The Gift: The Pocket Watch Chronicles

by Ceci Giltenan

  They rode for about half of an hour before finding a beautiful place to have their picnic. Then afterwards, they lay back on the blanket talking. They were far enough away from the guardsmen that they could talk freely about the past and the future.

  At one point, Tavish was telling her a funny story from his days in training. He stopped mid-sentence and cocked his head. His brow furrowed. “Did ye just hear something?”

  She shook her head, and strained her ears to listen. Then she heard it—the faint, soft jingling of a horse’s tack.

  Tavish was on his feet in an instant, tensed to ward off an attack. But he relaxed immediately. “Ah, nothing to worry about. It’s just an old crone on a pony.” She wore a voluminous black cloak and was riding towards them from the direction of the village. He started to sit down again, but stopped, frowning. “Now that’s odd.”

  “What’s odd?”

  “The old woman is riding right past the guardsmen and they don’t look as if they’ve noticed her.

  Cassie jumped up to get a better look, her mouth falling open, in shock. “Oh, it can’t be…can it?”

  Tavish cast her a sidelong glance. “It can’t be what?”

  “Not what, who. I think it’s Gertrude.”

  “Why would ye jump to that conclusion?”

  “Because yer men don’t see her.”

  “Nay, that’s impossible. They’re probably just paying her no mind. They must see her. She’s right there.”

  Cassie chuckled. “It’s impossible? This says the man who has traveled through time, to the woman who has traveled through time, about the angel who made it happen?”

  “Gertrude can make herself invisible?”

  “Aye, it’s one of her ‘unique skills’ as she calls them. She can come and go unnoticed. Apparently, the only people who know she’s present are those who need to.”

  Tavish shook his head in amazement. “I didn’t think I’d ever see her again. She hasn’t appeared to me since the day after I arrived.”

  As the woman drew closer, she let the hood covering her head fall back. The rider was, indeed, Gertrude. She dismounted and walked toward them with her arms open, “My dear ones. I’m so sorry I missed the wedding.”

  Cassie was within the circle of her embrace in an instant. “Thank ye, Gertrude. Thank ye so much for your wonderful gift.”

  “’Twas my pleasure, pet.” Gertrude turned towards Tavish and opened her arms. “And look at ye, a big, braw Highlander now.”

  Tavish bent down to hug her too. “Thank ye, Gertrude.”

  “Ye’re very welcome, lad. Ye both look very happy.”

  Tavish put his arm around Cassie’s shoulder and pulled her close. “We are. But I have to say, ye could have made this easier. I almost lost her.”

  “Aye, I suppose I could have done a few things differently, but the ending would have been tragic.”

  “What do ye mean?” asked Cassie. “If we were meant to be together how could making it easier for us have ended in tragedy?”

  “Tell me, Cassie, what was my gift to ye?”

  The question confused her. The gift was obvious. “The pocket watch. So I could come back and find Tom. And by the way, I assume it returned to ye. It disappeared after the sixty days were over.”

  “Aye the watch always manages to be where it is needed. But, my dear lass, that wasn’t my gift to ye. Do ye remember what I told ye that night?”

  Cassie looked puzzled. “Ye gave me the pocket watch and told me how to use it. I’m not sure I remember exactly what ye said.”

  “True, I gave ye the pocket watch to use, but it’s just a tool. As I told ye that night, my gift was time.”

  “Aye, ye did give me time. Sixty days.”

  “Nay, lass. Think back, when ye accepted the watch, what was yer reason for accepting it?”

  Cassie frowned, as if trying to remember. “I thought maybe, having sixty days away from everything would lessen the pain of my grief. And then I could try to move on.”

  “Exactly. Tavish do ye remember the conversation we had before ye accepted the watch?”

  “Aye, of course, I do.”

  “Before I explained how the watch worked, what did ye ask me for?”

  “I think I said the only gift I wanted was enough time to see my girl just once more. And I also asked ye to tell her I loved her and would miss her.”

  “That’s correct. That’s when I told ye I couldn’t give ye more time in that body, and that there was no need for me to tell her ye loved her because she already knew it. Then ye asked for me to do one more thing.”

  He smiled. “I asked ye to take care of her and ye promised ye would.”

  Cassie was astonished. “But ye can’t break a promise, so ye don’t make them lightly. Ye told me that.”

  Gertrude nodded and smiled.

  “So ye took care of her by bringing her back to me?” asked Tavish.

  “Nay, lad. Let me ask ye something. Cassie’s heart was broken when she lost ye. Sorrow weighed her down as surely as if it were an anchor. Holding her in one spot—not allowing her to move forward. So if I didn’t have the ability to rearrange souls, and Cassie stayed in the twenty-first century, what do ye suppose she needed most?”

  He considered the question for a moment. “Well, she needed to be able to deal with her grief and move on.”

  “Exactly. And if I had just plopped her down her and said, ‘right, children, ye’re together again, off ye go,’ would that have happened?”

  “Nay, but she wouldn’t have the reason for her sorrow in the first place.”

  Gertrude nodded sagely. “And that is precisely why, if I had done this differently, it would have been a tragedy.”

  Cassie glanced at Tavish and he looked as clueless as she felt.

  Gertrude laughed. “I’ll try to make it clearer. For Cassie to be whole, she had to do exactly what she thought was needed—deal with her grief and find a way to move on. And by the way, ye needed to do the same thing, Tavish. If I had simply brought ye back together, neither of ye would have come to the realization that ye could live without the other one and learn to love again.”

  “But if we’re together, why does that matter?” asked Cassie.

  “Because ye are both fragile mortals and are promised nothing beyond the moment in which ye find yerselves. Either of ye could be struck down by accident or illness at any time. Tomorrow. Next week. Next year. Even if ye have a long happy life together, the chances that one of ye will be left behind again, for at least a while, are very good. And without having sorted through all of this first, the loss then would have been even more devastating than it was before. Neither of ye would have been prepared to deal with it. So, if I had simply brought ye together again, I would not have been able to keep my promise to Tom.”

  Tavish nodded. “Ah, I understand now.”

  Gertrude smiled at him as a teacher would when a student answered a difficult question correctly. “So, ye see, in giving her the time to deal with her grief, she learned that she could go on. And, although it’s taken more than seventeen years, ye did as well. That had to happen first. Ye had to understand ye could cherish yer memories and still love again.”

  Cassie’s brow furrowed. “But ye can’t lie and the night ye gave me the watch, ye said it was just a gift. Ye said I didn’t have to do or learn anything.”

  “That’s not exactly what I said. I believe I said I usually have a reason for offering someone the pocket watch. I certainly did this time. And I went on to say very often it’s because there is something they must discover or do where they will be going.”

  “But ye just said that I had to learn to deal with my grief and move on.”

  “And ye did. But ye didn’t have to be here to do that. Ye just needed time—time that ye wouldn’t have taken in the twenty-first century. So I gave ye sixty days away, during which only a minute of yer life passed. Ye could have been here, or in Pompeii before the volcano struck, or on a western ranch in the
nineteenth century. The work that needed to be done was inside ye. Yer physical location was immaterial. For that matter, because of the promise I made, if ye had refused the pocket watch, I would have figured out some other way for ye to take the time ye needed.”

  “So the gift was really just the sixty days?” asked Cassie.

  “The sixty days was time ye needed to figure the whole thing out. I gave ye years in which sorrow will not be such a burden.”

  “What if I had chosen to say the word and go back?” asked Cassie

  “The result would have been the same. Ye had done the work that needed to be done. Ye had learned there is room in yer heart for others. So ye would have moved on with yer life in the future.”

  Astonished, Tavish asked, “Ye didn’t mean for us to find each other again?”

  Gertrude chuckled. “I wouldn’t say that. I had hoped Tom and Cassie would each heal enough so that Tavish and Claire could realize that they belonged together. For ye to learn that Tom and Cassie’s souls were still entwined was icing on the cake. The point is, ye’re both better equipped to deal with whatever happens in the future.”

  Cassie let that sink in for a moment. She was right.

  Gertrude laughed. “Of course, I’m right. Never doubt that. But now that we’ve straightened all of this out, I need to be going.”

  “Can I ask ye something first?” asked Cassie.

  “Ye can ask. I may not answer.”

  “Are the people we left behind okay? Mike? Our families?”

  “Aye, they are. They miss ye and they always will, but they will go on.”

  “Did they get my letters?”

  Gertrude smiled. “Aye, they did. They all know what they meant to ye. Yer parents are dealing with a little guilt, but they’ll work it out and be better for it. It might please ye to know that yer father matched yer gift to support lymphoma research.”

  Tears welled in Cassie’s eyes. “Really?”

  “Aye, they do love ye, pet.”

  “What are ye talking about?” asked Tavish.

  “My will,” answered Cassie.

  “Ye gave yer estate to lymphoma research?”

  She smiled. “I gave a third of it to research, a third to Mike, and a third to yer parents.”

  Tavish looked astounded. “Ye left my parents millions?”

  “Eight point five million to be precise,” said Gertrude. “Would ye like to know what they did with it?”

  “Absolutely,” said Tavish.

  “They paid off their mortgage, and Dave and Tania’s. Then they took a page out of yer book, Cassie, and divided what was left into three parts. They set up a trust for their grandchildren with one third, they put one third away for their retirement, and they set up a scholarship fund at yer university in memory of ye both.”

  Tears welled in his eyes. “Wow. That’s…wow. Thank ye, Cassie.”

  “What did Mike do?” asked Cassie.

  Gertrude smiled broadly. “He also liked the idea of the scholarship, so he contributed a third of his inheritance to it. He also paid off all of his debts, including the mortgage on Hooked. He booked a spectacular Mediterranean cruise for himself and Jean, and he put the rest away for retirement. And Cassie, when yer parents learned about the scholarship, they added to it as well.”

  “That makes me so happy,” said Cassie, tears slipping down her cheeks.

  “Oh and I made certain a wee bit of angel magic made its way to Hooked,” said Gertrude.

  “How?” asked Tavish.

  “I made certain that one of Cassie’s coworkers, a sweet, slightly scattered lass named Alicia, found a pixie-shaped wind chime in a gift shop.”

  Cassie laughed and wiped away her tears. “They used to call me Tinkerbell.”

  “I know they did,” said Gertrude with a grin. “So, when she saw it, she bought it and asked Mike to hang it behind the bar. She thought that hearing the tinkling of the chimes and seeing the little pixie would be a nice way for everyone to remember ye.”

  “I like that. Thank ye for helping her find it.”

  “Well, I did just the slightest bit more than help her find it. I imbued it with a wee bit of angel charm. When anyone hears the tinkling, whether they knew ye or not, it will lift their hearts the tiniest bit. And since Mike spends more time there than anyone, it will do his heart the most good.”

  Cassie threw her arms around Gertrude. “Oh, thank ye, Gertrude. Thank ye so very much. I couldn’t have asked for anything more perfect.”

  Gertrude patted her on the back and chuckled. “I am rather good at choosing the perfect gift.”

  When Cassie stepped out of her embrace, Gertrude opened her arms to Tavish. “Now I need a hug from ye too, Tavish, and then I must go.”

  Tavish hugged her. “Thank ye, for everything. I…well…thank ye is all I have.”

  “And thank ye is all I need, pet. Now, I’ll be off.” She mounted her pony and started to ride away.

  “Will we ever see ye again?” called Cassie.

  “Only time will tell, lass. Only time will tell.”

  Tavish put his arm around Cassie as they watched Gertrude ride away.

  And then, she was gone. It was as if she became mist and then drifted away.

  Epilogue

  The seaside near Castle Ranald – nearly five years later

  Sunday July 1st, 1347

  Cassie knelt on the sand, playing with their son Michael, who was two and a half and took great delight in digging holes and then filling them again. She turned her face up to the pristine blue sky. It was a glorious summer day—the kind that occurred only occasionally in Scotland. Because of the scarcity of them, when a day promised to be as fine as this one, Tavish nearly always brought them to this beautiful beach.

  Cassie loved it here and so did the children. Cassie smiled as she glanced to where her mother-in-law sat in the shade of some large rocks further back on the beach. The dear woman didn’t understand why Cassie and Tavish enjoyed this so much, but she never turned down the opportunity to come with them. Baby Jack, who had just turned one, was napping in her lap.

  Their daughter Nina, who would be four in a month was giggling and chasing the waves under her anxious Uncle Hugh’s watchful eye. Although she was never more than ankle deep in the water, he stayed within an arm’s length of the wee lass. Still, Tavish stood beside Cassie, and like a brawny lifeguard, never took his eyes off of them.

  “She seems to be having a wonderful time,” said Cassie.

  Tavish smiled. “Aye, she always does. Just like I did when I was little.”

  “Was there anything better than a day at the beach?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing. It didn’t matter where it was. As long as there was sand and water, I was happy. Dave and I even loved just going to Sandy Point for an afternoon. But Rehoboth or Ocean City were the best.”

  Cassie hadn’t been to either of these as a child. Her family spent summers in the Hamptons. But she discovered the joy of boardwalks with him, after she was in college. She sighed. “Aye, they were fun.”

  “And there’s nothing like boardwalk food.”

  She nodded. “Mmmm. Ice cream.”

  “Hot dogs.”

  “Fudge. Ye know, if it had occurred to me that there was no chocolate here when I made the decision to stay, I might have reconsidered.”

  He laughed. “Nay, ye wouldn’t have. But I miss chocolate too. What about salt water taffy?”

  “Another ubiquitous beach treat. But I think the thing I miss the most is—”

  “Boardwalk fries,” they said in unison and laughed.

  “But I don’t miss bikinis. Especially now that I’ve had three children.”

  “You only grow more beautiful to me, no matter what ye’re wearing…or aren’t wearing.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

  She laughed, and leaned forward to help Michael refill yet another hole.

  Tavish continued to watch Hugh and Nina play, a pensive expression on his face.
He reached down and caressed Cassie’s cheek. “They’re good memories.”

  She leaned into his touch, putting her hand over his, holding it against her cheek. “Aye they are. But now, I wouldn’t change a thing.”

  “Really? Not even if I could have stayed with ye?”

  “Nay, my love, not even then. Right before I used the pocket watch I had asked Gertrude if there was anything else I needed to know. She said, ‘It’s always a good idea to remember that the universe unfolds as it should.’ I didn’t think much about that until after Nina was born. But if things hadn’t happened the way they did, we wouldn’t have Nina, or Michael, or Jack. Tavish and Claire are their parents, only there would have been no Tavish and Claire. I simply can’t imagine life without these three wee ones.”

  He smiled. “The universe unfolds as it should.”

  She nodded. “Aye. And I wouldn’t change a single detail.”

  ~The End~

  If you enjoyed The Gift, look for the other Pocket Watch Chronicles:

  The Pocket Watch Chronicles

  The Pocket Watch

  The Midwife

  Once Found

  The Christmas Present

  The Choice

  Curious about the Morrison’s?

  Coll and Darach first appear in Highland Angels.

  Read Chapter one of Highland Angels now.

  Highland Angels - Chapter 1

  Northern Highlands, Late February 1342

  Anna MacKay knelt with the child at the loch’s edge, looking up at the MacLeod warriors who surrounded her. Numb with cold from the icy loch water soaking her woolen léine, she was painfully aware she had made a terrible mistake.

  After fighting with her brother at the midday meal, she had been angry and just wanted solitude. Eoin never allowed her to ride alone, but as long as she was on foot and didn’t go too far, her brother believed she was safe.

  She had walked westward out of the village surrounding the MacKay stronghold, Naomh-dùn, then turned north once she reached the top of the bluff rising out of the east side of Loch Islich. She should not have gone that direction because it took her very close to the disputed MacLeod border. Her brother would be furious when he found out, but she had wanted him to be as angry as she was. It would serve him right. She also wanted to be alone, and no one would follow her onto the windy bluff on this bitter cold day. She hadn’t intended to actually enter the disputed land by the strait where Loch Islich and Loch Uarach joined together, but that was before she saw the wee lad.