Love in the Time of a Highland Laird (A Laird for All Time Book 3)

by Angeline Fortin

  Chapter 9

  Irritation pummeled Keir. He snatched up his own glass, swallowing his Scotch in a single gulp before thrusting it toward his waiting footman for a refill.

  Irritation at her… Al, but mostly at himself for being diverted by her.

  And for putting forth the effort to show her just how un-barbaric he actually was.

  Or at least, could be.

  Wearing clothes he’d never touched beyond court, dining in this little used state room. All to impress the lass.

  But he was the one impressed. She’d managed to take his breath away the instant she’d walked through the door. Her bonny face clean and warmed with a pink blush. Blonde hair, shiny clean, upswept into a loose knot with a long spiraling curl bouncing seductively on the rise of her bountiful bosoms with each step she took. The low square neckline exposed half of her creamy mounds to his suddenly ravenous eyes. He could hardly stop ogling long enough to appear the gentleman.

  He could as yet hardly say what the color of her gown was for all the other distraction she provided.

  Distraction from everything but the pleasure of looking at her. Just as he’d allowed himself to be sidetracked by her bedraggled appearance earlier, though his anger over her mistreatment had been real enough. She was too tiny, too delicate to suffer so many days in a dungeon that hadn’t been used for that purpose in nearly two centuries.

  She was a constant distraction from his purpose.

  Anger with her and with himself bubbled to the surface.

  “Enough of this toying wi’ me, lass.” The words emerged coarsely, showing his annoyance with no attempt for courtly manners. “I’ve played the gentleman for ye. A kind host. But if ye dinnae want tae find yerself returned to the cell below, ye’d best be telling me what I want tae ken.”

  She gasped at his threat, her fingers rising to the fluttering evidence of her racing heart at the base of her throat. “Well, I… You didn’t… Geez, you didn’t need to get all…”

  Geez?

  “I was going… I was planning on… Before you…” Al broke off her flabbergasted sputtering to pin him with an affronted glare quite unlike anything he’d yet seen from her. “I guess you really can’t hide a brute in gentleman’s clothing, can you?”

  Abashed, Keir looked away. Toying with his tumbler, he lifted it to his lips. The liquor mended his fraying mood. “I’ve a temper, lass. I always hae. Ye’ve been naught but a spur in my side for days. Ye ken what I need tae ken. It’s wi’in ye even if ye want tae speak of it nary a wee bit more than I want tae be hearing it, in truth.”

  “And I’m building up the nerve to talk about it,” she shot back. “You didn’t have to be so mean.”

  She thought that was mean? Ha, he could show her a thing or two. “I’ve ne’er been the charmer in this clan. I left that for Hugh.”

  As his cousin’s name sprang from his lips, Keir felt a pang of sorrow score his heart. A part of him didn’t even want the confirmation that Hugh was gone. Perhaps that was why he’d allowed himself to be so easily distracted. Distracted by his father’s fate. By grief for his brother.

  By this lass’s charms and unexpectedly vibrant character. Along with her other attributes.

  He’d let it go, for now. He could wait a minute longer if only to pay brief homage to his cousin. He lifted his glass once more, speaking more to himself than to Al. “Hugh could charm a turtle out of its shell… and more than one lass out of her virtue, if truth be told.” He chuckled and caught his companion’s involuntary wisp of a smile before it was gone. “We went on our Grand Tour together. We traveled Europe,” he clarified, when a crease marred Al’s smooth brow.

  “I know what it is. I just never heard… Never mind. Go on.”

  “As I was saying, we traveled the Continent together. He was a true romantic, ye ken? A lover of music, poetry, and philosophy. He studied and studied, thinking all the while that I did nothing but pursue the lasses.”

  Her lips parted at that but she held her tongue, so Keir continued, “I’m nae like him in many ways but in others we we’re fair identical. A love of learning. To him ‘twas all that philosophical rubbish, but tae me it ‘twas the more practical studies that drew me. Areas where fact and truth told sway. I’ll be the first tae admit it. There’s naught one thing evident aboot ye that provides me any answers. At least nae logical ones.”

  Tipping his glass, he drank to Hugh. She lifted her glass and swallowed deeply but he doubted it was in tribute. False courage, more the like.

  “How did ye come tae be upon that field, lass?”

  She drew in a deep breath. This time he managed to keep his eyes from the distractions trembling below. “I don’t suppose I can just say I was in the wrong place at the wrong time?”

  “Nay. ‘Twould nae do.”

  “No, I suppose not. But I still feel as though there’s no way you’ll be able to understand this. Even seeing all this.” She glanced around the room. “Though it does give me more hope that you’re not going to…”

  “What?”

  * * *

  Kill me when I tell you.

  Al didn’t say it out loud. Hopefully there was something truly civilized within him. Because the truth was coming out.

  “That wasn’t a normal hole your cousin fell into. Or that I came out of.”

  His brows lifted. “I gathered that much on my own.”

  Al shook her head, gnawing her lip nervously. “It was a wormhole.” He stared at her blankly and she rushed on. “It’s a portal across space able to transport something instantaneously from one spot to another. I helped create it along with a group of other scientists.”

  Keir watched her solemnly, his vivid eyes seeming to pierce the veil of her person and delve into her mind. She was struck anew by the notion that he could read her thoughts. Stupid. If he’d been able to do that, none of this would be necessary. “Well?” she prompted when he remained silent.

  “Ye expect me tae believe that a wee lass like yerself is a scientist?”

  Al blinked. “That’s it? That’s all you’ve got? No accusations? No fingers pointing to call me a liar?”

  “There’s much I want tae say, but let’s begin wi’ that.” His voice was calm but the hand lifting his glass once more to his lips was taut, trembling just a bit. In rage?

  “Begin with what? Which part?”

  “Scientist?”

  The nerves that had held her in their clutches since she’d walked into the room fell away. Hadn’t she heard that a million times before? From her mother. From her stepfather.

  “What? A little thing like me can’t be a scientist? I was this close,” she jabbed her hand out with her thumb and forefinger just an inch apart to measure the distance, “to finishing my doctorate before all this happened. And my entire academic career has been filled to the brim with men like you thinking I don’t belong there.”

  He slouched in his chair, brows high. Probably as shocked as she was by her rant. Al couldn’t say what had gotten into her. She’d spent most of her life shrinking from conflict of any sort but had already berated him more than once.

  In the silence that followed, a pair of footmen brought plates of food and set them down before them. She thanked them quietly but didn’t touch hers. Despite days of having nothing more than bread and some sort of bland porridge to eat, the thought of swallowing the more exotic fare knotted her stomach. Keir seemed similarly disinclined to partake.

  “I’m sorry.” Her apology was soft, filled with shame for harping at him so. “I’m not normally so combative. This whole thing has really brought out my… color.”

  “Is that what that was?” There was a hint of humor in the words. His surprise faded and a slight smile graced his handsome face, softening him. Making him more human than the more fictional persona he had so far presented. “I ken why some might call ye this ‘Big Al’ from time tae time. Ye’re e’er so wee in stature but ye make up for it in enormous character.”

  It sounded
like a compliment but since she wasn’t certain, she merely nodded and studiously straightened the numerous utensils arranged around the gilded plate on the table before her. The salmon on her plate did smell appealing, if she were able to salvage it from the pool of heavy sauce it was swimming in. If she could stomach it at all.

  “I do hae many other questions aboot what ye said. Too many mayhap, but the most important… The one I’ve been most hesitant tae ask…”

  Caution was evident in his broken words. Al glanced up. “Yes?”

  “Ye sprang forth from this wormy hole hale and hearty. It gives me a measure of hope…” Keir sighed heavily, pressing the heels of his hands hard against his temples.

  If she hadn’t felt a rush of heartrending sympathy for him, she might have been entertained by his distinct break between the words wormy and hole.

  “Obviously it isnae deadly in its own right…”

  Another blast of compassion washed away the amusement. “You want to know if your cousin is still alive?”

  “Aye.”

  Al nodded and saw the gleam of moisture shine in his eyes before he looked away. A stream of Gaelic was whispered under his breath. A prayer of thanks perhaps? Her heart ached for him. Gone forever was the savage she had taken him for. Here was a man capable of genuine caring and feeling.

  “Did ye see him?”

  “Yes, briefly before I fell into the portal.”

  He nodded, obviously hesitant to know more. “Will he be able to return to us? Or is the distance too great?”

  It was very great.

  “No, Keir. I’m sorry.”

  A moment of silence passed while he digested that.

  “And ye?”

  “No.” Making the admission aloud was like putting the final nail in her coffin. “I wasn’t lying before when I said I knew I couldn’t go back. I can’t. While in many ways our experiment was a success, we weren’t able to predict exactly where the wormholes led. Nor could we replicate a destination. The whole project was useless without being able to do that.”

  Another brief silence. This time she assumed he was trying to make some sense of what she’d said.

  “So ye’re stuck here?”

  “Yes.”

  “And Hugh is forever trapped there?”

  Al winced for him. “Yes.”

  “Where is that?”

  “Halfway around the world, I’m afraid.”

  Give or take nearly three hundred years.

  He grimaced, his grief diminished by her assurances of his cousin’s survival but not gone. “Will he be treated as poorly there as ye’ve been treated here?”

  Ouch, that one was going to hurt. For a second, Al considered lying to him. She could tell him that his cousin would be well taken care of. Given the opportunity to live a life of freedom. It would probably be better for Keir’s peace of mind that she give him that comfort. But…

  “He won’t be hurt, but I’m sorry to say he will be imprisoned there in the lab where I worked. He’s evidence of our project’s failure, you see? Dr. Fielding, one of the scientists I work with, will hide any proof that he can’t accomplish what he was paid to do.”

  His eyes widened perceptively. “Hugh wisnae the first tae wander into yer worm’s hole.” It wasn’t a question.

  Al fiddled with her silverware some more, then pushed her plate away. Reaching for her wine, she gulped it down. In for a penny, in for a pound. He hadn’t called for a stake to be raised for her burning in the village square yet. Odds looked good that he probably wouldn’t. There was no point withholding anything from him now.

  “No. There’ve been a variety of animals, big and small, to wander into it. Dr. Fielding started collecting them in small cages at first. It seemed harmless at the time. Keeping them, I mean. They were just animals. The growing number of cages prompted him to build a room of cages. It was a regular zoo. Then, one day, a man came through. This was our first real clue just how far off target we were. I mean, a Native American… Anyway, our zoo became a prison. Dr. Fielding saw no problem locking a human being up with the animals. As if he were one of them. It was the worst sort of human rights violation.”

  “Human rights?”

  “It just means the rights every human is entitled to have on this planet,” she explained. “Freedom. Liberty. Dr. Fielding called me a bleeding heart for caring about them but I couldn’t stand it.”

  “Why did ye work wi’ him then?”

  Al shrugged. “Jobs like that didn’t just come along every day. It was an excellent opportunity. But it hurt to see what he did to that first man and when your cousin and that other soldier came through, I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to treat them any differently. He saw them all the same. Animals. Savages.”

  “Just as ye saw me.”

  “No, I didn’t assume you were a savage. You just acted like one.”

  Her pert rebuttal brought a slight smile to his lips. But then it was gone with a heavy sigh. “Every word ye speak rouses a hundred more questions tae my mind. Native American? Zoo? This job ye were paid tae do? Yet all of it fades in significance when compared tae what I saw. I ken I saw it, but yet I disbelieve my own eyes. I hardly ken where to begin tae find answers.”

  “Well, then maybe you could answer a couple for me while you’re figuring it out.” Keir lifted a brow and nodded, gesturing with a curl of his fingers for her to proceed. It was her chance but Al found herself almost as tentative as he’d been before to hear the answers. “Where am I?”

  If possible, that brow rose even more. That hadn’t been at all what he’d been expecting. “This is Castle Dingwall, laying at the western end of the Cromarty Firth. Ye may hae seen the water from the terrace.”

  Al nodded. “So Scotland then?”

  “Aye, Scotland.”

  Nodding again, she chewed her lower lip. “Okay, then second question.”

  “Aye?”

  “When am I?”

  Chapter 10

  When am I.

  In three simple words, the lass explained everything Keir had found curious about her. It clarified so much. The perfect answer, but one he instinctually rejected. He was not a religious man, nor a superstitious one. He prided himself on being open-minded to a fault.

  Still, he inwardly rebelled against the idea, even reining in the compulsion to cross himself. Witchcraft, sorcery. The work of the devil. If he’d been any other man, he’d accuse her of them all.

  Her hesitance in speaking of his cousin’s fate made all too much sense now. Most anyone else would have condemned her without asking for further explanation. Keir looked to the footmen not far away, but far enough to have missed Al’s softly spoken words.

  This time.

  “Leave us,” he commanded firmly, flicking his wrist at the pair. “I will ring for ye if we need anything else.”

  “But the second course…,” one started to protest before he withered under Keir’s sharp glare and disappeared through the door with the other on his heels.

  When.

  Keir shook his head hard as if the motion could knock the notion right out of his head. It was ridiculous, insane really.

  When.

  Strumming his fingers one after another on the table, he struggled against the reflexive denial.

  Thump, thump, thump, thump.

  Logic wouldn’t work either. The very idea defied the natural order. There was no worm large enough to create such a cavity.

  Thump, thump, thump, thump.

  Even if there had been, it wouldn’t explain the swirling blackness he’d seen. It wasn’t a natural phenomenon.

  Thump, thump, thump, thump.

  Though his hand… and Hugh’s person had disappeared when entering the void, there was not even a hint of science existing that said one might find the means to move through time.

  Thump, thump, thump, thump.

  Yet.

  Flattening his hand on the table, he spread his fingers wide. Staring at them for a long while. He turned back
to Al, aware that she had been watching him tensely the entire time. “I beg ye, for yer own sake, dinnae repeat that tae anyone else. There are some nae as accepting of such things.”

  His captive turned a bit green and swallowed hard. “They still burn witches in this… time?” The last came out in a choked whisper that restored Keir’s sense of humor. Such a preposterous question, yet in that instant he became a true believer.

  “Nay, nae for some time, but there are some who might be inclined to reinstitute the practice in the face of such a provocative question.”

  Her eyes widened marginally, and feeling the atypical urge to provide comfort, he reached out and curled his fingers around hers. They were as cold as ice, such a contradiction to her fiery outbursts, and it occurred to him that she might be afraid, nay, terrified of her circumstances. Respect washed over him. To be alone in a strange place—and time, it seemed—with such composure took a level of courage he hadn’t yet considered.

  Did they prepare for such things in the future? For the future it had to be for all he inclined to deny it.

  Would Hugh be confronting his situation as well as she?

  “’Tis the year of our Lord seven hundred and forty-six,” he told her at last. “April the twenty-first.”

  She nodded again. He could almost see the wheels turning in her mind. Wondered what she was thinking, but overcoming the first tier of his own disbelief, another question occurred to him.

  “Might I ask from whence ye came and tae where my cousin has gone?”

  “He’s in the year 2013,” she told him. “February seventeenth was the day he got there.”

  So far? The time seemed almost immeasurable. Nearly three hundred years? The innate urge to reject her claim infused him once more. It was almost harder to shake it off this time but he did.

  “You’re taking this all very well. I’m surprised.”

  No more than he. But naught else could explain what he’d seen with his own eyes. Keir was astonished by the calm acceptance he felt wash through him. Even for the fate of his cousin, though it was hard to imagine Hugh in a world surrounded by women like Allorah Maines. How would he fare against them?