by Jane Stain
Table of 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)
Naoi Deug (19)
Fichead (20)
Tomas
A Time Travel Romance
Dunskey Castle Book 3
Copyright held by
Cherise Kelley writing as Jane Stain
All rights reserved.
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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)
Naoi Deug (19)
Fichead (20)
Aon (One in Gaelic)
Before she started looking for her friends, Amber went out through the terminal past the security checkpoint where everyone was waiting in line to get in. She’d never been to Scotland before, and the back of her mind was making plans just in case Kelsey and Tavish weren’t there. She knew she was going out to the dig at Dunskey Castle. She could put her carry-on over her shoulder and roll both suitcases behind her out to the street, where there were always taxis waiting. The fare would be exorbitant, but she could get there okay. If she needed to.
She was looking at the overhead TV screens for which way to turn to go get her baggage when she heard Kelsey’s voice.
“Amber, you made it!”
Breathing a small sigh of relief, she turned and smiled as first Kelsey and then Tavish gave her big hugs.
And then Amber pointed and laughed at Tavish as animatedly as she could.
“You aren’t fooling anyone, you know. Modern day Scots wear modern kilts if they wear them at all, not old fashioned great kilts like your Renaissance Faire costume. And while our faire accent might sound authentic for a sixteenth century Scot speaking English, it doesn’t sound at all like a modern-day Scot’s English. I would know, because I just sat next to a whole Scottish family for six hours.” She nodded to where the couple and their six and nine-year-olds were collecting their luggage.
The woman smiled and waved, and Amber waved back, making funny faces at the kids, who giggled.
Tavish flounced in his kilt as only he could, striking several manly poses and making even said modern-day Scots tsk at him playfully. Then with a teasing look on his face, he pointed at Amber’s black Goth lipstick, big swinging skull earrings, lacy long black dress, pointy black shoes, and white make-up over olive skin.
“Well, you aren’t fooling anyone either, you know. Modern day Goths are still in their graves, not out and about looking like The Walking Dead.”
After she made a big show of rolling her eyes at Tavish, Amber told him and Kelsey about her flight while they helped her gather up her bags from the carousel and take them out to their rental car. Tavish drove them a short distance to a pub he said was a great place to have lunch, to which Kelsey gave an exaggerated shrug.
But once the waitress had seated them and taken their orders, Amber asked her old friends the question that was on her mind.
“So how’s Tomas?”
There, that was the part she really wanted to know. Well, actually, it was whether Tomas missed her. Did he ever talk about her? What did he say? Did they think the two of them would ever get back together?
But she’d settled for the tamer version. Oh, and better ask about the rest of their old gang as well. You know, so she didn’t sound so desperate.
“And have you heard from your four favorite cousins or any of their girlfriends?”
Kelsey turned to Tavish and raised her eyebrow.
He smiled at Amber while he toyed with Kelsey’s hand.
“I think I’ve finally convinced Tomas to come visit me here. You wouldn’t believe how hard I’ve been trying, nor how long it’s been since I’ve seen my twin.”
Amber knew it was more important for Tavish to be in touch with Tomas than for her to be. Of course it was. Blood was thicker than all the spit she and Tomas used to swap. But her old boyfriend — and Tavish — had simply disappeared off the face of the earth seven years ago. And while Kelsey had explained briefly that the guys had separated from their girlfriends out of urgent necessity, Amber still didn’t get it.
Ever the peacekeeper, Kelsey had warned her on the phone before she got here not to ask about the seven-year separation, though. And that was easy for her to say. Kelsey could afford to speak casually about their long time with no contact from the guys.
She had Tavish back.
Until Kelsey’s call a few days ago, Amber had been almost sure Tomas was long dead. She had tried contacting his parents, but they hadn’t returned any of her calls, texts, emails, or letters. She had shown up as usual at their Renaissance Fairee the first two summers, but they had found a way to completely ignore her, and none of the faire people would talk about any of their gang of friends.
The whole thing was weird as a goth guy at a shopping mall.
But she wouldn’t get answers by moping. And anyway, soon Tomas would be here. She would finally be able to just ask him about it—and have fun cajoling the true answer out of that cryptic rascal—so Amber smiled at Tavish as nicely as she could, under the circumstances.
“Well I hope it’s true. I hope he does come see you.”
But they saw right through her. At least they were nice about it.
Tavish smiled back at her and winked.
“Yeah, I’ll bet you’re happy he’s coming to see me.” He laughed a little.
Kelsey pushed her lips together in an attempt not to laugh at Amber — which saved her from being kicked under the table with one of Amber’s heavy Doc Martin boots, unlike Tavish.
He took it like a man, though. Didn’t even grunt.
Amber wrinkled her nose at him in congratulations, and he wrinkled his back.
“Well,” said Kelsey, “it turns out not everyone was separated these past seven years. Jaelle and John stayed together.”
Amber’s jaw dropped.
“No way.”
Kelsey unwrapped her flatware from the napkin and put it in her lap.
“Yep, they did, but we heard from him six months ago that they broke up.”
The waitress came then with their food, and as she placed it in front of them and they all nodded at her politely, Amber thought about the wonderful summers they had all spent together in their teens at the Renaissance Fairee that Tavish and Tomas’s parents ran with the help of Mike, Gabe, Jeff, and John’s parents.
Back then, she’d been sure the guys had the coolest parents she’d ever meet. Not only had Dall & Emily and Peadar & Vange taught everyone in the Scottish guild Gaelic, but also they had let their sons’ girlfriends use costumes from the costume shed instead of having to make their own when they first joined the guild — and had
to change out of the English costumes they’d made when they joined the faire.
And she had spent four glorious fun-filled summers with her best boyfriend ever.
Tomas had Skyped with her every night during the school years, when they couldn’t be together, and each new summer they had picked up right where they left off.
Until the day after he and Tavish turned eighteen. He hadn’t been there since, and no one would talk about him. Until now. Tavish and Kelsey were saying precious little, but she got the impression that badgering them for info would make them shut down, maybe even send her away.
She raised her mug of ale in a toast.
“To reunions.”
Her friends raised their mugs.
“To reunions.”
After they drank up, it was Amber’s turn to change the subject. She asked Kelsey logistical questions about the dig, and the two of them amicably discussed artifact cataloging methods through the rest of the meal and on the drive out to the dig.
As they talked, Amber finally understood why she had been invited to come here. She was going to be Kelsey’s go-to person for practical hands-on advice.
Kelsey had a doctorate in Celtic Art History and her friend Sasha had a doctorate in Celtic Archaeology, but this was both of their first time in charge of a dig. Meanwhile, Amber had dropped out of beauty school six years ago to do grunt work on a dig — and never looked back. Her parents had known someone who got her involved in it, and she loved it.
Kelsey had lucked upon discovering a huge underground palace beneath Dunskey Castle here in Scotland. She had just been on the international news announcing her discovery, so now this was a world-famous dig that would be open to tourists and last ten years or more — and pay well.
Amber tried to sound businesslike and not show how giddy she felt.
“Yeah, Reichmann’s method that we used in Mexico was my favorite. If you want, I’ll help you organize it.”
Kelsey turned her head toward the backseat and opened her eyes as big as she could and showed her teeth in a ‘cat that ate the canary’ kind of way.
“Oh that’s just the beginning of what I brought you out here to help me with.”
While she visited with her friend, Amber watched the city turn into green and gray mountains with deep green valleys between, punctuated by the occasional thistle bush or flock of sheep. Finally, they turned off the highway and drove out toward the sea, then parked amid twenty other cars in a field.
Kelsey looped her arm through Amber’s, and the two of them marveled at the scene together as they walked from the car over toward a city of site trailers. Tavish carried all of her bags.
Well, Amber marveled while Kelsey kept agreeing with her.
“Everything’s as clean as it is in a nineteen fifties sitcom.”
“I know. Isn’t it amazing?”
“And even though it’s all cloudy and overcast, I still wanna be outside here.”
“Me too.”
“And we’re right next to the ocean.”
“Yep, and Mr. Blair has promised us a motorboat so we can go to Ireland sometimes. I mean, even now we could just go to Portpatrick and hire someone to take us, but it’s not the same.”
“Wow. It couldn’t get any better than this, could it. Thanks for bringing me in on this, Kel.”
Kelsey reached over the front seat and squeezed her hand.
“I know that was a rhetorical question, but you haven’t heard yet what some think is the best part.”
Amber chuckled, looking at Tavish behind his back.
“Guys in kilts bring all the women breakfast in bed?”
Kelsey laughed and held up her phone.
“No! The underground castle is well ventilated by a series of small side caves, and near some of their openings, we can get cell reception.”
Amber laughed.
“I’m not going to fall for that trick. You’ll have to haze your new employee some other way.”
Kelsey raised her eyebrows in a ‘you’ll see’ kind of expression and stopped in front of a two-bedroom trailer.
“This one’s mine and Sasha’s, but she’s away for a while.”
They put Amber’s things in one of the bedrooms, where she chased Tavish out and hurriedly changed into black jeans and a black hoodie, then turned to Kelsey.
“Well, this is a nice trailer and all, but let’s get out to the dig site.”
Kelsey laughed.
Soon, they were rushing over toward the ruins of a tower house that stood just in front of a drop-off that led down to the ocean. It was overcast and misty, but as Amber looked out into the fog, she could imagine seeing Ireland in the distance. It made her smile, having something to look forward to amid the wonder of already being here and the prospect of seeing Tomas again soon.
When they got close to the tower house, Amber saw that the drop down to the sea was quite a long one.
“So the dig is inside these cliffs?”
Tavish nodded, leading her over to an open cellar door.
“Aye, and you get down to it through this hatch.”
Amber made sure he noticed when she rolled her eyes at him for saying Aye instead of yes.
When they got closer to the hatch, she could see that a ladder had been installed.
“How do you suppose they got down here before the ladder? Jumped down in long skirts and kilts? Doesn’t seem very practical.”
Tavish pointed over to an area east of the tower house.
“Oh, this is a newer entrance. In the old time, they go… went in down the stairs over there. We don’t use them, because we’re trying to preserve them.”
Amber pursed her lips together and tittered her head back-and-forth, imitating his serious tone and how important he looked and sounded, and then she commented to Kelsey.
“I thought you were the one who’d studied all this stuff. Why is he the one sounding like a professor of ancient Celtic architecture?”
Kelsey and Tavish shared a look, and then Kelsey burst out laughing.
“I was asking myself the same thing when I first got here, believe me. But Tavish has been around here a lot, so on this particular site, he’s at least as much of an expert as I am.”
Tavish went down the ladder and stood at the bottom, holding up his hand to steady Amber in case she needed it, for which she was grateful. But not wishing to tell him so — and swell his head up bigger than it already was — she continued to tease him about how much he knew about the dig.
“Well you can’t have been here that much longer than Kelsey. I mean, didn’t you say Mr. Blair just took ownership of this property three months ago?”
But then she got down inside the root cellar and was watching Kelsey open a secret door using a series of ancient bricks with Celtic markings all over them, and she forgot all about teasing Tavish. If that wasn’t enough, the door opened into a secret passageway full of these Celtic runes, which led to a three-way intersection full of even more of them, and then she was in a secret room with the age-old drawings all over it.
Right out of her head flew all thoughts about how long Tavish had been at the site or even how much he knew. She just stood there with her jaw hanging open and her eyes wide while Kelsey and Tavish turned on the lights they had rigged down here.
Kelsey came and stood beside her.
“I thought I’d have you start in here, dusting off these runes so we can seal them against future damage.”
Refusing to take her eyes off all the ancient stone-carved symbols, Amber did the best she could to nod her head yes.
~*~
The next day, Amber could barely contain her excitement as she watched the car drive up the road toward the dig site. She hadn’t seen Tomas in seven years. She was intensely curious to see how he had changed and to hear what he’d been up to. She hoped he wasn’t fat. Yuck. Did he have a fun job like hers? Or did he work in an office somewhere? She really hoped the latter wasn’t the case.
She was rocking forward
and back from her toes to her heels by the time the car pulled up, and she had to consciously make herself stop so as not to look silly.
The car had tinted windows, so her curiosity was still unsatisfied.
Should she rush up to the car and be the one to greet him when he stepped out? Her hesitation gave the opportunity to Tavish instead. That was probably better. Tavish had been the one to invite him after all. And they were brothers. Twins. Non-identical twins, but still…
And then the car door opened.
Yum.
Tomas was still tall and lean. He had shaggy hair and wore a flowy poet’s shirt. He had a tiny hint of a mustache and no beard, thank God.
The two brothers embraced, and Amber found herself smiling wistfully at them. How nice. She was glad her own brothers and sister had never lost touch with her.
Okay, Tavish and Tomas had turned around, and Tomas was looking over the site. Now was a good time for her to go say hi.
As she rushed over there, she pulled up the long sleeves of her flowing black blouse, just in case he wanted to shake hands instead of giving her a hug. You can presume too much after seven years, after all. Even in her heavy boots, she was jogging by the time she got to him.
Oddly, he still hadn’t met her eyes. When she was right in front of him, though, he didn’t have a choice.
A handshake it was, then. She held out her hand to him.
“Welcome to Scotland, Tomas.”
She made her smile as warm and welcoming as she could. Maybe he would stay a while and they’d get a chance to rekindle—
The most grating female voice Amber had ever heard came to her ears across the top of the car in a lilting Southern accent.
“Tomas honey, come over here and help me with this door, please.”
The tone was sweet and should’ve been pleasing, but something about that voice just hurt her ears.
Probably the ‘honey’ part.
Dread sank into Amber as she looked over at the woman who was obviously Tomas’s girlfriend. While Amber was dark-haired and olive skinned, this woman was honey blonde with alabaster skin. While Amber was quirky and artsy and thought of herself as fun-loving, this woman was stately and imperious. There was no way she could compete with such a woman. The two of them had absolutely nothing in common except their interest in Tomas. You could tell just by looking.
