Love Beyond Dreams (A Scottish Time Travel Romance): Book 6 (Morna's Legacy Series)

by Bethany Claire

  Orick pulled on his horse’s reins outside the chapel, dismounted quickly and walked toward the chapel with his hand near his sword.

  “I will no hurt the guards nor Laird Macaslan and his son. If Callum falls on my fist, I canna be blamed for it.”

  Adwen laughed as they neared the doorway together.

  “I’d say he deserves it. Are ye ready?”

  They pushed the main doors of the church open together.

  * * *

  I understood that Callum had no choice now that Laird Macaslan had lost his mind and was set on forcing this absurd marriage on us, but it didn’t make me any less angry with him. I didn’t know if there’d ever been a bride with such a pissed off look on her face in the entire history of the world.

  I wondered what would happen if I simply said no? I thought about it and then I looked over at Drostan, staring at us with a chunky smile that made my skin crawl. I imagined he would be ready and willing to take Callum’s place. Then it wouldn’t matter what my answer was.

  My only source of comfort was the portal back at Cagair Castle. I’d not missed the fact that Adwen was strangely absent from the chapel or that Jane seemed uncharacteristically calm about the wedding. I would hold out hope that Adwen would save the day up until the very last minute. But if he didn’t end this in time, then I would be high-tailing it to Orick where I would beg him to disappear into the future with me.

  We could see where our relationship went there, but I wouldn’t stay in the seventeenth century a minute longer than I had to if I wound up married to Callum.

  I could hear the ceremony start, but it sounded like little more than the hum of a bee as I kept my attention glued to the doorway, hoping with every breath that the doors would open and this bizarre nightmare would end.

  When the doors did finally swing toward us, I squealed so loudly that everyone in the chapel turned to look at me rather than Adwen and Orick.

  It worked to their advantage, providing the time they needed to walk up behind the men who stood watching Lennox and Griffith and successfully knock both of them out with the hilt of their swords.

  Unfortunately, what they didn’t see was the group of Laird Macaslan’s men who quickly filed into the chapel behind them. Within moments, they had both Adwen and Orick in their grasp with a knife to their throats.

  Jane screamed at the sight. Her screech was enough to entice Laird Macaslan into action for the first time since Adwen and Orick’s entry.

  “Hush yer wails, woman. I doona intend to shed blood here. I swear it to ye. I dinna believe Callum for a moment, but we’ve readied this place for a wedding and one shall take place here this day. If no to Callum, then the lass shall marry Drostan, and she will stay here on Macaslan land.”

  I would rather eat my own limbs than marry Drostan Macaslan. “No. I’m not marrying, Drostan. I’m not marrying Callum, either. Isn’t it up to my father to give permission that I marry or at the very least, the laird in the territory in which I reside?”

  For a moment, Laird Macaslan looked concerned. Then he simply laughed and crossed his arms in amusement. I wanted to strangle him.

  “I doona think ye are in a position to deny me, lass. I doona believe yer father lives. If he did, ye wouldna be traveling without him when ye are no married. And ye are marrying the laird of yer territory, so I am no in the wrong. Still, I am no an unkind man. Ye are free to marry any unmarried man in this room. I only see the two.”

  “There’s three.” Orick spoke up despite the blade against his throat.

  Laird Macaslan laughed again and waved a dismissive hand at the man who held Orick. The man released Orick instantly.

  “Orick, I know that ye’ve always thought yerself a MacChristy, but ye are no one. Ye doona have any land of yer own and willna ever have any. Ye are little more than a pauper. Still, I told the lass she could have her choice.”

  Laird Macaslan turned to me as my heart sped up so fast I thought I might faint.

  “Laird MacChristy, Drostan, or the pauper? With two, ye will live a life of fortune—with the last one, a life of certain ruin. The choice is yers.”

  I didn’t hesitate.

  “The pauper, please. Any day of the week.”

  CHAPTER 35

  A week ago, I thought the man riding next to me was dead. I didn’t know any sort of time traveling portal existed, and I certainly saw my life heading in a very different direction. I didn’t feel like a bride. Today wouldn’t go down as the happiest day of my life.

  Instead, it seemed that by marrying Orick, we’d taken a huge step backward. As if we could both feel the oddity in it, the unnatural progression of our relationship and the lack of enthusiasm on both our parts created a strain between us. It was more than that though. Orick’s mind lay elsewhere. I suspected it had to do with Marion, but I knew he would talk about it when he was ready.

  After the ceremony, both of us wanted to get as far away from Laird Macaslan as possible, so we split from the rest of the group and headed back toward McMillan territory. Adwen, Jane, and Callum first planned to escort Lennox and Griffith safely out of the region, so it would be weeks before we met with them back at Cagair Castle.

  The time away from the rest of them would allow us the time to decide where things went from here. In all honesty, the sudden pressure of being married made me want to run back through the portal and pretend that the last few days had never happened. But I knew that wasn’t an option. Orick would follow me right through. He deserved better anyway.

  We made the return journey to McMillan territory in half the time it took us on the outbound trip, only stopping for one night and only then for a few hours. When we did stop, we were both so tired we hardly said two words to each other. While we did sleep close to each other, there wasn’t so much as a kiss shared between us.

  I wondered how things would be when we rode up to Gregor and Isobel’s; how Orick would behave toward me since no one knew of our recent nuptials. It would say a lot about him, whatever he did, and I only hoped he wouldn’t turn into someone totally different than he’d been on the road.

  We must have been thinking along the same lines for he turned toward me just as we neared the village.

  “Can we stop for a moment, Gillian? I wish to talk to ye.”

  I nodded. As we pulled our horses to a stop and dismounted, he came over and gently reached for one of my hands. It was the first real sign of affection I’d seen from him since we left. He led me over to the base of a tree and bent to sit down in front of it. I joined him.

  “Part of me feels I should apologize, to beg ye to forgive me for no keeping ye from what happened. I invited ye back here, I should’ve protected ye. ’Tis what I wished to do first, but the more I thought on it, the more I realized ’twas no my fault. I couldna have known what would happen. And I dinna think ye would appreciate the apology.”

  “You’re right. I wouldn’t appreciate it. It’s not your fault at all.” Truthfully, had he sat me down and apologized, in all likelihood, it would have infuriated me. The fact that he’d worked that out on his own meant he knew me better than I expected.

  “Aye, then I’m glad I dinna apologize, for I canna really be sorry for it. ’Twas no more my choice than yers. I couldna make sense of how I felt before but, as we near the village, I ken that more than anything, I feel gratitude.”

  “Gratitude?”

  “Aye, thank ye for choosing me. Ye could have married Callum, and he would have released ye. He would no have made ye consummate the marriage, and he would have let ye return to yer home. But had ye chosen Callum, I couldna be with ye.”

  He took a deep, nervous breath, and I squeezed his hand in comfort.

  “I offer ye just what Callum would have. Ye doona have to stay with me nor consummate the marriage until ye are ready. Ye may leave whenever ye wish, but I hope that yer choice at least means we are no ready to end what we started only a few days ago.”

  “No.” I shook my head and leaned in to kiss
him. “I don’t want it to end. I’m just not sure how to proceed. I can’t pretend that I’m ready to be married to you. We’re not there yet.”

  “Aye, I know. Let’s no tell Isobel, Gregor, or Cooper yet. I think it fine if we give ourselves some time, aye? We will greet them and then spend the day resting on our own. Tomorrow, if ye like, we can head toward Cagair Castle, and there we can spend time alone together.”

  With one conversation, the tension between us vanished and things felt as comfortable as they had been days before. He understood things about me that I’d never expressed to him, and I appreciated his thoughtfulness more than he knew.

  Everything was happening more quickly than I was comfortable with, but I could already tell that I was far luckier in my choice of a husband than most.

  CHAPTER 36

  Orick stood in the sitting room of the inn quietly out of sight while Isobel spoke to Cooper. He knew if the lad saw him, he would use him as an excuse to stay.

  “Do I have to go back home already? Please let me stay a little bit longer. I could stay the night if you would let me.”

  Isobel stayed firm with the child, and Orick was grateful for it. He was far too tired to handle the lad’s endless energy this night.

  “No, ye must go back. They need their rest. Get on with ye. We will see ye tomorrow.”

  He listened until the child reluctantly hugged Isobel and then mounted his small horse and rode away. When Isobel walked by, he reached for her.

  “Ach, are ye trying to scare me to death? I thought ye were up in yer room having a rest.”

  Orick nodded and kept a hand around Isobel’s arm so he could lead her up the stairs. “Aye, I was trying to.”

  “What kept ye from it? I sent Cooper away so ye wouldna be disturbed.”

  Reaching the top of the stairs, Orick stopped them just outside Gillian’s door. “Do ye no hear that noise, Isobel?”

  The sound of Gillian snoring travelled easily through the doorway.

  Isobel shrugged at him and stepped away.

  “I doona ken what ye wish for me to do about the lassie’s breathing. Though I can see why it kept ye awake.”

  Orick shook his head and crossed his arms as he blocked Isobel’s path. “The snoring doesna bother me. What kept me awake was hearing that noise travels so plainly through the wee walls. Ye knew that when ye told me to visit Gillian’s room. Does that mean that ye heard everything that night?”

  Isobel smiled at him unabashedly.

  “Gregor was dead asleep. He dinna hear a thing. I heard only wee bits and pieces so doona worry. ’Tis no as if the two of ye carried on for verra long anyway. Though I doona think ye should visit her tonight. She sounds like she needs her rest.”

  Isobel squeezed by him and laughed quietly to herself the rest of the way down the hall.

  * * *

  The soft touch of lips against his brow seemed the most pleasant way to wake if he ever knew one. His eyes fluttered open to see Gillian standing above him as her pup crawled onto his chest and started licking at his neck.

  “Good morning.”

  He lifted his head and looked toward the window in disbelief. It seemed as if he’d only just fallen asleep. “It canna be morning yet.”

  Gillian nodded. Only then did he notice that she was already dressed, her hair pulled up and her riding boots on.

  “Yes, just barely though. Is it okay if we get going soon? I’m anxious to get back to Cagair.”

  He could sleep until late in the day if left undisturbed, but he didn’t mind being awakened by Gillian. He was just as eager to get to Cagair Castle as she was, to escape from everyone but her and try his hardest to win her heart.

  For he knew with certainty, even in the short time that that they’d known one another, that she had his completely.

  CHAPTER 37

  “Marion, the lass I went after, she was my sister.”

  “What?” I lay with my head against his chest, snuggled into him as we camped for the last night before reaching Cagair Castle. Each day Orick made a point of sharing some part of himself with me—stories of his childhood, the tragedy that befell his family and how he met Adwen, funny stories about years of travelling with the MacChristy’s—each story helped him unfold before me, but none of them surprised me as much as this. “I thought Marion was the woman who saved you after you fell?”

  He shifted just slightly so that he could look down at me. The emotion in his eyes was visible.

  “Aye. She was. Her real name is Maidie. She dinna tell me it until just before she died in my arms.”

  I pulled away and twisted so that I could lean on my arm and look directly at him. “How? I thought she died with your parents.”

  “I thought that she did. When I arrived back at our home, my parents were lying dead in the entryway. I dinna venture inside further—I couldna bear to see more than I already had. I assumed Maidie was dead. I lit the place afire and ran. It explains so much of how Marion was, though I never thought it possible for a moment.”

  I nodded, understanding as I remembered his talk of how secluded Marion was, how she distrusted everyone and had lived alone for so many years.

  “She saw what you did and ran, only she didn’t have an Adwen to save her.”

  “No. I was far luckier than she. Though ’tis a blessing we found each other in the end.”

  I reached up to brush away a tear that pooled in the corner of his eye. He grabbed my wrist as I did so, slowly bringing my palm to his mouth so he could kiss it.

  “Did she know all along who you were?”

  “No. She dinna have any more reason to think it possible than I. When I found her dying in the woods, I told her that I’d remembered and that my name was no Craig but Orick, and she knew then. She meant to travel to our home, and ’tis there where I buried her.”

  “I’m so sorry, Orick.” I leaned in and kissed his brow.

  “Ye doona need to be sorry. I am sad for it and will be for some time, but I’m grateful she found me and that I was there for her when she died and was able to bring her home.”

  The events of Orick’s life made my own heartaches seem quite trivial. He’d been through so much, so many different times, and still he lived with his heart open. He didn’t shut people out just because he was afraid of being hurt. I was a coward, and I was tired of it.

  After all of the things he’d shared with me, I could try to gather the courage to do the same with him.

  “Why have you told me all of this? None of it can be very easy for you to talk about.”

  I could see by his expression he thought it an odd question.

  “No, but most things are no meant to come easy. I’ve found the conversations that do are also often verra meaningless.”

  I realized it was very much the way I lived my life, keeping only things that meant nothing close, so that I had nothing to lose.

  “You’re so brave, Orick. Being around you makes me feel like such a coward.”

  He reached down and tilted my chin up so I would look at him before he ducked and kissed me.

  “A coward, lass? No ever have I seen signs of cowardice in ye.”

  “It’s not in the things I do but in the way I allow myself to feel. My heart is a coward.”

  “’Tis only that yer heart is slower to open. Just like the buds of the most beautiful flowers. Ye just need time.”

  I moved into him so close that I could hear the beat of his heart in my ear. “Doesn’t it bother you that I haven’t shared anything with you—that you open up and I don’t return the trust?”

  “Ye will when yer ready.”

  I kissed him, slow and long and with enough fervor that we both came away from it breathless. “I will. I promise one day I will crack open like a clamshell, and you’ll learn more about me than you ever wanted to. But not tonight.”

  CHAPTER 38

  I was too shocked the last time I visited Cagair Castle during this century to take notice of the lack of people around
it but, after being at Macaslan Castle and seeing the number of men and women who worked for him, it seemed odd. In fact, the closer we got, I realized it was seemingly vacant.

  “Is there anyone here? Where are the workers or guards or maids that help Callum run this place?”

  Orick shook his head as he dismounted then turned to help me off of Grock. I reached to pat the horse’s neck before I slid off him, bending to thank him for the ride. I’d grown rather fond of the beast and, to my complete surprise, my rear end, while still sore, seemed to be much more accustomed to riding than it had been.

  “When Callum is away, he sends the rest away as well. He thinks if he gets to enjoy his travels so should the villagers that work so hard for him. He’s a fair man, if no a damned fool for thinking he could marry ye.”

  I laughed and walked with him as we led our horses to the stables.

  “Does he just leave it unlocked?”

  “Aye. ’Tis so isolated that none will disturb it. And old man Tom comes up from the village each day to ensure all is well.”

  I could almost see the relief in Grock’s eyes as he spotted his stall in the stables. He would be happy for the rest after such a long journey.

  “Will Tom assume everything is not well when he sees us inside the castle?”

  “No.” Orick took my hand as we walked out of the stables. “I’ll speak to him before it can cause him worry. Ye have a choice to make, lass. I dinna grow up in a castle, no before I fell in with the MacChristy’s nor after. To sleep in a castle makes my skin itch in a way I doona care for. Adwen suffers from the same affliction, though Callum’s adjusted to the castle well enough. When Adwen was laird here, I stayed in the stable house. ’Tis there that I feel the most at home.