by Jane Stain
Elsbeth closed her eyes and wrinkled her forehead, as if she were experiencing the despair that Amber had gone through.
It freaked Amber out a little. Before going on with her story, she waited patiently for Elsbeth to relax and slough off the despair and open her eyes to listen again.
“But seven days ago, a mutual friend called me — invited me here tae come work with her and Tomas’s twin brother Tavish. I came right away, sure that Tomas would be here tae.”
Elsbeth was smiling now, and it looked just like she was hopeful that she would see Tomas once she arrived at Kelsey’s worksite.
Amber shook her head a little, to clear her mind of such a fanciful idea.
“Wull, Tomas is here all right, but with his … intended, Sulis.”
Elsbeth’s shoulders slumped.
Forgetting for a moment how strange this was, to have the woman living through the emotions Amber had, she gave her a sympathetic nod before she realized how silly that looked and put on a serious face, appealing to Elsbeth for whatever power she had to change the situation.
“This lass Sulis isna normal, Elsbeth. She has him under a spell o some sort. He isna himself when he’s aroond her. His eyes glaze ower and his body is unanimated. He’s what we call a zombie where we come from: a mindless slave. Howsoever, Sulis goes intae the woods often. Kelsey says it’s tae renew her powers, that a whole lot o her magic is used up keeping the spell on Tomas. Mayhap ye would understand that?”
Elsbeth shook her head no the tiniest bit.
“I ken the druids. Doesna everyone? But nay, I am na one o them. If it please ye, go on with the tale.”
Amber sighed, then continued.
“Wull, when Sulis is gone off tae the woods tae soak in their sap or some aught—“
Elsbeth laughed at Amber’s joke, and Amber gave her a small smile.
“When she goes off into the woods and I can be aroond Tomas by oorselves, he comes out o his daze. It takes a few hours, but he does return just about tae normal. But as soon as she returns — and she whispers in his ear, I hae noticed — then he’s a zombie again. Elsbeth, ye hae tae help me break the spell of hopeless zombie-ism she has ower him. Please say ye will.”
But Elsbeth’s welcoming smile was now a resigned smile, and as she spoke, she slowly got up and showed Amber to the door of her tiny cottage.
“I canna help ye. Only true love can break the curse o false love. If there is one who Tomas truly loves, then his love for her can overcome this curse. ‘Tis the only thing which can.”
Amber’s heart sank.
Once upon a time, Tomas had loved her, but he sure didn’t today. If only it were her love for him that mattered, she felt sure that she could save him from a life of servitude. How would they ever rescue him from Sulis now?
Still, none of this was Elsbeth’s fault. The woman had been nothing but kind and sympathetic. So Amber gave the enchantress the most grateful smile she could manage.
“Wull, thank ye for yer time.”
Elsbeth said a farewell before closing the door softly.
“Ye were well tae come.”
Amber slumped as she was left to look at the charming little maplewood door. What a disappointment.
However, all thoughts of Tomas’s plight fled Amber’s mind as soon as she turned around. The forest, once warm, was now getting dark, and it was shadowy and spooky. An owl hooted nearby, making her jump up a foot as she swiftly walked through the creepy trees.
She was hitting her stride when something came at her from the shadows. Scooping up her long plaid skirts, she broke into a run. But she couldn’t see the ground very well with all that fabric in her arms.
A tree root got in her way, and she tripped and fell hard.
And then the eerie laughter of the man who had tried to run her off the cliffs back in her own time came toward her swiftly. The laughter of Lachlan the Dark.
Trì Deug (13)
Pushing herself up off the damp leafy forest floor, Amber willed herself to be angry instead of afraid. Looking around for a branch that she could use as a weapon, she took a deep breath so that there would be force behind her voice when she spoke, instead of it coming out as a squeak from her fear-constricted throat. She spotted a good branch and grabbed it. She used English, since there was no one else around and no need to put on her Gaelic and try to fit in.
“Why are you following me, Lachlan?”
She couldn’t see him, but she turned around when his voice gave away his location.
“The better to catch you with, my dear.”
The menace in his voice made the hair on her neck stand up, but she was not going to cower in fear. Her self-defense coach had told her that was what predators wanted, so in all cases she should go down fighting, even if it was just biting and scratching. He had also told her to scream bloody murder, but that was hardly going to do any good out here in the middle of the forest. She was far enough away from Elsbeth’s now to be out of earshot.
She felt strongest when she was being snarky, so she poured it on.
“Very funny. You’re hardly a wolf, though. More like an uppity little puppy.”
A twig snapped, giving away his new location and making her turn again. He was getting closer, but he was moving very slowly and circling around, trying to be stealthy.
Yeah, stealthy.
She had barely any warning when he launched himself at her, only the movement of some branches at the corner of her eye to the left. Determined to go down fighting, she raised the branch up to defend herself.
But before Lachan could touch her, Tomas swept in again. He shoved the other man so hard, the man’s head hit a tree and he slumped down onto the ground.
Amber opened her mouth to ask Tomas what he was doing here, but before she could, he turned around and leaned down, motioning for her to get on his back.
“I don’t know how long he’ll be out,” Tomas said, “but I want to get you as far away from here as possible while he is.”
Seeing the sense in that – and feeling so much relief she almost collapsed — she did as he asked, thankful that the long skirts of the day were full enough to allow it.
He started running as soon as she had locked her ankles around the front of him and grabbed his shoulders. She’d ridden on his back like this many times during a game they used to play at the faire, and this brought it all back to her as the trees went whooshing by. More owls hooted, but they were just lending atmosphere to an adventure she was having with her favorite person in the world.
And it was so nice, being close to him like this. Breathing in the warm woodsy scent of him. Feeling his muscles tense and his heart beating. Her body wanted to hug him close while she clung to him, to put her head against his shoulder and soak in the closeness of him…
And why shouldn’t she?
The woman who claimed him did so under false pretenses. She didn’t love him, and he didn’t love her. It was just her artifice that kept him following her around like a lost puppy.
He’d been Amber’s for four whole years, and he’d never broken up with her, just disappeared. And they’d been so good together. Even now, riding on his back, she already felt like she’d come home.
But she didn’t dare say so.
She didn’t dare mention any of these thoughts to him.
When it came to love between a man and woman, the language of the body was a lot more reliable than the language people spoke – so long as you didn’t bring lust into it too soon. She’d made that mistake a few times and lived to regret it.
Talking would have been awkward anyway. Nothing she wanted to say was appropriate for his supposed social situation as the cherished intended of the B witch. Blech. Amber threw up a little in her mouth just thinking about what that woman really intended to do with Tomas according to Kelsey: leave him here as her slave in order to supervise his other slaves and loot the underground castle before Kelsey’s client Mr. Blair ever came to possess it.
That was no
kind of life for Tomas! He was bright and competent. He deserved to do as he wished and go home to manage his parents’ business at the Renaissance Fairee. That was his real life. All this was just playing pretend. No, worse, it was a trap the B witch had snared him in.
So the whole time Tomas was running with her on his back toward Laird Malcomb’s castle, Amber did just what she wanted to. She hugged him and put her head against his shoulder and soaked in the nearness of him without saying a word. She caressed his back and kissed his neck and gave him all the love she had despaired of ever giving him.
She might’ve squeezed him with her legs, too. She wasn’t sure.
And then they got back to his room in the castle.
When he put her down, the separation was almost unbearable for her.
But he spoke as if unaffected.
“We need to wait for Tavish and Kelsey and their friends Sasha and Seumas. They’re chasing Lachlan, and hopefully they’ll find him while he’s knocked out. I was with them, trying to help, but then I needed to get you to safety.”
What a roller coaster ride. She’d been riding high only a moment ago, and now she was crashing down. He didn’t seem at all affected by her closeness, the way she was by his. He must’ve moved on to someone else even before he met the B witch. He…
She did a double take on Tomas.
His eyes were clear, and he was talking sense. He wasn’t a zombie at all right now. And the only person he was with was her. She was affecting him, even if he didn’t acknowledge it. Maybe he did have feelings for her, but he didn’t want to admit it. What had Elsbeth said? Did he have to show his feelings, or admit them?
She narrowed her eyes at him.
“Why were you so intent on rescuing me, then? If catching Lachlan was the bigger priority, why didn’t you do that instead of grabbing me and taking me here?”
He looked down and away, fussing with the hair on the back of his head.
“Everybody knows women and children come first in a rescue situation.”
He was in denial! His body language screamed it: avoiding her gaze and fidgeting with something else.
The spark of hope that had bloomed in her when Kelsey called, the hope she had nurtured during her journey to Scotland — and that she thought had died when she realized Sulis was Tomas’s girlfriend — that spark of hope bloomed again in Amber’s heart.
But she didn’t dare touch him right now.
Call it feminine intuition, but somehow she just knew she had to let him make every first move.
Even though she had just ridden on his back in a very intimate way for the past half hour, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she didn’t dare reach out and touch him now, or he would withdraw, and she might never have a chance to try and get him to admit his feelings for her.
Instead, she needled him with her words. This wasn’t unusual. She’d always teased him.
“But you’d already rescued me when you knocked him out. He was right there, incapacitated. You could’ve just as easily grabbed him and brought him here as me, and then you could have locked him up in the dungeons everyone says are downstairs, when we know full well they’re ancient palace rooms, not dungeons.”
He went from playing with the hair on the back of his head to sitting down on the bed and playing with the bedspread, and then quickly got up off the bed. Was that the hint of a blush she saw on his face?
Unfortunately, before she could get an answer out of him, everyone else came in the room.
Amber made a sour face at Kelsey. She couldn’t help it. Here she and Tomas were — so close, and yet so far — and in come two happy couples, hands casually resting on each other.
Tomas, on the other hand, brightened up. Was he relieved to not be alone with her anymore?
“Did you get him?”
Tavish looked at Amber for a moment as if she might have developed a wasting sickness while he was away and he was checking to see if she still lived.
“No, and it’s much worse.”
Tomas’s brow wrinkled.
“How it could be any worse?”
Kelsey came over and hugged Amber.
“Lachlan’s after Amber. Specifically. He had plenty of opportunities to take other people easily, and he ignored them to follow her. He’s been following her ever since she got here — and even before she came here, remember? We don’t know why, but it doesn’t matter. All that matters is keeping Amber safe. And the best way to do that is to catch him and keep him locked up.”
Tomas briefly looked around at everyone else’s faces, but when he saw that they were all nodding in agreement with Kelsey’s assertion that Amber was the target, he flew into full-on protection mode, stuffing the arrow-slit windows with extra blankets — presumably to block the sound of their voices from getting to anyone outside. The castle walls were certainly thick enough to prevent it otherwise.
“Okay, that’s it. Amber, don’t go to Eileen’s anymore to sleep. You’re staying here with me—”
“But you share this room with Sulis —”
He made a dismissive gesture — dismissive of the woman he usually followed around like a dog on a leash.
“Sulis left this morning on some overnight errand, something about not being able to function with walls around her. So it’s fine, and until we catch Lachlan — which we will, soon — Amber’s going to stay in here. It’s the safest place, a virtual stronghold. He won’t be able to get in here. Seumas, tell the guards to be on the lookout for him.”
The redheaded highlander nodded, kissed his redheaded woman — Sasha — and ducked out of the room.
Tomas went under the bed for his sword and his bow and arrows, then turned toward Amber.
“Stay in this room. There’s a chamber pot over there in the corner, and I’ll have someone bring you something to eat for dinner. The man can’t be far away. We’ll use Laird Malcomb’s dogs, and we’ll have him tonight, but until we do, promise you’ll stay here.”
Amber had barely nodded yes when everyone rushed out of the room and she was alone.
How long would it take to catch the man so that Tomas would come back here to this room where she would be waiting?
Ceithir Deug (14)
Tomas was exhausted. It was still dark, but morning wasn’t far away. He took the spiral stone stairs two at a time, thinking that perhaps he could get a little bit of sleep before he had to wake up and be on duty supervising the guards down at the docks inside the underground palace.
One of the guards on the floor of the castle where his bedroom was nodded at him in passing, and Tomas nodded back. Was that an amused smile on the man’s face? What was that about?
Finally at the door to his room, he pushed it open, dropping his kilt to the floor as he did…
And there was Amber in his bed.
He sighed.
Careful not to rock the bed and wake her up, he crawled in beside her, dreading what it would be like if she woke up and pulled away from him. He didn’t care, of course. He had a girlfriend. But it would be, you know, awkward if Amber were to wake up with a horrified face at seeing him in the bed with her and pull away. That was all.
Except she did wake up. And she didn’t pull away.
She reached over and pulled his arm around her, pulling him close behind her like a cloak of safety against the evil cruel world.
And it was just reflex that made him hold her close. A protective reflex. Because she was probably afraid, being here all alone in this strange room not knowing what was happening with… her friends.
They cuddled, and a peace came over him such as he hadn’t known in seven years. Not only peace. Something else was lurking under the surface of it. Something he tamped down so that it wouldn’t catch flame. He was with Sulis. Amber was just a friend who needed his protection, and he was only doing what any friend would do.
But her voice was throaty and sexy with sleep when she spoke.
“Did you get him?”
He sighed, which
pressed him closer to her. She caressed his arm in response, and it felt good. His mouth went to kiss the back of her head, but he stopped it in time. Just an old habit, you know, from when they used to be together.
He cleared his throat
“No. And we searched the whole town. The dogs only just caught Lachlan’s scent an hour ago. They followed him all the way out to Port Patrick. We had to turn back or else their barking would’ve woken everyone there. The good news is it looks like he’s taking ship and going somewhere else. Good riddance.”
She squeezed his arm and shook it a little in victory.
“That is good news.”
He nodded his head, and because her head was so close in front of his on the pillow, it was as if he were nuzzling her, but he hadn’t meant to.
“Yeah, so you don’t have to be afraid.”
She drew his arm more tightly around her.
“I’m not afraid, not now that you’re here.”
His heart swelled when she said that. Just because, you know, it was good to feel he had helped her.
It was quiet for so long that he thought she’d gone back to sleep. Fat chance of him getting to sleep with his front pressed against her back like this. It didn’t mean anything except that he was a healthy male and she was an attractive...
Never mind. He was with Sulis. He couldn’t be thinking that way.
As gently as he could, he put some of the covers between their middles. He didn’t want to wake Amber. But then after a while, she spoke again, so softly he could have pretended he was asleep and didn’t hear.
“Tomas?”
But what was the fun in that?
“Yeah?”
“What happened on your eighteenth birthday? Why did you leave me? I worried about you, and I’ve missed you something awful. Tell me you had a good reason.”
Her words hurt. He had tried to put out of his mind how he must’ve hurt her.
“I was trying to protect you, Amber. I was sworn to secrecy about all this, the time travel stuff. I guess it’s kind of pointless to be silent on it now. But the answer to your question is a long story.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
