Tavish: A Time Travel Romance (Dunskey Castle Book 1)

by Jane Stain

  “Yeah, you’re right. The thing is…” He couldn’t make himself say it and risk sounding stupid, so he just pointedly studied her jeans for a moment and then looked back up into her eyes.

  She looked off into the corridors as if perhaps she could see a way out if she just looked hard enough.

  “Well, you’re in period clothing. What if you just go… find me something to wear? Heh, and that can double as showing me some more stuff. After all,” she looked him in the eye again, “I know that during our time, there aren’t any period women’s clothes hanging around out there.”

  “Okay, I’ll go see what I can find.” He put his hand on her elbow and beseeched her with his eyes. “But Kel, you have to stay here in this hallway.” Nothing else he could say would tell her any better how serious this was, so he just put all his concern for her in his eyes and prayed that she would see it.

  “I will,” she said, pursing her lips a little and nodding gently.

  ***

  He had to call in a favor and tell a tall tale, but he got Kelsey some clothes that would fit and look appropriate on her during the old time. As he walked back through the underground corridors to meet up with her again, he looked around for a place for her to change.

  But when he rounded the corner and entered the center pathway in the three-way fork, there was no sign of her.

  Sia

  After Tavish left to go find her some clothes, Kelsey leaned against the cold stone wall for a while, trying to get comfortable. But the cold got to her, so she stood back up. Casting about for a way to pass the time, she looked at the runes carved into the walls and had started tracing them with her fingers, feeling the rougher edges, when she felt a chill and then heard an unfamiliar old male voice behind her.

  He was speaking a Gaelic slightly more old-fashioned than what Tavish’s parents had taught her and everyone else in their faire clan—and he almost made her jump out of her skin.

  “Ye are na of this time.”

  A jolt of adrenaline rushed through Kelsey, urging her to run. When she didn’t, goosebumps rushed up her neck into her scalp and down the backs of her arms and the fronts of her legs.

  She took a deep breath to calm herself and kept her back to him, tracing the runes with her fingers while she spoke to him as nonchalantly as she could in her slightly more modern Gaelic, in which she knew she could be grammatical.

  “Why no, I am na. And ye are na fooled by the trick of this hallway.”

  He chuckled then, the way her uncle used to chuckle when she accused him of cheating at cards after his poker games, while he counted his copious winnings.

  “Nay, neither of us is. Sae, can ye read then, or are ye just tracing the pretty lines?”

  Loath to admit the fact that she had been just tracing the pretty lines and eager to prove that she could read them, Kelsey turned her left side toward the wall and raised her right hand to the top of the runes to point to her place as she read. This allowed her to sneak a glimpse of him.

  The man’s long white hair and beard cascaded down over his long white homespun linen robes. His wrinkled face was darkened by the sun, and he held in one hand a gnarled old oak walking staff. He gasped when she raised her right hand.

  She looked up toward her hand to make sure there wasn’t a snake up there in a crack in the wall, ready to bite her, but all she saw was her hand—oh, and her ring from Celtic University. Wow, was the shape of it something he recognized?

  Just in time, her gut urged her to appear unaffected by time travel or his presence. To appear more sure of herself then she was. In short, to hide her helplessness. Still fighting the shiver she felt at the goosebumps, she went ahead and started reading the runes:

  “Be happy while ye yet live, for yer time to be dead is long—”

  But in a strong booming voice that caused her bones to hum, he interrupted.

  “Pardon me, Priestess. I didna see yer ring afore. What hae ye come to study?”

  Priestess?

  But Kelsey flashed back to a line in the movie Ghostbusters—the original, not the one that came out in 2016: “If someone asks if you are a god, you always say yes.” And she figured probably the same thing applies if a creepy old Druid assumes you’re a Druidic priestess.

  Very carefully, she didn’t pause in her tracing of the runes with her fingers. Quite deliberately, she made herself not turn around and look at the man. Nonchalance was what her gut told her she needed to put on right now.

  However, she was so busy putting it on that she didn’t take time to consider what she would say—so she blurted out the truth.

  “In my time, this place is abandonit. I’ve come tae see it in its former glory.”

  “Och, well nae, ye have come at least a thousand years ower late for that—”

  Yikes, better to cut him off before he gave voice to his expectation that she just flit back in time another thousand years on her own.

  “Aye. Howsoever, the castle is in use during yer time, and it should prove interesting, seeing what type o use it is being put tae, a thousand years after its prime.”

  “Ah. Sae that is why you’ve brought Tavish, then. Tae be yer mundane guide during this time.”

  It now occurred to her that, as much as possible, she had better stick to the truth. It would be the easiest thing for her to remember, should she be questioned under duress. And duress seemed likely in this time. She was holding her own at the moment, just barely, but… some instinct told her to let this particular truth out.

  “Forsooth, Tavish did bring me. I dinna hae the ability, myself.”

  The man chuckled.

  “Aye, isna that a darned inconvenient limitation on us? ’Tisn’t fair, that the mundanes get to do most of the time traveling.”

  Nonchalance. Keep up the nonchalance.

  She just gave him the slightest nod in acknowledgment of what he’d said.

  His footsteps went up the hallway toward the fork.

  “Tavish returns, and talking tae him would be… inconvenient for me. Sae I shall leave ye tae it. Be well until we meet again, Kelsey. And when we dae, ye may call me Brian.”

  She felt the chill again, and then she could neither see nor hear Brian.

  A few seconds later, Tavish bumped into her and dropped onto the smooth carved stone floor a lovely red wine and black tea dyed plaid overdress and a coordinating black tea linea blouse with Scottish thistles embroidered round the neckline, and a matching embroidered red wine linen snood.

  “Kelsey! How did you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “You know what!”

  “Um, no I don’t.”

  “You were invisible!”

  “I was?”

  “Come on, you know you were.”

  “Tavish, to me, you’re the one who was invisible. I had no idea you were coming until you bumped into me just now.”

  They stared at each other for a few moments, apparently both waiting for the other to speak up and explain what was going on. He obviously knew something he wasn’t telling her. Well, she was done telling him everything, too.

  Seachd

  Tavish picked up the old time clothes and rather helplessly looked around the empty corridor again, for a place for Kelsey to change. Maybe he should go out to the stables and get some hay bales to stack in the corner so she could go behind them?

  But she was already taking off her leather backpack and her sweatshirt, which she stuffed inside the pack before donning the old time clothes and then putting her leather backpack on once more.

  “I’ll just wear it over my real clothes,” she said. “That way if anybody comes, at least they won’t see me naked.”

  “That’s… surprisingly practical. I have to admit, I was seventy percent sure you would freak out when we got here to the old time.”

  She shrugged.

  “University taught me to keep calm in strange situations. And by the way, I believe you now, about us having… gone back in time.”

&n
bsp; “Well good, because we’re probably going to be here in the old time a while.”

  Her eyes got really big.

  He rushed to explain before she panicked.

  “My ring can take us back to our time, but only in this hallway. We’ll arrive right back where and when we left our time. There was no one around—I’m always careful about that—but they were coming. If we go back to our time without the artifact they want, I’m afraid of what might happen to you. The artifact is probably here in this underground castle, which as you’ve seen is quite extensive. So we’re in for a search that will certainly take a few days, if not weeks—or even months.”

  “What is it they want?” Her stomach growled loudly. “And I hope the people of this time have something to eat around here, because I was so excited about exploring these underground passages that I ran outside without eating breakfast first.”

  He looked her over to make sure her tank top and jeans weren’t showing, but she’d done a good job covering them with the old time clothes. He sighed and looked up toward the fork in the corridor, then met her eyes and pointedly switched to Gaelic and went into the old time persona he put on here, while he took her by the hand and gingerly led her out.

  “Well enough. There won’t be anything to eat down here. The underground castle is only used in this time to fortify the docks below, and the current laird forbids the guards to eat on duty, and as you can see there’s no place to sleep either. There is an upper castle where he resides, and around it there’s a substantial castle town, or castleton.” He patted his sporran. “I’m employed here as a mercenary guard, so I have coinage of the time. We can buy a meal there and see about a place for you to stay. I have a bunk in the barracks.”

  As soon as they left the underground castle, they were inside the castleton. Kelsey turned her head every which way, and he supposed he couldn’t blame her.

  The buildings were close together, which meant that the streets were narrow, so all the action was close. Countless men in leather armor and carrying weapons swaggered up and down the streets along with the housewives on errands, some on their way to guard duty and others going to break for a drink at one of the many taverns. Dozens of vendors called out their wares from carts set up in the street. These were mostly edible wares, and the scent of roasting meat and baking bread and cheap wine filled the air.

  Grinning a little at how preoccupied she was, Tavish bought her a ‘toad in a hole’ at a vendor. He didn’t tell her what it was, just handed it to her.

  “Here. These are good, by fegs.”

  His amusement grew when she took it from him and ate it without really stopping to look at it, still taking in all the sights and sounds. He let her enjoy herself, surreptitiously steering her by her elbow so that she didn’t bump into anyone, and handing her his water skin when she was obviously thirsty. Watching the joy spread on her face brought him his own kind of delight.

  But this wasn’t a vacation.

  Once she was done eating, he dug out of his sporran the drawing they had given him of the artifact they wanted and showed it to her. Couldn’t hurt for her to keep an eye out. She obviously had a way of seeing things he didn’t.

  Her face grew concerned as she looked at the drawing.

  “Forsooth Tavish, I’m in the thick o’ it now, sae ye must needs tell me who ‘they’ are.”

  But he couldn’t do that.

  So relief coursed through him when his sparring partner in the old time—a large red-haired highlander—picked this moment to arrive and greet them, also in Gaelic. He clasped forearms with Tavish, but all the while he was smiling at Kelsey.

  “Och, there ye are, Tavish. Wait, who is this?”

  Tavish took advantage of the large man’s distraction and grabbed the drawing from Kelsey and stuffed it back into his sporran.

  “Seumas! (Pronounced Shaymus) Och, ye’ve found me. This is—”

  “Pleased to meet ye, Seumas. I’m Kelsey.” She held out her hand like the businesswoman she had become. He hoped it was obvious only to him that she meant to shake the man’s hand. If anyone of the old time saw it that way, they would be scandalized.

  But Seumas sparkled his green eyes and took Kelsey’s proffered hand. Like one of those ridiculous portrayals of old-time men in the movies, the fool looked likely to raise it to his lips. He gave Tavish a look that dared him to stop the action, all while being apparently a complete gentleman in Kelsey’s eyes, the brute.

  “It is glad to know you I am, Kelsey…”

  Tavish put a stop to that line of reasoning by throwing his arm around Kelsey’s waist and pulling her close to him.

  “Aye, Kelsey is clan, and I will thank ye to keep yer hands off her, Seumas.”

  He expected Kelsey to put up a fight at his protectiveness, being a modern woman and all, but she surprised him by melting into his side. Apparently she still had some sense in her.

  “Tavish wis juist showing me around.”

  He was sure Kelsey didn’t see it, but Seumas narrowed his eyes at Tavish and grinned ever so slightly before he turned to Kelsey with an open face and asked what she probably thought was an innocent question, but to him it seemed loaded.

  “Do ye mean to stay here awhile, then?”

  “Aye,” Tavish said, “I mean to apprentice her with the weavers.”

  Kelsey’s eyebrows wrinkled in the cutest way and her mouth hung open for a second before she recovered and got that uppity look on her face again, the look that went with her new business suits.

  “The weavers?”

  “Hae ye skill at the weaving?” Seumas asked her respectfully.

  “I hae seen how the weaving is done,” she said to Seumas while staring daggers at Tavish, “but I hae nay desire tae do it myself.”

  Tavish gave her a significant look.

  “Och lass, did ye think Laird Malcomb would take ye on here and let ye stay for naught?”

  She had to understand the old time was different, that men would be in charge of her here. He couldn’t let some other man grab charge of her, and she needed to realize that and help him keep her under his protection. The way she clung to him was reassuring, along these lines, but he spelled it out a bit, just to be sure she understood.

  “Ye must work if ye are tae bide here at the castle while I dae ma part. Else ye must gae home to the glen with the marketing this very day.”

  Kelsey looked like she’d swallowed a fly.

  “But couldna I do aught other than weaving? I would much rather apprentice to someone more learned.”

  Seumas gave Kelsey an all too charming smile and then laughed in his jolly way. Too bad there was no potbelly to go with it. The darn brute was all muscles.

  “There are nae learned people here but the laird himself and his family, lass.”

  She pressed her lips together and then licked them, all the while wrinkling her forehead in that adorable vulnerable way that made him want to throw his arms around her and tell her everything would be fine.

  “What about the laird’s sons? Who teaches them?”

  But Seumas beat him to it, putting his hand on her shoulder and tilting his head to the side in a way that made his long red hair tickle her cheek, so that she brushed it aside, and in so doing, touched his arm.

  “Well nae, the priest does that, and ye canna mean to apprentice with him.”

  She went a bit limp at that, and Tavish took advantage of his arm around her waist and pulled her away from Seumas and toward the door, turning them around in the process.

  “The weavers will suit ye just fine, Kel. Ye shall see.”

  Seumas quickly caught up and joined them, smiling at Kelsey while he spoke to Tavish.

  “And I will be seeing ye out to the sparring yard.”

  Now that the man was safely on the other side of him and away from Kelsey, Tavish warmly slapped his other arm around his sparring partner.

  “I dinna doubt it.”

  But Seumas leaned forward so he could talk to Kelsey.


  “So did yer husband come here to market, lass?”

  Tavish tried to nip this line of enquiry in the bud. He would give her an imaginary husband, and that would keep Seumas from coming on to her. Because… Because she clearly was in over her head with an old time man. Yes, yes she was.

  “Nay,” said Tavish, “her husband stayed at home.”

  But Kelsey spoke at the same time.

  “Nay, he’s passed on.”

  Tavish couldn’t help but respond with irritation to that, even though a part of him realized it would look irrational to Seumas. Why couldn’t she just let him handle this? Didn’t she know he was familiar with this time and knew better than her what would be acceptable now, what would be safest for her?

  “And when were ye gon to tell me this?”

  She put on a fake sad face for Seumas, but her finger jabbed into Tavish’s rib.

  “It happened but a month ago. Poor Duncan expired when a horse fell upon him.”

  Tavish crossed himself, as did Seumas, and Kelsey had the sense to imitate them as she prattled on about her imaginary husband’s death for five minutes. Finally, she got to why she was here.

  “I was after a bit o’ distraction when they did say would I come along to market—”

  Here, she put her hand on Tavish’s face in that way she had that always melted his heart.

  “—and perhaps to visit with any clan at the castle.”

  Hold on, he could make her crazy story serve his purpose. His eyes held Seumas’s while he spoke to Kelsey.

  “It’s as well. Only clan ought to console you during this time.”

  This brought them to the weaver’s shop up top in the castle town, which was bustling with people who had come from far and wide—mostly by boat at nearby Port Patrick—to buy and sell goods before winter set in.