by Jane Stain
Seumas
A Time Travel Romance
Dunskey Castle Book 2
Copyright held by Cherise Kelley writing as Jane Stain
All rights reserved
Also available in paperback on Amazon
Reading Order for Jane Stain books:
Tavish
Seumas
Tomas
Kilts at the Renaissance Faire
Hadrian’s Wall Series (Late 2017)
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janestain.com
Contents
Aon (One in Gaelic)
Dhà (2)
Trì (3)
Ceithir (4)
Còig (5)
Sia (6)
Seachd (7)
Ochd (8)
Naoi (9)
Deich (10)
Aon Deug (11)
Dà Dheug (12)
Trì Deug (13)
Ceithir Deug (14)
Còig Deug (15)
Sia Deug (16)
Seachd Deug (17)
Ochd Deug (18)
Epilogue
Aon (One in Gaelic)
Sasha smiled at her best friend Kelsey as the two of them waved at the BBC Scotland news crew and watched them drive away.
“If I had told you while we were at Celtic University that we would soon be in charge of a dig worthy of worldwide news —”
Kelsey smiled back at her.
“Nope, I never would have believed that.”
Sasha looked out at the tower house called Dunskey Castle and used her imaginary x-ray vision to see through it to the underground palace they were digging out beneath it. She also enjoyed the ragged sea cliffs of the Scottish coastline and finally gazed across the sea at the sunset over distant Ireland. This was exactly what she had imagined she would be doing all seven years she toiled through college to get her doctorate in Celtic archaeology to make it possible.
She was so proud of herself. Her goal in life had been to escape the boring suburbs of Middle America, and at only twenty-five years old, she had already succeeded beyond her wildest dreams.
She turned back to her friend.
“I thought my face was going to crack, I was smiling so hard when you said I should go ahead and open one of the secret doors for the camera crew.” She held up her phone for Kelsey to see. “My mom and my brother and my cousins and seventeen friends have already texted to say they saw me on TV.”
Kelsey smiled, but it looked a little strained, and she kept glancing over across the dig site to the crew trailers, where her new kilted boyfriend Tavish was on the phone.
Sasha saw that all the rest of the construction workers were goofing around, now that the day was over. None of them was wearing a kilt. And they were all real Scots, while Kelsey had known her boyfriend back in the States before she went off to college. What was up with him wearing that kilt? Hardly practical for construction work.
Kelsey answered her in a soft voice while still watching Tavish.
“Yeah, my mom and everyone back home texted me, too. I gave Gisa both of our numbers, and she promised to text us a link where we can watch ourselves on a repeat of the broadcast.”
“Good.”
Watching the construction crew guys play gave Sasha pangs of homesickness for the seventeen friends she’d made at Celtic University in the short three months she’d been a professor there. But she was good at making friends fast. Maybe she’d go over and join the guys.
The oddness of their activity made her pause, though. They were playing this dangerous he-man game where they tried to lift up a log by the end and hold the log so that it was vertical in the air, then let it fall down in front of themselves. Guys were so weird.
Sasha flinched as one of the guys accidentally dropped the log sideways. It came crashing down to the ground, bounced off one end, bounced off the other end, and would have hit Tavish if one of the guys hadn’t pushed him out of the way.
Unfortunately, Tavish was so busy on his phone, he didn’t realize why the guy had pushed him, and he fell, landing on his face on a rock. He got up and shoved the guy back, but some others came over and they appeared to be sorting it out, thank goodness.
“What’s so important on the phone that he almost got killed over it?”
Kelsey sighed.
“Did I ever tell you he has a twin brother?”
“He does?”
“Yeah, I thought I’d never see Tavish again — let alone be with him again — so I didn’t explain his family dynamics. But among a slew of other issues that we need to explain to you once we get a chance, Tavish has a twin. His name is Tomas, and he’s being stupid. Tavish is stuck here and wants his brother to come visit him, and Tomas won’t come.”
Sasha gave her friend a sideways hug as they stood there watching the guys, who in no time at all had started a new game: throwing their knives into the big log the one guy had dropped, which was now wedged between two boulders ten feet away from them.
Behind her, she heard the voice of Mr. Blair, the property owner and thus her and Kelsey’s client.
“Ye lasses use my trailer again this night, and I’ll stay in toon again. I’ve texted ye the link tae the web thingy where ye can look over the trailers they have and pick the one ye want. I’ve ordered several more for your equipment — now that it’s staying — and all the lovely things we will gather. Maybe we can even have them oot here tomorrow, though that is Sunday, so maybe not till Monday.”
He shook both of their hands as he said this, and then they walked him to his car.
He had been Kelsey’s client first, so she spoke for the two of them.
“Thank you so much, Mr. Blair. We’ll pick something out within the hour and let you know, so that you can call the trailer guy before it gets late.”
Mr. Blair nodded and smiled at them as he got in his car, then drove off.
Sasha went on into the trailer, calling over her shoulder at Kelsey just before the door closed.
“Guess we’d better get to it. Come on, Kelsey. They won’t quit goofing around until dark, and that’s a good hour yet.”
While she waited for Kelsey to come in, she answered her texts. The ones from her family were all gooey, even the one from her brother, but some of her friends had sent screenshots of her on TV and doctored them with an app. One made her long red hair look like it was on fire. Another made her look like a lion, about to eat the camera. They were funny, and she was laughing out loud when Kelsey came in.
“Okay Butterfly, tear yourself away from your many fans long enough to flit over here and help me pick out our trailer.”
As it always did, Kelsey’s nickname for her made Sasha laugh even louder.
“I’ll be there in a second.”
The two of them had just texted Mr. Blair their choice of a two-bedroom, two-bathroom trailer in three complementary shades of blue when there was a knock on the door and they heard Tavish’s voice.
“It’s me, Kel. And Gus is here too, with Tuffy.”
“Come on in,” Kelsey called out to them.
Gus and Tuffy turned out to be a big old Scottish construction worker and his tiny little dog, whom he cradled like a baby. Tavish had brought a case of champagne, and the five of them partied, toasting the news exposure and Mr. Blair’s meeting with a publicist on Monday with the intention of bringing tourists to the area so that he could turn a handy profit— and pay them all well.
~*~
The next morning Sasha came out of the bathroom after her shower wearing the professional suit she’d put on her credit card, whose bill made her oh, so thankful to have a better-paying job.
And Kelsey was dressed in old fashioned Scottish garb: long plaid overdress in red and green, green blouse with huge billowy sleeves, worn leather belt over it all with pouches and a cup and other implements hanging from it by leather cords.
Sasha stopped in her tracks.
“What’s with the outfit?”
Kelsey brought over to the table a large pitcher of suspicious-looking orange liquid.
“You’ll see. Will you pour the mimosas while I finish making the omelets?”
Sasha took the pitcher and poured, secretly glad there was more champagne. She hadn’t thought this place would be so far from everything. She’d need to stock the fridge better. And find out if there was going to be a problem.
“Okay, but won’t Mr. Blair be upset if he smells this on our breath?”
Kelsey laughed at the stove.
“Nah, they’re more relaxed over here about alcohol, especially when you don’t work for a university — much more so than back home in the US. We don’t usually drink with breakfast, though, but we’re still in a celebrating mood, so why not use up the rest of the champagne?”
Sasha brought over two glasses and clinked with Kelsey before she chugged hers.
“I’ll drink to that!”
They laughed.
Tavish joined them, and they all sat down and dug in. The food was great — and so were the mimosas. They passed a few minutes just eating and drinking and making appreciative noises.
But Sasha couldn’t keep quiet for long.
“Tavish, I know there’s something going on today, because Kelsey’s dressed up too, but why do you always wear a kilt? I mean, it looks great and all, but you aren’t on stage. You’re here to do a job. And none of the other guys wear kilts on the job. Am I right?” She ate the last bite of her omelet, eagerly awaiting his response.
“About that.” Kelsey chugged the rest of her third mimosa.
Tavish had already chugged his fourth drink.
“We talked about it, and the easiest thing is if we just show you why I wear my kilt all the time.”
Sasha poured her fourth mimosa while she gave them her best excitedly curious face.
“Okay. Are you going to get up and do a little dance, Tavish?”
Tavish laughed.
“The day has only just begun, so you never know. You might even do a little dance before this is over. In fact, I can’t wait to see the look on your face.”
Kelsey playfully hit his chest with the back of her hand and rolled her eyes.
“Sasha, there’s all kinds of reasons we need to show you this — and before your dirty mind goes into full gear, all of them are professional.”
Wow, they were serious. Sasha downed the rest of the pitcher and stood up, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and then wiping the lipstick off her hand with her napkin.
“All right, so show me already.”
Kelsey started to go into the other room, but Tavish grabbed her arm playfully and pulled her back.
“We’ll only stay a few minutes. Don’t worry about her clothes this time.”
He got his long plaid cloak from the chair and held it out.
“Here, Sasha. Just throw this around yourself.”
He looked at her shoes and shrugged. It was the first time a straight man had ever looked at her shoes.
She looked down at them herself, smiling at the head rush and reaching out a hand to stabilize herself on a chair. She’d known yesterday’s rain would make the ground muddy, so she’d sprayed Scotch Gard on her knee-high leather boots.
She raised one eyebrow at Tavish and turned her head sideways, but she took his cloak and threw it around her shoulders dramatically. Then she gave Kelsey an incredulous look, exaggerated for effect.
“What, is there a costume party and nobody told me?”
“Even better,” Kelsey said with a huge grin, heading out the door.
Sasha and Tavish went out after her, and they all headed over toward the root cellar of the old tower house.
Kelsey stumbled and laughed as she turned to walk backwards, then studied Sasha for a moment.
“Yeah, if we only go for a few minutes, you should be okay if you keep that cloak on. I can’t wait for you to see this.”
Mr. Blair’s car pulled up then.
Kelsey wrinkled her nose in that way that meant she’d been caught being naughty. Interesting. She and Tavish looked at each other and had a silent conversation. The upshot was that they were going to stay and talk to Mr. Blair for a moment and hope it didn’t ruin their plans, whatever those were.
More curious by the moment.
Sasha smiled and waved at Mr. Blair as he walked over.
After waving back, he pointed at a cut Tavish had on his face, from falling yesterday during the crew’s odd game.
“I can give ye shaving lessons if ye hae that much trouble, lad.”
Tavish put a hand to his cut with an odd look on his face as if he was surprised there was something there and smiled at Mr. Blair.
“Verra funny.”
Mr. Blair looked at Kelsey’s outfit appreciatively and then glanced at Sasha’s cloak.
“Good, good, go on doon and take the photos we talked aboot, Kelsey. I’ll hae the men get yer area cleared oot for when yer trailer arrives today.”
Sasha felt a little disappointed at hearing they were just going to take publicity pictures, but she supposed it made sense. The prospect of getting their new trailer here today was great, though. No more sleeping in the living room, and she would have her own bathroom. Two women sharing a bathroom was a hardship. There was never enough room for her makeup.
Sasha and Kelsey spoke at the same time.
“That’s great news, Mr. Blair.”
“Thank you, Mr. Blair.”
He smiled and nodded and moved on toward where all the construction crew were standing around drinking coffee and laughing, apparently waiting for him.
Gus waved, and Sasha waved back. Maybe later she would go over and see if she could join in on any of the gang’s shenanigans.
Tavish held open the trap door to the root cellar while Sasha and Kelsey went down the ladder in their skirts.
Using her phone as a flashlight, Sasha went over to the secret door she had opened on TV.
“Should we take the pictures right here? This is one of the heavily featured places in the broadcast, so most people should recognize it, if they saw us on TV. That should be a pretty good tourist draw, don’t you think?”
Tavish and Kelsey shrugged at each other for a moment, having another one of those silent conversations before Kelsey answered.
“Yeah, let’s go ahead and take the pictures. Tavish, go stand with Sasha — and leave room for me. I’ll set my phone up here on this ledge and use my timer app.”
Sasha couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something was off as they took about a dozen pictures, and then she was sure of it when Kelsey opened the secret door instead of following when Sasha started to climb the ladder again.
Kelsey called up to Sasha as she and Tavish entered the formerly secret corridor, hollowed out from solid rock. Her tone was deliberately casual, but Sasha could hear an undertone of excitement — and something else she couldn’t quite identify.
“Come on, Sasha. We still need to show you something.”
Sasha had been in the secret corridor with the news crew yesterday, so she wondered why her knees trembled as she went back down the ladder and followed Tavish and Kelsey down the corridor to a three-way intersection. As she had yesterday, she marveled at all the Celtic runes engraved in the walls. They were lacy and beautiful, but more so, they imparted the wisdom of the Druids — the priests of the ancient Celts. She and Kelsey had learned to read them in college.
She was about to speak up and warn Tavish and Kelsey that they were walking right into a wall when it disappeared and they walked through where it had been and turned to make sure she was following.
She did follow.
“How many mimosas did I drink?”
Kelsey sounded amused.
“I think you had five, and we all chugged our last one, remember?”
As Sasha ruminated over this, she followed the others down another corridor similar to the one off the root cellar — except this one dead ended.
Before she could ask what the heck they were doing here, Kelsey grabbed her in a hug. Good thing she had, too, because Sasha got so dizzy she almost fell down. But unlike other times she’d had a few too many and gotten dizzy, this dizziness kept getting more and more intense until it seemed like the cave was spinning around her.
The dizziness finally subsided, but Sasha was having some kind of visual problem, because the stone walls looked — cleaner. So did the floor and the ceiling.
Kelsey held her in a sideways hug and started walking her back down the corridor again.
“The dizziness will go away, I promise. I don’t want to wait, though. I’ve just got to show you this.”
Sasha imagined so, because it was turning out to be quite a lot of trouble to show her whatever this was. She hoped it was worth it. At least she didn’t feel nauseated.
She figured they must be involved in live action roleplaying, because Tavish walked with them on Kelsey’s other side, talking nonsense.
“There’s only one place you really have to be careful, and that’s at the door to the tower where Brian the Druid is imprisoned. We’ll show you where he is, just so you know to be careful when you go near there.”
Sasha stopped walking.
“Brian the Druid?”
Tavish laughed.
“Yeah, that’s what I said.”
Kelsey’s arm around her was shaking, she was so excited.
“Okay, once we leave this part of the corridor, we’ll need to speak in Gaelic. And we won’t be able to talk about certain things until we get back. No one but Tavish or a Druid can see past the illusion of the cave wall into this corridor, so this corridor is a pretty safe place to run to for refuge from anyone else. Meet here if we get separated.”
Sasha laughed.
“Meet here if we get separated? You sound like my mother.”
Tavish smiled.
