Evelyn sighed and sat on the enormous four poster bed. Piper tossed her small suitcase by the wardrobe and sat down next to her.
“How far along are you?” she asked.
Evie sighed again and flopped backwards onto the overstuffed mattress, almost disappearing into its squishy depths. “About eight weeks,” she said.
“Eight weeks!” Piper repeated in astonishment, giving her a dirty look. “And you’re only just telling me?”
“I called you about twelve seconds after I took the test. I thought I was late from stress over my thesis, which—ugh.” Evie rolled over and hoisted herself back up, pulling up her legs to hug her knees. She looked miserable.
“You don’t work at Hoochie Mama’s anymore do you?” Piper said, picturing her godchild in one of those little baby backpacks while Evie pranced around in a tiny pleather mini skirt and tube top.
“No, I quit. I couldn’t make my unborn child go into a strip club. So now I’m unemployed, single and pregnant.”
“Aren’t you happy?” Piper asked.
She was so happy and excited for Evie, she forgot that Evie might not feel the same.
Evie furrowed her brow and shrugged. After a moment, a tremulous smile wavered across her face.
“Yes, I think so. Yes. It’s just such a shock.”
“Why didn’t you tell Sam? He thinks you have the flu or something.”
Evie laughed. “I know. He was afraid to kiss me at the airport. I couldn’t tell him in the car, or at the cafe we stopped at on the way here. He stopped at the same place as when we first met. Isn’t he romantic?” she sniffed and wiped away a tear.
“He’s amazing. He adores you. Why are you so scared to tell him?” Piper asked, rummaging in the bedside table drawer for tissues.
“I don’t know. What if he thinks I’m trying to trap him?” She took a tissue and gave a honking blow.
“He’s not going to think that. For one, nobody thinks that way anymore, and two, he owns a bookstore in a village of about twelve hundred people. If anything, he’s trapping you! Quite honestly, you could probably do better than him, even knocked up.”
“Shut up,” Evie wailed. “We’ve hardly been together six months, and it’s unplanned, and I still have to finish my damn degree …”
“Evelyn, you’re always so dramatic about everything. So the timing isn’t perfect, but it certainly wouldn’t be the first unplanned pregnancy in history. And you’ve been crying about your damn degree for three years now. Defend your bloody thesis and be done with it already, then move here and live happily ever after with Sam.”
“But—”
“You’re acting like you’re some sad teen mom. You’re twenty-six. I’ll be twenty-six in a few months. We’re grown ups now. Grown ups settle down and have kids. In fact, I’ve decided I’m going to get pregnant, too.”
“Are you kidding me?” Evie said, her mouth hanging open.
Piper let Evie sit there with a look of stupefaction on her face for several seconds before bursting out laughing.
“Of course I’m kidding. I can’t think of a worse thing that could happen to me right now, short of never existing in the first place.”
Evie tossed her wadded up tissue at her and started sniveling again. “I don’t know how to tell him.”
Piper reached over and shook her. “If you need a segue, do it after you barf the next time. God, Evie. I swear. You know I love you, and of course I love little Magnus or Dakota, but you are being straight up crazy.”
The door creaked open and Lachlan poked his head around it. Piper and Evelyn clamped their mouths shut. Piper clutched her chest.
“Sorry,” Lachlan said. “Sam and I are finished for the night.” He looked hopefully at Piper.
Piper gave him a narrow look for withholding important information from her, but his face was so contrite, she forgave him completely.
She glanced over at Evie, who was staring raptly at him. She told Lachlan she’d be right in and tried to stay as cool as possible until he left.
“I think he’s more handsome than last time,” Evie said the second the door closed. “I better go with Sam.” She struggled to get out of the bed.
“No, stay,” Piper said. “You have to stay.”
“I thought I had to tell Sam,” Evie said.
“Crap. Can’t he stay here? We have so much to do tomorrow. I’ll need you both. If we have to go back …”
Evie’s face paled and she grabbed Piper’s hand. “Do you really have to go back? You’re here. You’re alive. Do you really think Lachlan could have seriously changed history?”
“Well, if the one ancestor never marries the other, I don’t see how anything good can come of it.”
Evie started to cry again, this time in earnest. She grabbed for the box of tissues and pulled out several in a row.
“It’s horrible back there. You might not have to go. What if you’re a, you know, a paradox?”
“You’re going to start getting nerdy on me, aren’t you?” Piper said, but couldn’t help but feel slightly hopeful.
“The paradox theory says no one can really change history through time travel. If it was changed, you’d never know about the original need to change it, and wouldn’t need to go try to fix it in the first place, you see?”
“Not at all,” Piper said.
Evie laughed pitifully. “I don’t want you to go back.”
Piper squeezed Evie’s hand. During Evie’s accidental trip to 1729 the year before, she’d been kidnapped by the evil witch Daria, witnessed several murders, been stabbed, seen Sam get stabbed, and then was nearly killed in a fire before Piper was able to get them back to the present time. She knew Evie tried to put up a brave front, but she had been traumatized by the experience.
“Stay here tonight. I’ll go invite Sam to stay. We’ll figure it out in the morning.” She got up to leave.
“Oh, Piper?” Evie called when she was about to close the door behind her. She popped her head back in. “The baby will not be named Magnus or Dakota.”
“We’ll see,” Piper said, and ducked out before something else was thrown at her.
Chapter 8
“It’s settled, then,” Sam said.
“Aye,” Lachlan agreed. “Piper and I shall leave as soon as we may.”
They’d been up for hours, discussing all aspects of what should be done. Plates of eggs and sausage were congealing on the wooden farm table, pushed away uneaten. Only Evie had taken a few bites of toast.
It was clear to Piper the second she and Sam came into the kitchen together, Evie hunched over and pale, Sam cluelessly eager to start talking genealogy, that she hadn’t told him.
Lachlan was tense and on edge, and had been on the verge of snapping at everyone. Piper had never seen him like that. It made the situation seem more dire.
Sam was scouring old books for any mention of Connor McKellen, and Evie was pushing her paradox theory when Lachlan finally exploded.
He wouldn’t take a chance on some theory when Piper’s very existence was possibly at stake. He pulled her close to him and buried his face in her hair. He refused to lose her. Going back was the only way.
Piper was relieved to have something settled. She was itching to take action. Sitting around and worrying was not her strong suit at all. She dug in one of the kitchen drawers and pulled out a pad of sticky notes. Tearing one off, she rummaged for a pen and wrote out a list of things they needed to do, then looked up in triumph.
Evie leaned over and took the note from her, a harsh laugh escaping her lips when she was done reading it.
1. Go to past.
2. Fix it.
Tears welled up and spilled onto Evie’s cheeks after she handed it to Sam to read. “Oh, Pipes.”
Sam shook his head over the note and Piper took it back from him and shrugged.
“There,” she said, fixing the sticky note to the fridge and securing it with a pizza delivery magnet. She stared at it, stiffening her resolve.
Lachlan and Sam put their heads together to try to come up with at least a rudimentary plan and a list of supplies that they would need, both for the spell and to take back with them.
Mellie and Evie were both crying and washing up the breakfast dishes, and Piper slipped outside for some fresh air. She couldn’t handle the maudlin atmosphere at the moment.
She meandered down to the barn to survey the damage, taking in all the aspects of the place, wondering how different it would be when she arrived in the past.
The castle was ancient, but she knew it had been greatly modernized. There were electric motion sensor lights all along the garden path, and even the gas lights which she found so quaint and old fashioned wouldn’t be there.
A good part of the castle was a nineteenth century addition. The bedroom she slept in now wouldn’t be built yet. When she went back, this place wouldn’t be hers. She’d be nothing more than a stranger to her own ancestors, and would have no way to let them know who she was.
She shook off the melancholy and nerves that had built up from Mellie and Evie’s fretful tears. Quite honestly, she couldn’t work herself up into too much of a frenzy, because she would be with Lachlan. It was his time. He knew the area, the people, he had his own land a couple days ride away. He would never let anything happen to her, not as long as he was alive.
The only thing that was bothering her, and it was like a dreadful buzzing in the back of her mind, was the fact that at any moment she could cease to exist. She had no idea what date her great-great etcetera grandparents were supposed to get married.
If they failed to do so on the proper day, would her ancestor who was next in line not be conceived, causing a rift of such proportions that possibly the entire Glen line would fail? Would the estate still be here? It made her dizzy, and she had to grab the paddock fence to keep from taking a nosedive into a water trough.
“Are ye well, Piper?” Pietro came out of the side door and hurried over to her.
He looked distracted, a deep crease in his brow. It made him seem older, more serious, not his usual boyish, laughing self.
Feeling guilty for shirking her duties and leaving it all up to him, she nodded and waved off his concern. She pointed to the pale sun trying desperately to shine through the cloud layer.
“Blinded by all the sun,” she said and was rewarded for her cleverness by one of his charming smiles. She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry I haven’t been out sooner. There’s a lot of new business that came up.”
“It’s all worked out, got the insurance claim filed, and the police report filled out.”
He started walking around to the other side of the stable and she followed him. They stopped at the scorched stone wall. The shrubbery that was planted nearby was completely burned to stumps. She still couldn’t believe someone had snuck onto her property and tried to light her barn on fire. The fact that the horses might have been killed made her shake with impotent fury.
“Do you have any idea who it might have been?” she asked, looking up at him.
He was kicking at the exposed roots of the burnt bushes and shook his head.
“No. The police think it was just kids, but I’m none too sure. Ye’ve some very valuable horses.” He nodded to the barn. “I feel I was remiss in not hiring security before, but if it’s all right with ye, I’ll have someone out here ‘round the clock.”
Piper walked over to the fence and leaned against it. Why hadn’t she thought of security before now? She shouldn’t have left it up to her stable manager. A property this size, horses worth hundreds of thousands. She was a fool.
“I’m so sorry, Pietro,” she said, lightly touching his arm. “I can’t believe I never … Thank you for thinking of it. Hire as many people as you need.” She laughed weakly. “I think I should give you a promotion. You’ve done so much more than handle the horses.”
“Well, I can see ye’ve got your hands full.” He looked at her a little longer than was comfortable and she cleared her throat and moved away.
“And now I have to go,” she sighed. “I mean, I’ll be gone for a few days, maybe longer. I know it’s a terrible time, but there’s a problem in Saudi that I have to take care of.”
She pushed out the lie as quickly as she could. She had sold off all her properties in Saudi Arabia except for one, an apartment she thought she might one day like to use for vacations, but he wouldn’t know that.
She looked at him again and tried not to think what his piercing gaze meant. With her awkward salute wave, she turned and went back up the hill to the house.
Evelyn was nowhere to be seen, and Mellie was busy packing a cooler full of food. Lachlan was wearing his kilt again, which Mellie had done her best to wash. It still had a few dark stains on it but at least it smelled April fresh. She peered into Mellie’s cooler to see Mel had packed them enough food for a week, and it was all wrapped up in aluminum foil and reusable plastic containers.
Evelyn staggered back into the kitchen, looking weak and irritable. Sam jumped up to help her to a seat but she shook her head and inspected Mellie’s food haul.
“I don’t think you should take any of this,” she said. “You shouldn’t bring stuff from our time to theirs.”
She went to the table Lachlan and Sam were working at and beckoned Piper over to look at the pile of things Sam had accumulated for their journey. There were road flares, lighters, a compass, and a little can of mace on a keychain. Piper picked it up and dangled it in the air.
“You can’t take any of this stuff. No anachronisms. It’s practically the first rule of time travel.” Evie grabbed the keychain. “If there actually were rules, that is,” she said, looking sheepish.
Sam scrubbed his hands over his face, ruffling up his hair. “I don’t give a rat’s ass about anachronisms, as long as they’re safe.” He turned to Piper. “Just be careful not to lose any of it.”
“We should listen to Evie,“ Piper said, and instead of gloating, Evie tenderly smoothed down Sam’s hair.
Piper’s heart constricted. What if she never came back, never got to see those two get married, never got to see little Magnus or Dakota?
“What am I going to wear?” Piper asked, pushing aside her dark thoughts.
She had loads of period clothing at the museum she’d opened to showcase all her great-grandmother’s things, there had to be something more suitable than jeans and a sweater.
“Should I call Padma and ask her if she can bring something over?”
Evelyn gasped at the mention of Padma and Piper shot her a look. Evelyn couldn’t possibly still think Padma had a thing for Sam, could she?
Piper had been around them hundreds of times since she’d opened the museum and hired Padma to be the curator, and while she might have had the tiniest crush on Sam, it was absolutely unrequited. Piper tried to convey all this in a look to Evie, but Evie was already tearing up again, damn her.
“I can bring ye a dress from the castle when we return,” Lachlan said, clearly not wanting to waste any time waiting on clothing deliveries. “Most of the women there are tiny like ye are, it should be no trouble.”
“That sounds like the best idea,” Evie said quickly.
With only a little more arguing about what they could or could not bring without destroying the continuity of the universe, they finally decided to leave with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Lachlan would borrow some clothes for her and would either find a way to introduce her as a visiting cousin or hide her somewhere.
Then they would get down to the business of finding Connor McKellen, toss him into the path of Isobel Glen and hope they fell in love.
“Are ye ready, Piper, love?” Lachlan asked, when they’d started going over the same things again and again, mostly trying to put off the inevitable.
She took a breath and nodded, reaching over and clutching his hand so she wouldn’t run screaming from the room. He looked down at her, then at everyone else in turn.
“I shall protect he
r to my dying breath, and return her to ye unscathed,” he said.
Mellie and Evie burst into fresh tears. It was time to go.
***
Lachlan led her to a clearing a short way into the woods. If she craned her neck and squinted she could see the top of the tower through the trees.
He dropped the linen drawstring satchel, a compromise since Evie wouldn’t let them take a backpack, and knelt down on the hard packed earth. Piper sat down beside him.
“What do you do now?” she asked, starting to feel jittery.
“We must take out the herbs and sing. I’ll say the words, then we’ll make a wee cut on our hands. Ye must think verra hard about how much ye want yer ancestors to meet. I shall concentrate on getting us to the proper time, but ye must have a true feeling about why ye want to go, aye?”
She nodded. “It shouldn’t be a problem,” she said.
“I shall hold onto ye verra tightly, the whole time,” he told her, and she relaxed somewhat.
He pulled a folded bit of paper out of the satchel and opened it to reveal several dried leaves. He shook them onto a fold of his kilt and then took out his pocket knife and handed it to her with a reassuring smile.
“Dinna worry, ye dinna have to do it yet. I shall just grind the herbs a bit while ye sing something.”
“Me?” she asked, nervously turning the bone handle of the knife in her hands.
“Aye, ye must have a better voice than me.” He grinned at her and she knew he wouldn’t start singing for anything.
Flustered, every song she ever knew flew from her brain. She finally started singing ‘Oh Susanna’, tremulously and barely above a whisper at first.
Lachlan nodded and began crumpling up the dried herbs, letting the powder fall from his fingertips onto his lap.
With another encouraging look at her, he said the chant, his deep voice soaring. “Alta timpul vom gasi vom merge, fata din.”
He reached for the knife and she gave it to him, starting to sing more confidently. Stupidly, she realized she didn’t even know all the words to the song and kept repeating the chorus. It didn’t seem to faze Lachlan and he pricked his finger and let a drop of blood fall onto the powdered herbs.
Reunited (Book 2 of Lost Highlander series) Page 6
