with a terrible epidemic here."
"How many of you are there?" She found herself getting curious about the story, even though she didn't want to admit that she was beginning to believe it might be true. "Time travelers, I mean."
"Let's see," Audrina said softly. "There's me, Cora and Marianne — we were the first three. Karin, of course. Fiona — that's young Donal's wife," she said with a smile. "Then Delilah, who helped us put an end to the curse once and for all. Then her sister, Bethany…"
"If you'd put an end to the curse, how did Bethany get here?" Helena objected.
"Aye, we wondered the same," Audrina said softly. Her accent was fascinating. It was mostly American, just like Helena's… but with the faintest touch of a Scottish accent beginning to soften the edges of it, as though she really had been here for years. "It seems to be a question of timing. The nature of the curse, the wording of it… well, Morag, the witch who cast it, she was initially blind with rage. She cursed any woman that a man of Clan MacClaran fell in love with to meet an untimely death."
"That doesn't seem especially fair," Helena pointed out, raising an eyebrow.
"She was angry," Audrina said softly. "She wanted to punish the MacClarans for keeping her away from her own true love. But it was unforgivable, true. But that was why she tried to reverse it, on her deathbed. She attempted to end the curse, but all she managed to do was ensure that a descendant of the dead woman would return to take her place."
Despite her skepticism, Helena couldn't help but shiver. "Return?"
"From the future. I am a descendant of a woman named Maeve MacClaran," Audrina said simply. "She was my husband's first love… and she was cruelly killed. I'm her spitting image, so I'm told."
"So — you are your own great-great-great-whatever grandmother?"
"I suppose so," Audrina said with a smile. "At any rate, the pattern bears out. Every single woman who's been brought back to us through time has found, sooner or later, that they're the spitting image of a woman who loved one of the MacClaran men. And they've all found love in the arms of that man, too," she added with a smile.
"But the curse has been ended."
"Yes — but not before it claimed a few more women, it seems," Audrina said with a sigh. "We expect that women like you will keep returning to us until all the lost women have been replaced by their own descendants."
"So — some random Scottish woman died, and somehow that meant that I wound up back here to replace her?"
"Basically, yes," Audrina said with a rueful smile. "I know it sounds pretty wild."
"Insane," Helena said flatly. "I was thinking of the word insane."
"That works too." The nurse chuckled. "I understand if it takes you a few days to acclimatize — if you need some time to yourself, that's fine too. Whatever we can do to help you adjust… just know that you're not alone in this. We've all gone through it."
There was something oddly touching about that… but Helena still didn't trust that Audrina was telling her the truth. It was just… completely absurd. Maybe it was being stuck in this little room that was making her reject what she was being told… she had a feeling that the minute she got out of the room, they'd all reveal that it was all some elaborate joke they were playing on her. She sat up, swinging her legs out of the bed, and realized with relief that she wasn't as dizzy or sick as she had been before.
"I think I want to go for a walk," she said carefully, giving Audrina a cautious look. Would the woman stop her? But no — the nurse nodded, rising gracefully to her feet to open the door for her.
"Of course. Would you like to go by yourself, or would you like company?" Helena hesitated, and Audrina smiled. "Tell you what.
I was about to head down to the dining hall for dinner. Would you like to walk that far with me? Then you can go off by yourself or join me for dinner — up to you."
"Okay," she said hesitantly, biting her lip as Audrina opened the door. There was an odd reluctance in her as she headed for the corridor outside the room — more rough stone walls, these punctuated every few paces by torches set in brackets on the wall. It was all… unsettlingly real.
They headed down the hallway together, and Helena jumped as a couple of women emerged from one of the rooms. They were dressed in long cotton dresses with old-fashioned aprons over the top, and they turned identical curious looks to Helena as she walked past, before bobbing little curtseys to Audrina and disappearing down the hallway. Audrina smiled at Helena's confusion.
"Servants," she explained. "I found the uniforms a little quaint when I first got here, too."
"I just…" She took a deep breath. "No offence or anything, but all of this kind of feels like I'm on a prank show, you know?"
Audrina laughed. "Oh, I know. It took me the longest time to believe I wasn't just having an extended mental breakdown. Sometimes I still wonder," she added with an amused quirk of her lips. "But it's very real. Whatever I can do to assure you that that's the case, I will do."
They kept walking, eventually heading down some winding stairs that were just uneven enough to make Helena hesitate before each step. There was something unsettling about the details in this place… something that was making it harder and harder for her to dismiss it as something that wasn't really happening, as a make-believe story she was being told, as some kind of dream she was about to wake up from. How could a dream be this detailed? Discretely, she pinched herself on the forearm and saw Audrina look up at her and smile. Well, let her smile. She wasn't just going to accept that she was in medieval Scotland without a fight, that was for sure.
Highlander Hunted: A Scottish Time Travel Romance (Highlander In Time Book 8) Page 3
